UW men’s crew deep, hungry for Windermere Cup

SEATTLE – Andy Derrick knows what it’s like to lose his job on the University of Washington’s varsity eight shell.

The last thing he wants is to go through it again.

As has happened to all but two of the Huskies’ varsity eight crew, Derrick was left ashore against Wisconsin. It was a blow. And because the Badgers didn’t bring a junior-varsity boat, Derrick didn’t row at all that day.

Instead, he watched as Washington lost at its own Montlake Cut.

“It was tough to swallow after working that hard for several weeks,” said Derrick, a senior from Cincinnati who usually mans the bow. “This was my last year as a senior. It messed with my mind.”

In a way, Washington is a victim of its own depth. Coach Bob Ernst, in his 30th year at Washington, 17th as the head men’s coach, has gotten to tinker with the lineup as he’s never done before, thanks to so many quality athletes in his two main boats.

As a result, the shuffling has been almost constant.

Fifteen rowers have bounced between the varsity and JV eight this season going into today’s Windermere Cup against the Naval Academy and an Italian national team. Derrick was one of five rowers Ernst replaced against Wisconsin.

Following a disastrous row in the season-opener at the San Diego Crew Classic, in which the Huskies finished in third place in the final, eight seconds behind Cal, Ernst started shuffling the deck.

“I stood on the point, 500 meters in and saw our guys mess it up,” Ernst said. “How could you be over a boat length behind one-quarter in the race?”

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Washington returned six of its eight rowers from last year’s varsity eight that finished second in the national championships behind Harvard. The Huskies were ranked No. 2 in the preseason polls before losing at San Diego and against Wisconsin.

“Not only was (San Diego) embarrassing and sub-standard for our program, for the caliber of athletes we have, it wasn’t very representative,” Ernst said. “So, back to the drawing board. For the athletes that we have, we have to be in quest of the national championship. That’s out standard. That’s our goal. It just wasn’t happening. So from a theatric perspective, you could say we were doing auditions every day.”

It bit the Huskies in the week going up against Wisconsin. Normally, a crew tapers off late in the week to save their bodies for competition. Instead, Ernst had them row hard and competitively all week to see who wanted to be in the varsity boat, knowing their performance would suffer against the Badgers.

“Any boat that raced, no matter which guys it was, was going to be exhausted,” Derrick said.

But hey, it’s better to lose against Wisconsin than lose against arch-rival Cal or the Windermere Cup. Or the national title.

“There are some guys rowing in the JV boat who may not feel good about where they are, or what they’ve done or maybe even about me,” Ernst said. “That’s not my job. If someone gets their feelings hurt, they probably don’t have the right attitude as an athlete.”

The result is a fierce battle every week for varsity seats.

“The basic idea is that everybody is vulnerable,” said Scott Schmidt, a junior from Gross Isle, Mich. “It’s wild. There are so many combinations and so many good people, but the fact of the matter is that there are only nine seats (with the coxswain).”

“It’s hard being in one boat one day and another boat the next day,” said Brett Newlin, a senior from Riverton, Wyo., who rows in the No. 5 seat. “Actually, we’ve handled it quite well because there’s been so much shuffling and everyone’s been a part of it. We all have the attitude of ‘Yeah, I’ve been there.’ You know exactly what they’re going through.”

It’s paid off. Having found a core of athletes in the varsity boat, the Huskies trounced Cal Saturday by nearly four seconds in the Golden Bears’ home waters in Belmont, Calif.

The lineup appears to be set for Windermere Cup. Ernst has made just one switch this week, putting junior Dusan Nikolic, from Belgrade, Serbia, into the No. 3 seat in place of Martin Rogula, a junior from Zagreb, Croatia.

“I was angry, yes,” Nikolic said. “I have never gone through anything like that. But when I was moved to the second boat, I knew I had to go as hard as possible to get back into the varsity boat.”

Which is all Ernst wanted in the first place.