Word: bert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Newell Boathouse slip on a dark gray day, after an hour of poor rowing, the 150-pound oarsman lowers at his reflection in the sleek wet shell and nurses the black conviction that today he pulled the boat all by himself. It is at this touchy moment that coach Bert Haines, a slim, middling-aged man with a wind-reddened face underlined by a thick white towel around his neck, steps from a launch, calls the day's offender aside, and with gestures explains in a gentle, English-tinged voice, "Now, this is the surface of the water...
...secret" of Bert Haines' work with the 150-pounders can be simply put: he is in love with rowing; the Freshman learns quickly through hearsay and demonstration that for him one's rowing is the thing that there are no other criteria. This fact is a big one in crew, where men are jumped from beat to boat daily, and where they row as one, without resentments, or collapse halfway down the course...
Another aspect of Bert's effectiveness is the lifetime of technical perfection that he can bring to bear on the small problems that matter in crew. The "lifetime" is almost literal, for when he was born in Winsor, England, his father and three uncles, all champion punters, were waiting to impart to him all their love. Bert's father impressed the principles of coxing on him at nine by cracking his knuckles when he made a miscalculation. This is one teaching device that Bert has not found it expedient to carry over to the Harvard scene...
While the Varsity boats move south, Bert Haines' 150-pound crews will meet Tabor Academy and the Tech lightweights in an informal race here tomorrow afternoon...
Polished form and a quick start brought victory to Bert Haines' Freshman 150-pound crew yesterday in their first race of the season against the M.I.T. first-year lightweights and Browne and Nichols school...