The Boys in the Boat

A rowing coach is looking at his freshman tryouts and musing on the coming years.  Victories?  Losses?  Championships?  The Olympics?

All that Ulbrickson knew, had to start here on this dock, with the boys who were now wandering off into the waning light.  Somewhere among them–those green and untested boys–lay much of the stock from which he would have to select a crew capable of going all the way.  The trick would be to find which few of them had the potential for raw power, the nearly superhuman stamina, the  indomitable willpower, and the intellectual capacity necessary to master the details of technique.  And which of them, coupled improbably with all those other qualities, had the most important one: the ability to disregard his own ambitions, to throw his ego over the gunwales, to leave it swirling in the wake of the shell, and to pull, not just for himself, not just for glory, but for the boys in the boat.

-The Boys in the Boat