THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300517
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 137 lines
Nobody recruited Robert Ragsdale for any of the sports teams at Old Dominion initially. But one night in the dinner line changed that, and now the junior is part of a Monarchs tradition that boasts the most national titles in school history.
Basketball, field hockey, wrestling?
Not exactly.
As Ragsdale waited in his dorm's dining hall three years ago, a sailor on the Monarchs' team noticed Ragdale's small but athletic build and coaxed him into signing up. Dozens of regattas later, Ragsdale is looking to add to ODU's national championship collection, which includes eight titles since 1982.
``I really liked the idea of sailing and I love being outdoors,'' says the former soccer player at First Colonial High. He and his Monarch 'mates will represent the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association in the national championships from May 31 through June 8 in Madison, Wisc., on Lake Mendota. The Monarchs are the only team from the MAISA, considered the toughest of the 11 districts with four of the top 10 programs, to have qualified for all six championship races this year.
Intercollegiate sailing features six national events annually. Last fall, ODU finished third in the singlehanded, fifth in the women's singlehanded and seventh in the sloop. The remaining three are the women's dinghy, the team race and the co-ed dinghy.
Ragsdale knew zilch about sailing originally, but that didn't deter first-year coach Mitch Brindley from wanting him on the team. Although the Monarchs' are regarded as a powerhouse of sorts, the program's reputation is almost a secret on campus. Yet Brindley stresses that recruiting for sailing, despite its non-scholarship status nationwide, is like any other sport: Coaches go after the best in the country.
Brindley competes with the Naval Academy, Tufts and Stanford - some of sailing's top names - to fill a team of 30. His tools? Word-of-mouth and a $200 budget that goes toward mailings and treating prospective sailors to lunch during campus visits.
``Since we don't offer them money, it does make it hard,'' says Brindley, sitting in his cramped, humid office inside the ODU Sailing Center. ``We don't have a national letter-of-intent or anything like that. You're never quite sure who you're going to get.''
Brindley sells an on-campus facility regarded as one of the finest for collegiate racing. A 200-foot pier and ramp facilitate launching the Monarchs' fleet of boats. He is also backed up by a tradition that includes 46 All-Americans and All-Star Crews.
In turn, the coach, himself a 1989 ODU grad who remains active in international sailing, requires dedication. Practices are daily, and in the weeks before nationals, twice daily: from 9 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 5 p.m. Competitions in sites ranging from Boston to Eugene, Ore., are held almost every weekend during the school year.
``February is when you really start to see the dedication,'' Brindley says. ``When the water's in the 30s and the air temperature is in the 30s and it's cold and rainy out, we do it every day.''
Like Ragsdale, Stephanie Sharlow was oblivious to the program until she saw a flier seeking crew. In addition to experience, Brindley looks for crew who weigh less than 115 pounds to fill certain spots in a light wind.
Decked out in shades and a life jacket, the petite Sharlow admits she had never thought about sailing competitively before she came to ODU, but she was a quick study. The Ridgefield, Conn., native even laughs off capsizing in a regatta in New York City last winter. Her team's boat lost its rudder and drifted under the Frog's Neck Bridge in the wintery waters at the SUNY-Maritime event. Any fear Sharlow might have had was washed away by competitive drive.
``There's such a thing as breakdown points,'' she says. ``So we kept attempting to right the boat and sail the rest of the race, only we kept capsizing and capsizing because we didn't have a rudder.''
Mitchell Rogers, a skipper, and Shelley Caplan, crew, sailed often before attending ODU. Rogers grew so tired of it in high school that he decided not to pursue sailing in college. Then competing in the Youth National Championships renewed his interest.
``Everybody was talking about `I'm going to Old Dominion to sail; I'm going to Tufts to sail,' '' he says, ``I called the coach up a month before school started and decided to come here.''
Caplan was a gymnast when she was young, but her knees hurt so bad she could barely walk, so ``my mom stuck me in a boat,'' she says. ``The first week I hated it, but I kept going back.''
A skipper pilots the boat and crew helps by trimming the sails and advising on strategy. But during a race, the relationship is not necessarily smooth.
``A lot of times crew bears the brunt of a frustrated skipper,'' Brindley says.
``I grew up sailing by myself,'' says Rogers, third in the singlehanded nationals a year ago. ``You really have to dig deep when you're hurting bad and you don't have anyone to talk to. It takes a lot of drive to do well in those boats.''
And Brindley will drive that point home: Sailing is a sport, not a day at the beach. Depending on conditions, it can be physically demanding and mentally draining. Windy days require more aggression as the body becomes a lever to hold the boat flat.
But the rewards are immense. Rogers says he'd grow tired of fine-tuning his skills day after day on the same playing field. Gazing at his practice field - the rippling Lafayette River soaking up a glorious sun - he says, ``It's beautiful.''
``We have winds that make everything interesting. More than a lot of sports, sailing is fun. Like any amateur athlete, we love to do it, and that's why we do it.'' ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL HEFFNER
The Virginian-Pilot
ODU senior Evangeline Callahan will be among the sailors hoping to
add to the Monarch's eight national titles.
``It takes a lot of drive to do well in those boats,'' said skipper
Mitchell Rogers.
MIKE HEFFNER
The Virginian Pilot
Members of the ODU sailing team head to the Elizabeth River to
practice for Friday's national championships.
SAILING TERMS
If you think ``Skipper'' refers to the big guy on ``Gilligan's
Island'' and ``crew'' is a sock, read on.
Skipper: a person in charge of piloting a boat
Co-ed dinghy: two sailors in a flying junior dinghy. Is an A
division and B division; the combined scores make up team total.
Crew: somone who assists the skipper by trimming or setting the
sails
Dinghy: a small open boat often carried aboard a larger boat that
is usually propelled by oars.
Flying Juniors along with Lasers and 420s are brand names of
boats.
Fore-and-aft: from the bow to the stern; lengthwise
Jib: a triangular sail set forward of the mast
Mast: a vertical pole on which a sail is rigged.
Singlehanded: one person to a boat
Sloop: a fore-and-aft-rigged single-masted sailing vessel with a
mainsail and a jib.
Team race: skipper and crew for three boats competing against
skipper and crew for three boats on another team in a match. Follows
a round-robin format
Women dinghy: same as co-ed dinghy except two sailors must be
female. by CNB