After a disappointing 11th place finish at the Eastern Sprints this past May, the Dartmouth men's lightweight crew team is eager for improvement. The team is looking forward to working with newly-appointed head coach, Steven Perry, who will bring his impressive portfolio of turn-around success stories and coaching expertise to Dartmouth's lightweight program.
"We've all certainly heard about his past accomplishments and the success of the Navy crew team, and we're most definitely excited about having him here," lightweight rower Camden Place '07 said.
During Perry's last three seasons at Navy, he led his freshman squad to a 33-1 record season, culminating in the capture of Navy's first freshman lightweight rowing championship in 20 years.
At Annapolis, Perry faced constant challenges with wind, motor boats and three-foot swells, as well as limited water time. On the Connecticut River, wind and boat traffic will be minimal. However, long winters will produce dilemmas for Perry's lightweight rowing team.
Perry, though, seemed optimistic in light of any potential challenges to Dartmouth's success. He focused on effective team training as a way of overcoming outside circumstances.
"Many programs do not use cross-training effectively," he continued. "There's more than one way to go fast."
Perry's enthusiasm was evident to members of the lightweight crew team at a recent roundtable discussion conducted during the interview process.
"He's a very passionate, intense person," Place said. "His drive to succeed and his love for the sport were overwhelmingly and plainly apparent."
Perry was equally impressed by the motivation of Dartmouth athletes.
"They want to get things done," he said. "It seemed as if they wanted to jump up and get into the boats right on the spot."
Perry became the clear favorite for the position after Chris Woll, the team's former novice coach, resigned himself from consideration.
Woll has a close relationship with many of the varsity lightweight rowers, who remember him for his role as coach of their freshman squad.
According to Place, many members of the team were surprised when Woll decided to consider other options. They had assumed that Dick Grossman, the previous lightweight men's crew coach, was training Woll for the position.
Director of Athletics Josie Harper, who announced the Athletic Department's decision to hire Perry, was unavailable for comment.
No stranger to the Ivy League competition, Perry familiarized himself with many of Dartmouth's traditional foes while at Navy, where he scored victories over teams such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Prior to his time at Navy, Perry was named men's freshman lightweight coach at the University of Pennsylvania. During his year in Philadelphia, Perry reinvigorated a program that had suffered 10 straight losing seasons.
His first freshman crew compiled a 5-2 regular season record, while his second boat went 4-3. Both crews later received honors at the Eastern Sprints.
During his college years at Rutgers University, Perry was a strong student-athlete and a four-year oarsman. He was chosen as the team's most valuable oarsman during his junior and senior years. At Rutgers, Perry also became familiar with the rich tradition of Dartmouth athletics, and he recalled finishing third his freshman year to a victorious Dartmouth squad at the Eastern Sprints.
"They beat my boat by twenty-three seconds," he said. "It was very belittling."
Since then, Perry said, he has dreamt of coming up to Hanover to coach the team.
"Everyone knows that Dartmouth can produce results like that again," he stated.
As captain and stroke of the 1999 team, Perry led Rutgers to the silver medal at the 1999 Intercollegiate Rowing Association Collegiate National Championship. Perry earned a degree in economics from Rutgers in 2001, subsequent to a two-year stint as the men's freshman lightweight coach during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Perry will replace Grossman, who is retiring as coach of Dartmouth's lightweight crew after a storied tenure of 30 years, including back-to-back championships at the Eastern Sprints in 1993 and 1994.
"Some of the older guys were really sad about Dick leaving after such an incredibly long time, but I think that we are now trying to get excited about the future," Place said.
