University of Virginia Library

Oarsmen Preparing
For Spring Schedule;
Yale Here For Break

By Winston Wood
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Under the loving direction of
their new head coach, Virginia's
crews, all three of them, are now in
the process of "making row."

Peter Eliades, a former Greek
Olympic oarsman, arrived in Charlottesville
early in November, and
since that time has been putting the
forty-some boys out for the squad
through a very curious, very strenuous
training program. Critics and
cream puffs label it sadistic, but as
the spring schedule approaches the
method in his madness becomes
apparent.

Mr. Eliades' exercises are original,
to say the least, and they
include playing games of leap frog,
climbing ropes, walking, skipping,
and even the more conventional
weight-lifting and cross-country
running. For the Varsity, Junior
Varsity, and Freshmen crews, his
methods are disconcertingly not
what Virginia athletics have been in
the past. His workouts have a
distinctively European animalism.
They are designed to build "elasticity,"
speed and his own enthusiasm.

When confronted with ice on
the reservoir one Saturday morning
in sunny February, he took his
"women," as he affectionately calls
his oarsmen, on a jog to the Blue
Ridge. They ran through a trail-less
forest to the second mountain they
came to and then ran back.

"We only have thirty days," he
said, referring to the first regatta,
against Marietta College on April
fourth (rowing is that college's only
spring sport). "We must make
training. On weekends, we must
make rowing twice a day."

In 1969, their second year of
collegiate competition, the Virginia
oarsmen finished ahead of thirty two
of the forty-two crews that
they rowed against. An unfortunate
draw in the Dad Vail Championships
in Philadelphia put Virginia in
the consolation finals. Winning the
first heat, they were able to edge
Marietta with a spectacular sprint,
while teams they had previously
beaten went on to the finals.

Yale will visit Charlottesville at
the end of next week for a week of
practice on what has been called
the smoothest body of water in the
East. In his first year as coach of
the Elis, Tony Johnson will follow
a three year old tradition in making
the trip. Former Olympic oarsman,
Johnson will be trying to whip his
crew into fighting shape before
returning to New England and the
prospects of finally beating Pennsylvania
and Harvard.

Virginia's first home regatta will
be Saturday, April 11, in competition
for the Easter's Cup against
North Carolina and a number of
other Southern crews. That next
Saturday, April 18, Mr. Eliades'
oarsmen will host Drexel and
Morris Harvey for the Rives Cup.
The season will culminate on the
weekend of May 7 and 8 in the Dad
Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.