Just Having Fun

To the untrained eye, tomorrow's Head of the Charles regatta will look like a bunch of numbered boats sailing down the river while rowers grunt and coxswains scream obscenities.

Well, here's the first tip: the coxswains screaming obscentities are the ones on the college boats. They care deeply about winning.

But this weekend there will be over 4000 different boats on the Charles taking part in Cambridge's annual fall ritual. And while Harvard and Radcliffe's top boats will be killing themselves to be the first down the river, others will not be quite as gung-ho.

With apologies to Vince Lombardi, winning won't be everything tomorrow.

Most rowers--like the other 250,000 people expected to descend on the Greater Boston area--will be there simply to have fun.

"The Head of the Charles is a lot of fun," Radcliffe Crew Co-Captain Meg Brooks says. "It's fun for everybody, especially because so many people are there to cheer you along."

Ah, fun. But don't be fooled. Remember that Brooks rows on a college boat. Her very next sentence is:

"We're going out there to win. There's a highly competitive atmosphere between the schools."

Obviously, there are two sides to this whole Head thing. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the women's Championship Eight race:

Radcliffe's top boat will start down the three-mile course 10 seconds after Boston University--last year's national champion--and 10 seconds before arch-rival Princeton.

You'd better believe these boats will take the race seriously.

Oddly enough, none of these three boats is likely to win the race. Three national teams--including the Canadian team, which won the gold medal in Barcelona--will also compete in the Championship Eight category.

You'd better believe these boats will take the race quite seriously.

Also competing will be the "1980 Rowing Club," made up of former 1980 Olympians. O'Leary is rowing on this boat, as is Radcliffe Novice Coach Holly Hatton and Harvard Coach Harry Parker's wife, Kathy Keeler.

You'd better believe this boat is just on the water for fun.

"Oh, it's great fun," O'Leary says laughing. "We all like to think we're young and strong. At one point, we used to contend, but our fantasies are starting to slip away from us."

Parker will be out there as well, rowing in a double with his son, David. Parker has been in the Head since 1973 and says that racing is, well, fun.

"Some people are very competitive," Parker says. "But I think it's fun. It's nice to have a large crowd cheering you on."

Racing in perhaps the most widely attended crew event in the nation, competitve rowers say they have different ways of dealing with the crowds of spectators that line the Charles.

Brooks, for instance, admits to "spacing out" while rowing and to not even hearing the crowd.

But senior Judith Dolkart, who will cox Radcliffe's top entry, says the crowd helps motivate her.

"It's not like the spring races, where there's only one crowd and it's generally at the end of the race," Dolkart says. "Here, more people you know are watching you and it psyches you up as you go along."

Gee, a home-river advantage. Who knows? In acompetitive race--like the BU/Radcliffe/Princetontrio--that could end up being the difference.All's fair in love and racing.

So if you're standing on the banks of theCharles tomorrow wondering why these students,coaches and full-time athletes choose to rowrather than relax on an October Sunday afternoon,just remember: it's fun. And competitive--on anindividual level.

Will Army beat Navy? How's that Canadian teamdoing? Most importantly, is Radcliffe ahead of BUand Princeton

Gee, a home-river advantage. Who knows? In acompetitive race--like the BU/Radcliffe/Princetontrio--that could end up being the difference.All's fair in love and racing.

So if you're standing on the banks of theCharles tomorrow wondering why these students,coaches and full-time athletes choose to rowrather than relax on an October Sunday afternoon,just remember: it's fun. And competitive--on anindividual level.

Will Army beat Navy? How's that Canadian teamdoing? Most importantly, is Radcliffe ahead of BUand Princeton