UD Starts Crew Team, Practices on Madonna Pond
Alice Meador/Contributing Writer
Issue date: 4/5/06 Section: News
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In response to the call for greater diversity in UD's athletic program, recent graduate Chris Swaltz has stepped up to the plate in helping form and coach a crew team.
"We haven't had a new program for guys since the failed formation of the football team a few years ago, and this has not sat well with UD's insatiable appetite for sports, which the overflowing crowds at basketball, baseball, volleyball and lacrosse matches show," Sweltz said.
Sweltz added that he was excited about the program luring in lots of prospective students.
"I've heard countless stories from Admissions about prospective students who have been extremely interested in coming to UD until they found that it lacked a rowing crew. One kid, the son of a packaging baron on the East Coast, reportedly said: "Well, I was completely sold on the school. I was going to come here and then contribute millions of dollars as an alumnus. Then it happened. I casually asked where the rowing team practiced and was met with a blank look. I shook the dust off of my flip-flops and never looked back.""
The one disadvantage, Sweltz said, was that members on the crew team will be barred from the fiercely competitive crew intramurals which have been going on at UD for some fifteen years.
"It's a real shame," he said.
Practices will be held on Madonna pond on idyllic Saturday afternoons.
"We haven't had a new program for guys since the failed formation of the football team a few years ago, and this has not sat well with UD's insatiable appetite for sports, which the overflowing crowds at basketball, baseball, volleyball and lacrosse matches show," Sweltz said.
Sweltz added that he was excited about the program luring in lots of prospective students.
"I've heard countless stories from Admissions about prospective students who have been extremely interested in coming to UD until they found that it lacked a rowing crew. One kid, the son of a packaging baron on the East Coast, reportedly said: "Well, I was completely sold on the school. I was going to come here and then contribute millions of dollars as an alumnus. Then it happened. I casually asked where the rowing team practiced and was met with a blank look. I shook the dust off of my flip-flops and never looked back.""
The one disadvantage, Sweltz said, was that members on the crew team will be barred from the fiercely competitive crew intramurals which have been going on at UD for some fifteen years.
"It's a real shame," he said.
Practices will be held on Madonna pond on idyllic Saturday afternoons.