Alumni Notes

 

“My crew experience at NMH changed my life in a significant way. I wasn’t an athlete or even athletically inclined before I came to Northfield. I was just a tall, scrawny kid from the South. I remember sitting in the dorm talking with a friend who rowed crew. He told me how you sit on a seat with wheels, facing backwards. It was just so strange that I had to check it out. Well, I ended up getting into the sport and even managed a couple of years on the lightweight national team in 1990 and 1991. We got the bronze in ’91 in the lightweight 8+. Crew turned out to be the sport for me. Where else do you get to sit, go backwards, and do the same motion endlessly! Where some people found boredom, I found freedom.”

—Robert Hermann ’78

 

 

“I was not by any means an athlete when I entered the dock for the first time in the spring of my freshman year. I had given up on sports after fifth grade soccer, and had since then resigned myself to the fact that I just wasn’t gifted physically and wasn’t competitive. More than anything, crew has shaped my life, my habits, and my work ethic. It has shaped my body and how I look at it. I encourage anyone who’s looked at this beautiful sport and had their curiosity stirred to come give it a try. I especially encourage those underdogs, who are thinking that there is no way it could be right for them.”

—Jesse Mayhew ’01

 

 

 “I credit the great Coach Hamilton, who introduced me to the sport of crew in the fall of 1982, for igniting my crew passion. I went on to row at Duke and afterwards for the US in the pair at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the 1991 and 1993 World Championships, finishing midrange in field of 16 countries competing in the event. These days, I continue to row harder and sink faster with my has-been friends and in a single at the Charles and other fall regattas. I’m always on the lookout for NMH rowers.”

—John Moore ’83

 

 

“Until I rowed, I considered myself to be much more a musician than an athlete. I always thought that I just did not have the physical abilities to do a sport in a successful way. Well, I guess I changed my opinion. Crew really helped me to understand that I could actually achieve things in life that seemed unachievable before...it made me realize that being in shape could be fun—that even I, the guy that had never played any sport on a team, could be part of a group that achieved something, no matter whether they lost or won races.”

—Gabriel Wittman ’01