"Why didn't you win?"

Buds,
In the Fall of 1998 the Terriers went to the Atlantic Coast Championships at ODU with none other than Stanley Schreyer sailing A division. It was a great weekend for Stan and crew Rich Bell as they finished 2nd, a mere 3 points behind St. Mary's All-American superstar Ty Reed. In the process, Stan beat a host of All Americans that included Ryan Costello (G-town), College Sailor of the Year runner-up Jon Baker (Tufts), Kevin Teborek (Hobart), David Dabney (Charleston), Mark Zagol (ODU), Eugene Schmitt (Navy), Peter Strothman (Harvard), Dan Herlihy (Dart), and Sean Fabre (MIT). Beating all those All-Americans was an impressive performance in the shifty and unfamiliar waters of Old Dominion in the last regatta of the season.
Beaming with pride, Stan called his mother to tell her the good news. Mom was impressed but had one question for Stan, "How! come you didn't win"?
Although a little dejecting at the time, it was a fair question. Mom didn't know a lot about collegiate sailing, but her daughter Merideth was an All-American crew for URI and she expected her son could be an All-American too. I'm sure Mrs. Schreyer was very proud of her son but still, it is a fair question, "why didn't you win"? If you don't ask that question of yourself, then you may never win.
As to this weekend at Eckerd, I too must ask that question. Why didn't we win? I can not tell a lie. I'm frustrated, annoyed and pissed off we couldn't beat a couple of unranked teams (okay, Eckerd is ranked now) and show we are worthy of accolades (harsh words for the first dinghy regatta of the season but nonetheless it's how I really felt inside, initially). Hell, even if we won, nobody from Neisa would be that impres! sed. It's what good New England teams are supposed to do down there.
Just like Stan's mom, I have unconditional love, but "in the house of competition, love don't pay the rent ". Write that down. It isn't about love, it's about asking a simple question and expecting an uncompromising response. We can not be satisfied. We can not dwell in complacency. We must ask why. I want to know why we didn't win at Eckerd and the partipating sailors should have distinct answers, not general fluff, to a reasonable query.
Tell me it was because of a lack of a coach. Good, Stan and I are flattered you think we can help you shave a few points. Tell me it was about not having the right personnel in the right place and I'm willing to listen. Of course, a lot of it has to do with on the race course itself. You must be able to analize your boat's performance and the team as a whole, or we'll be spinning our wheels, stuck in first gear. The spring season is short, we better have learned something from Eckerd and the Charleson TR or we'll get only marginally better over the course of these new experiences and the ones to come, while other teams in their own quest, get marginally better or more so. The secret is in making the most out of our journeys.
What if the Eckerd regatta was this coming weekend? In hindsight, what things could be done in a week of spring break practices to assure a stronger performance?
How can I get better? How can we get better? Those are the questions to be continually asked and when you find the solution, you must attack it full-force.
Was it starts? I mean, how did other sailors get ahead in the first place? Was it penalties? Was it not using all four eyes and two brains in the boat, only listening to half of them? Specific boathandling issues? Boatspeed problems? Did we have good tactics? Which is to say, did we read the breeze well and put our boat in favorable positions on the race course? Apparently not. Perhaps we were over-confident and didn't respect our competition, or respected them but didn't aggressively engage them. Did we attack our stronger competitors? Did we lee-bow them off the starting line? Did we tack on top of them? Did we drive them to a corner? Did we blanket their air or shut down their lane? Did we make any conscious effort to slow them down or did we sail obliviously on our own? Was there a concious effort on their part to slow us down? Perhaps, and we never really noticed. Winning can take many forms. Mom always s! aid "there's more than one way to skin a cat" (but asking its permission is never required).

Hey, I got a million questions.
For you and the team's sake, let's come up with some answers.


Rah Buds