I decided to stick with the interview welfare theme this week, and talked to Erik Storck '07, one of the nation's top sailors. He let me know what the deal is with the team this year and what it's like to be talented and ignored.
The Dartmouth: We don't see very much of the sailing team around campus, but I've heard the team is a perennial power. How's the squad look this year?
Erik Storck: The team looks great this year. We have lots of experience on the team coupled with a good new crop of freshmen and some new sophomores. The atmosphere of the team is the best I've seen yet in my four years. We're competing very well and we have a lot of fun together.
TD: Well that's always good. How's the season going for you personally?
ES: Sailing is very much a team sport, and we feed off the energy and competition of our teammates. We have had some good results and some relatively frustrating ones as well. In three regattas, we have finished 5th, 2nd and 6th in A division. This should be a good weekend for us as we head to the Naval Academy for one of the bigger events of the fall. I keep saying we in reference to my crew, Killarney Loufek '07. She is my significant other in the boat, and she makes me look a lot better.
TD: You do some sailing with Killarney outside of school, too, right? How has that this fall?
ES: Yeah, I love sailing with her. She keeps it fun. We have done some outside competition in our day. After freshman year we sailed the U.S. Youth Championship together in the 420, and we won despite her never having crewed in that boat before. She's a natural. For this fall, I actually sailed with someone else for weight reasons, but that went well too.
TD: Congratulations. Up to this point in the interview, you've effectively dodged specifics on personal awards and honors and deflected praise onto teammates. From my unbelievably rigorous background research (I talked to your roommate) I have learned that you are a two time All-American and contender for sailor of the year. It seems like most top athletes have a pretty well developed ego. What's the deal with modesty?
ES: Well, thank you. I've had some great opportunities sailing for Dartmouth and I've been able to do some really good things. But one team member doesn't bring national championships to a program. That takes a whole team. My goal for this year is to win nationals, not to win college sailor of the year, which is decided by a panel of coaches. I need my team more than they need me.
TD: Shifting gears a bit, your older brother's an accomplished sailor in his own right, and one of the coaches of the team here. Ever threaten to call Mom because John questioned your form, strategy or masculinity?
ES: Yeah, we like to butt heads a little bit sometimes, but overall he's a really good coach. He led his team Hobart and William Smith to two national championships his senior year. I try to emulate his leadership on our team. We also like to hold a little event we call the Better Brother Competition. It involves brains, brawn and beverage drinking. He is the current holder of the title, but I've been pumping some iron so I think I could get the arm wrestle next time.
TD: Good to hear you're on the way up. This is a bit of a two-part question. First, how cool is it to walk up and down the docks at regattas knowing that you are a better sailor than everyone else there? Secondly, how frustrating is it to have very few people on campus know about you? Do you sometimes wish that people cowered with fear at your awesome talent? Or at least let you cut the Foco pizza grill line?
ES: I love the atmosphere at the regattas. I've been racing against most of my competition since I was 10 years old. College sailing is just another venue for us to race and for me to win. It sounds ridiculous, but if you lose more than every now and then, your competition will start believing they can actually beat you. The trick is to convince them that they are incapable of beating you. I love sailing, but I love winning more. It is pretty frustrating sometimes to know that no one really knows anything about our team. I don't know when the football team was last ranked 5th in the nation, which the coed sailing team is currently. It's a problem with our entire sport, getting it to the masses. For now though, I'll settle for the Homeplate grill line, which is really the varsity Foco grill.
