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07/06/2011 12:00 AMMatt August made a name for himself on the ice, but that name will be forever remembered in the water. The 2009 Hand graduate left his hockey skates for a paddle and a boat this spring, becoming an integral part of Connecticut College's rowing team that prevailed at the New England Championship.
"It was nice to be competing again and winning stuff," Matt says.
Matt has always had a passion for hockey-playing defense for the Tigers during his days in high school-but when he packed up and shipped off to Conn College, playing hockey became less likely. He didn't try out for the team as a freshman and then didn't make the team this season as a sophomore. It appeared that Matt's athletic career was going to melt away with hockey, until crew coach Ric Ricci sought him out.
"My roommate freshman year and the kid who lived across the hall joined the team so I knew there was a pretty good group of kids on the team," says Matt. "[Ricci] contacted me through my mom and at first I didn't think that I would be interested, but I checked out practices and joined. A lot of it was because I knew guys on the team."
The marriage seemed to be a match made in heaven. Crew team members begin training in the fall for the spring season that starts in the beginning of April, but Matt hopped on board just three weeks before the team's first race. He joined the novice boat, a team comprised of only first-year college rowers, helping to ease the transition.
"In terms of physical fitness I was pretty on-par on with the rest of the team. I had to learn rowing techniques though," he says.
Matt and the rest of the novice boat picked things up quickly, going undefeated in 2011, culminating the season with a gold medal in the New England Rowing Championship. The Camels posted a time of 7:07, outlasting Worcester Polytechnic Institute (7:12) and Wesleyan University (7:16).
"We didn't really know how good we were until the first race," Matt says. "We won by a lot and then after the first two races we knew we were the favorites to win New Englands. It was really the varsity guys telling us we were probably going to win."
Matt credits Ricci's coaching strategy for the novice boat's success.
"[Ricci] coached us very differently than other teams," says Matt. "He pretty much focused on form, getting us to row as efficiently as possible to best use our energy. When we'd get to the halfway point, we'd start taking inches off other boats while we were sort of gliding along."
That emphasis on team rhythm, form, and continuity propelled the Camels to the New England title. But now Matt, Ricci, and the Camels have to figure out what to do with this novice boat. Next season, Matt's boat could move up to the junior varsity division, but there is also a spot opening up on the varsity boat, a seat sure to be coveted by many. But Matt isn't sold on leaving his newfound success and teammates behind to try and join the varsity squad.
"We really have to see when we get to the season how the different boats are running against each other," he says. "Who is on what boat, how well the body types cooperate depends on how the boat lineups turns out. I'd rather be with the same guys next year, but I'm sure one of the main focuses for [Ricci] next year will be working out which lineups are best for the two boats."
Matt is majoring in environmental studies and social sciences and says he is beginning to focus on the economic side of the industry. While he admits hockey is still his first love, Matt says the success he had this year on the crew team was enough to make him forget about his skates for the time being.
"Hockey is still my first love, but crew is a really different sport," Matt says. "I never ran track or anything that was a race, so this was a good experience-very different, interesting, and dynamic."