Sports

Crew house operational for start of 2005 season

After a lengthy semi-nomadic existence, the University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s crew teams have finally found a home.

The program moved in late March into its brand new crew house, located on the shore of Lake Mendota in the heart of the Lakeshore dormitory area. The UW Crew House is not simply a roof over the rowers’ heads — which would, by itself, be welcome after the past year-and-a-half — but perhaps the most impressive and state-of-the-art facility in the country.

“All the top boathouses in the country have something that is neat that makes you go, ‘Wow, wish I would’ve thought of that,’ but overall we have the best that I’ve seen, no question about that,” men’s head coach Chris Clark said.

Wisconsin’s new crew house has many features worthy of note. The most novel and interesting of these will be the innovative indoor rowing tank. The tank includes two sets of 12 seats, replicating a pair of boats with adjustable current for simulating real conditions. The facility will be invaluable in the winter for the crew teams to get practice in a real rowing environment, as opposed to the ergometer, a one-man-only rowing machine that is less than beloved by the members of the team.

“It’s gonna be huge. It will be for team training and individual stuff. It will be a real big advantage, because it gets pretty dull being on [the ergometers] all the time,” Clark said. “The tank will be considered like a dessert to the meat-and-potatoes operation in here during the winter.”

The massive size of the crew house finally allows the teams to be able to practice comfortably, instead of the cramped practice areas they have had in the past. More than 150 ergometers will be able to fit in the practice room, which is fitted with movable glass partitions to separate the different teams in the case they are practicing simultaneously.

The new crew house also has more than enough storage space, potentially being able to house 200 different craft, more than the team even has in its possession.

“It’s one of the biggest in the country, but very self-contained. We don’t have to go anywhere else to do anything,” Clark said.

Other features include a conference room, observation deck, spacious locker rooms capable of housing both the men and the women, and a training room.

All in all, the crew house has been receiving rave reviews, especially from those who have had to endure the transition from the UW Boathouse, which was demolished in the fall of 2003. Since then, UW has had to practice outdoors in tents (even in the winter) and in the UW Field House.

“It was so bad for the last few years, the finishing years of the old boathouse and the construction here; it was so bad,” Clark said. “It was really crowded, dark, dank, dirty and smelly. We were in the Field House a lot of the time, and it was really nice for the volleyball team to allow us to work in there, because it is kind of their home turf, but it stunk. We didn’t want to be in there anymore. And then the tent … we (the coaches) tried to pretend that the tent was kind of neat, in a Boy Scout kind of way, but it was terrible.”

The only downside was the group of seniors who graduated last year had to suffer the harsh times and never were able to reap the rewards the team is now.

“I just feel sorry for the guys that have graduated in the last year or so, but the sophomores have never had a space at all, so it is a very exciting and new experience for them,” Clark said.

The UW Crew House will pay immediate dividends for the Wisconsin crew program, as it has already improved the times of the team members and will surely be an invaluable tool in the recruiting of higher-caliber athletes.

“It’s good for recruiting,” Clark said. “It’s huge. A lot of people don’t notice this, but we are right in the heart of campus and a lot of boathouses aren’t. You can see the closest dorm out here is about 20 feet away.”

Having a home is all the crew teams really wanted, and in the gorgeous new crew house, the Wisconsin crew program certainly got more than it bargained for.