THE WORLD COMES FULL CIRCLE on my own, then I’ll think about doing it more seriously. “When I look back now, I realize I was doing things which I think are crazy now, but at the time psychologically I needed to do them because I had the desire to at least get it out of my system and see if I was ca- pable of doing it again. “Like I would work out in the morning, and I would come home after work and at 8:30 or 9 o’clock row the erg for an hour. Or I would take the train down to Princeton on a Saturday, go row like 20k in a single and take the train back up. “I went down a couple of times that spring and rowed with the group in some pairs and stuff, and then in the fall of ‘03 I called Mike and asked him if he would mind if I came down and tried out, and he said that that would be okay. “So I just showed up in the fall and started training with the guys, and I was liv- ing with Chip, and it was nice because he and I are very good friends and we were able to be a bit of a support system for one another, but also it was good because he is a coxswain and I’m a rower and so there was a bit of a separation. I would sleep there at his house, practice, take the train into New York to work and take the train back in the evening, practice again and then go back to his house. Then on the weekends I’d go to my house in New York. “I did that for a while, and then I took time off from work and was staying in Princeton full time. “I was really lucky that it all kind of worked, and I was extremely lucky that the people that I worked for and worked with were understanding and allowed me to do it. If they had not done that, there is no way I’d have been able to do what I did. Of all the things that happened to me in ‘04, I think that was what was perhaps the most extraor- dinary. I think that was in large part because I work for Dick Cashin.8210 “Dick had his own version of 2000, which was ‘76, where they had won before, had a good crew, and then it didn’t work out the way they wanted, so he was perhaps more understanding than other people of what was driving me, and it was extraordi- nary of him to give me the opportunity.”8211 Sitting in front of 3-seat Chris Ahrens in the 2004 lineup were two Kernschlag row- ers, 4-seat Joe Hansen from Oregon State, and 5-seat Matt Deakin from Pacific Row- ing Club. Deakin’s curve is a fine example of relatively smooth rowing with a strong front-half emphasis. Ahrens: “I think that Joey Hansen is probably the best natural athlete of the group, and when we were in San Diego, whoever rowed with Matt Deakin won. “In 2003, Joey and Matt won the fall speed order and if they had been allowed to keep rowing together, it wouldn’t have sur- prised me that they had ended up the top pair.”8212 Six-seat Dan Beery from Tennessee- Chattanooga and 7-seat Beau Hoopman from the University of Wisconsin closely matched the Schubschlag technique of stroke man Volpenhein. Ahrens: “Beau was a consistent per- former throughout the year, and it was kind of obvious that we had a mix of guys who just kind of went well together. Beau was tough and consistent and had skill as a rower and wasn’t just a strong guy, and all of that together with the fact that he went well with Bryan, he was a nice fit. “Dan was a bit of an unknown coming in. He had been rowing at Penn A.C. the year before and had done well, but no one really knew him. He is a year or two older 8210 See Chapters 111 and 114. 8211 Ahrens, op. cit. 8212 Ibid. 2301
