College athletics’ best kept secret

BY PHIL SPILER
UWBadgers.com

MADISON, Wis. — When asking most people about the best annual sporting events in the United States, very few might say the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. The party-like atmosphere along and above the three-mile stretch of the Charles River is one of college sports' — and perhaps all sports' — best kept secrets.

"It's just a big party," women's head coach Bebe Bryans said. "It's a rowing party and it's bragging rights and it's a lot of fun to be a part of."

As the Wisconsin men's, women's openweight and lightweight rowing teams head out to Boston this weekend, they will be participating in one of the sport's premier events.

First held on Oct. 16, 1965, the Head of the Charles Regatta has attracted some of the world's best crew teams and welcomed over 10,000 athletes and tens of thousands of fans who come to watch the races over two days.

Held the third weekend in October, fall foliage colors begin to peak along the Charles River where the races take place making the regatta a spectacular visual event.

With more than 55 events involving almost 2,000 boats over the two-day period, there is definitely plenty to watch.

"The Head of the Charles is a real event, no question about it," men's rowing coach Chris Clark said. "Most of the spectators, they show up for the show, but not the rowing show.

Bryans agreed with Clark's assessment of the races.

"It's a lot like the Boston Marathon. You don't have to know anything about running to know that the marathon is a really cool thing. It's a destination. So that's what the Head of the Charles is, especially if the weather is nice."

"People that have no idea it's going on will end up spending the day there because it just draws you right in and it's just beautiful. It's a lot of pomp and circumstance."

"Head" races are a class of regattas generally three miles in length. Boats compete against one another and the clock, which starts sequentially, approximately 15 seconds apart.

For the men's team, this will be their first race of the 2016-17 season and their first time participating in the event since Oct. 2014. The championship fours boat finished sixth out of 12 entries in the event and the championship eights boat finished 17th out of 36 entries two years ago.

On the women's side, this will be their third competitive race of the fall season and the openweight team's sixth straight year competing in the Head of the Charles. At the races last year, UW had a good showing, finishing eighth in the championship eights, fourth in the lightweight eights and fourth in the club fours.

"We use it as a carrot for training, mainly," Bryans explained. "The way we do it is you've got to do some pretty hard stuff in training to be able to qualify to go, and so that's not exactly the way we do lineups in the springtime, but it gives people a little extra impetus to train over the summer when they are by themselves.

"They all want to go to the Head of the Charles. Some of them want to work really hard and some of them just want to go. That is the other beauty of the Head of the Charles. After you graduate, you can still go because there are alumni races, there's master's races, there's singles, there's doubles. Just about everything."
Clark explains a little further.

"It is a little bit like the Super Bowl. They have all that stuff like the NFL with the experience, contests for kids. Nine out of 10 people who go to those things don't actually go to the game, but it is a great thing and it is fun to see all walks of life and all types of people there.

"I encourage anybody, especially if it's their first chance to see rowing, go to that, because you can get up close and personal with all the characters and people involved, the equipment, everything."

"If nothing else, you see how big rowers are. You don't realize that when they are in the water because they are sitting down. Anybody that has been around knows the men are 6-2, 6-3 on the short side, up to 6-8 or 6-9."

So about the actual racing.

"Really the most important thing for us is how fast we are at the splits, because there are numerous splits, and how are we compared to our direct competitors or national team," Clark stated. "Those are the metrics that matter. And in the last few years we've not been good. Not nearly what we are used to. This is a different group though, and they seem to be ready to go. I'm excited about it.

"It's hardly destiny – in other words what you do there foretells exactly what the season is going to be – especially when there is a misadventure, which does happen occasionally when someone steers poorly, hits a bridge, somebody cuts them off.

"But it gives you an indication of how much they want to go and what the spring might look like."

University of Wisconsin Athletics

College athletics’ best kept secret

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