Chelsea Macpherson has taken to heart her head coach's nutty message. And with a meet against the nation's No. 6 team on deck, Macpherson and the rest of the Syracuse women's rowing team are hoping to channel SU head coach Justin Moore's loony rhetoric into a upset of No. 6 Yale.
Macpherson says Moore emphasizes that when rowing, a group must be collectively crazy in order to win. It's been one of his main mantras in his first year as head coach and has steered the Orange in meets. This weekend, SU's meet contains top-notch competition by way of Yale and Cornell rowing in the same field as SU.
Based off last season's results, SU will need to heed the advice of Moore now more than ever. In 2010, Yale and Cornell coasted to victories over SU by more than 15 seconds.
If there is ever a time to be a little loony, this weekend in Derby, Conn., is it.
"You have to go crazy to be in the field," Macpherson said.
The weekend in Connecticut provides SU with a rare opportunity: a matchup with the defending national champions. And no matter the outcome, it's an opportunity to relish.
But Moore's "crazy" mantra has yielded brash confidence for the Orange. SU is convinced Yale will have to look over their collective shoulder mid-race. Syracuse has the utmost confidence it will compete.
"I think they'll be very surprised halfway down the race course when we're still next to them, because we will be," junior Allison Todd said. "We're going to be all over them."
Syracuse is coming off a performance last week against Boston University when the third varsity eight won its race. The team as a whole made great strides, Moore said. Against elite competition, the team is excited to see how it stacks up, in preparation for upcoming meets and the Big East championships.
And the optimism goes back to the cocksure theme the first year coach preaches: constant improvement and increased confidence. Moore took over the program this past summer, and although the program experienced difficulties in the fall campaign, the team has seen results in Moore's system, Todd said. Results that Todd hopes will show this week.
"We've come so far as a team in eight months," Todd said. "We're faster, stronger, more fit. We're all excited to go."
The team did not perform well against Yale and Cornell last year, with the first, second and third varsity eights all finishing third behind Yale and Cornell. In the first varsity eight, Yale finished with a time of 6:27.4, while Syracuse clocked in at 6:46.2.
Last year's race posed tough elements to which the team did not adequately respond.
"The team didn't handle the conditions or the pressure," Moore said.
And against a crew with the caliber of Yale, there is little margin for error.
The Orange is very young, with 22 members either freshmen or sophomores. Just like with any young team, there comes the potential for improvement. With that, Moore feels that tangible development is necessary in the upcoming meets as a result.
"Because the crew is so young, we need to continue to build," Moore said. "We need to execute our strategy."
Despite the long odds and green makeup of the team, SU maintains winning is not out of the question. But the Orange knows it is important to not get discouraged about the final result.
For now, the team is on board with Moore's "crazy" philosophy. And with it, simply getting better each team they get in the water.
Still, the race poses opportunity. Competing against Yale will serve as a benchmark, a way of seeing how much training efforts over the last eight months have paid off. And as long as the team recognizes the quality of the opponent, the race should only help the team in the long run.
From its head coach all the way through the entire squad, as a collective SU might just be crazy enough to pull off the upset.
"When you're going to go out and race with the national champions, it tells you how close you're going to be," Macpherson said. "There's nothing to lose in this race."
kmprisei@syr.edu
