Walk-Ons Climb the Crimson Ranks

Most bright-eyed Harvard freshmen arrive in the Yard determined to make the most of their college experience by trying something new and different. Some learn a new language, some pick up dance or find a cause to advocate, and some find their way to the top of a nationally-ranked crew program.

When the Crimson’s top men’s lightweight crew pushes off at this weekend’s Head of the Charles Regatta, it will hold three men who showed up at the boathouse looking to try something new and found a passion that would dictate the course of their college careers.

“Coming here, crew just seemed like the quintessential Harvard sport, and it struck me as something really cool that I could do,” senior coxswain Dexter Louie says. “I didn’t know anything about it, but I figured I’d give it a shot. So I started, I walked on, and I just got hooked.”

Every fall, 60 to 80 Harvard freshmen show up at the introductory meeting for lightweight crew. About a dozen from each class will stick with it through the varsity level. And this year, three—Louie, senior Mike Silvestri and junior Jared Dourdeville—will be reprising their roles in the Crimson’s top boat.

Silvestri and Dourdeville both came to Harvard without previous rowing experience, but with athletic backgrounds and the desire to work hard.

“They both picked up the rowing stroke pretty easily—they were pretty natural that way,” says Crimson novice coach Linda Muri. “They will both work very hard. They both put in the extra time.”

Dourdeville rose through the ranks quickly, earning a spot in the top boat last spring as a sophomore—one of just three second-years in the boat, and the only walk-on of that trio.

“Jared is one of the hardest working guys on the team,” junior Ben Bayley says. “One time, we went out in a pair together, and it was just supposed to be a lighter pressure row. The whole practice, though, he just kept pulling me around, so we were never going on a straight course...The thing is, what’s ‘easy’ pressure for Jared is probably pulling super hard for everyone else.”

This season, the junior has taken over the stroke seat—a spot typically reserved for the most technically proficient rowers and is charged with setting the rhythm for the entire boat.

“For me, it’s been very rewarding to see the novice guys...pop up in the first varsity,” Muri says. “To see Jared stroking the boat this year, I feel like I’ve contributed a lot by getting him to the point where he can take over. Same thing for Michael and for Dexter and for any of the novices in the program.”

Dourdeville and Silvestri earned a silver medal at Eastern Sprints last spring, and capped off a successful season in the 1V with a bronze-medal finish at IRAs. Orchestrating the races was Louie, who has been the team’s top coxswain since last year’s Head of the Charles.

But coxing did not always come easily for the senior.

“I was one of those unfortunate coxswains that actually crashed the boat into the dock in the first few weeks, which is, like, the worst thing you can do as a coxswain,” Louie admits with a laugh. “So I was actually pretty far down the depth chart to begin with.”

Louie wasn’t alone in his early struggles. In fact, Muri finds training a new set of coxswains to be one of the tougher parts of her job.

“The hard part is getting them to be competitive—that’s one of the biggest challenges,” she explains. “And, at the same time, teaching them all this stuff about rowing when they’re not actually rowing.”

But the 5’6 California native stuck with the sport, competing in IRAs in his freshman season and hopping into the second varsity boat as a sophomore.

“[Louie’s] been very good at picking up the feel of the boat and being able to make calls, make comments...to the rowers while they’re rowing to change the feel of the boat,” Muri says. “And I’m not sure if that’s something I can teach, or that the varsity coach can teach. You have to be aware of that, and he has that sense, that feeling.”

As Louie has gained experience, his sense of the boat’s rhythm has only improved.

“The coxswain has to actively sense what’s going on in the boat—you don’t have an oar in the water,” Louie says. “All nine guys are sitting there and trying to make the boat go as fast as possible, but only one of them’s got the microphone. And unfortunately, that one is the one who can sense the least amount. So the best coxswains are the ones that are so good that they know all the ways to figure out how well the boat is going.”

Louie has also gained the respect of his rowers for his competitive drive and mastery of the art of coxing.

“One of the things I like the most about Dexter is the fire that he brings to the competitions,” Dourdeville says. “He can really, really get the motivation up for any race, especially the longer head races like we have in the fall. And that’s critical.”

In their second season in the varsity boat, these three now-seasoned walk-ons will look to row the Crimson back to the top of the national heap—an achievement they never would have thought possible on that first day in the Yard.

“The whole walk-on thing is pretty cool, because if you think about it, I came to Harvard just like anybody else,” Louie says. “And here I am, four years later, competing in one of the best lightweight teams in the nation. That’s kind of unbelievable.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.