New-York tribune., 1913-08-10
COLUMBIA TO BUILD
UP A WINNING CREW
Engages P|aisted, an Old oars'
man, as an Assistant
TO Jim Rice.
TO STIMULATE ROWING
New Coach to Have Charge OF
Departmental Work and
Training of All the
Rawer Material.

With the intent Of building UP VIII
,,i,,., GROW soi,ad for next year, the rowing
authorities at Columbia have ehgaseu
Ered plaisted. an oldtime sculler whose
cxperlence dates back to the days OF Neu
Uanlan. TO aid in coaching and to stiIhu-
late rowing among the undergraduates.
linn Rice. who has been at the helm
of CoIumbia's crew affairs since 1900, is
TO be chief in command, and. with FIdls'-
ed. will undertake TO develop more oars
men each year than has been possiDle
heretofore.
In view Of the fact that four veterans
of the 1913 crew, which finished hfth at
Poughkeepsie last month, Will be lost 10
next years crew and also because the
1916 freshman eight was Cne Of the poor
est that Columbia has had, the directors
of the crew decided that something rad
ical had to be done in order to save row
ing as a sport As assistant TO Rice,
Plaisted will have charge OF the Gould
boathouse. at the Hudson River and llotn
street. which has been unused for years.
and there he will boat dormitory and in
terdcpendent crews.
This is a plan that has been followed OF
late years with much success at Har-
ward, Cornell, Yale and Wisconsin, and
the Columbia authorities in adopting IT,
feel that il will end for all time the small
squads that have retarded Rice in his Fl
forts TO produce a winning crew. The de-
partment crews will row every day, as will
the varsity ana freshman crews. which
will still be bOated in the smooth water
at EdgeWdter ON the Jersey side Of the
river. but as soon as a man in the de-
partment boats shows that he is Of var
sity calibre he will be transferred to the
moe important squad and tried out in
one OF the varsity boats
The department crews will have races
Of their own. but the training will not be
as rigorous az for the varsity boats.
Plaisted is already at work repairing
boats, and when the university reopens In
September expects TO have large fleet OF
gigs and heavy water boats ready for use.
By this new plan Rice will be relieved
of all worry about developing green ma
tcrial and the only untried oarsmen with
whom he will have 70 deal will be the
freshmen He will be able TO give his
crews much more time than has been pos
sible In the past. and when his squad be-
gins 10 grow small he will be able to call
on the nursery" for more men. instead
% making vain search on the university
campus as he has done.
In analyzing the work Of the Columbia
crews in the Poughkeepsie regatta Nor
ton G. Bogue. chairman OF the board OF
stewards Of the intercollegiate Rowing
Association and graduate treasurer of the
Columbia crews. has this to say:
The result Of the seasons rowing again
emphasizes that the chief difficulty under
which Col<nbia crews now labor Is the
lack OF Material
No one who saw our crew al Princeton,
and again at POughkeepsie. can find fault
, with the way tine men rowed OF their
physical condition. The Princeton race
was short onc-only n mile and $50
yards-and the stamina and physique
which were required 10 win the POugh-
koepsic regatta were not needed for the
short distance. and our superior Oarsman-
ship brought uS In winner.
Again. at Poughkeepsic. our crew
showed clearly that IL was the best
coached machine and rowcd in better
form and with more speed than any other
crew on the river while the physical
strength OF the men held out. but they
did not have the punch In the last
drive
When ono considers that we had only
about twenty-five men out for the var
sity crew and about twenty for the fresh
man crew. and that all these men We're
not always regular In attendance II is q
wonder our crews made the showing
which they did The results achieved are
addit tloull though unnecessary evidence
/ of Elccs superior coaching and training
Something must be done 10 get more
material The Rowing club and the un-
dcrvraduatcs In charge of rowing have
ulate more interest. but the difficulty. as
see II, seems 20 be that the student body
as "a whole does not feel that any one
really cares whether they turn out large
squad OF candidates or not.
The student body to-day appears 10 me
To be large and unwieldy and seems 10 be
suffering from lack of organization and
leadership II is difficult To get well at
tended class meetings at which To speak
10 men about coming out for teams and
crews. and II ~ equally difficult TO md
any one representative board or body OF
undergraduates that viii take up and
push the matter of getting out candidates
Tsis year the crew was not physically
strong enough 10 stand as hard training
as the other crews In the race. and as
some OF the men were stronger than the
others this necessitated very careful
handling so as not 10 break the weaker
ones.
To win the PouGhkecpsie race we must
have a crew OF eight men who can sand
hard training and plenty OF four-mile
trials IL seems incredible that out of
our large student body We cannot find
eight men the physical equals OF our
rivals. The men must be In the uni
versity. IL seems therefore. up To us all
al. "A. 81