United as One

No sport epitomizes being united like rowing. The same could said for the Harvard’s Class of 2023.

The Crimson is led by its Senior Leadership Group, which consists of Captain Clark Dean, The People’s Choice Thomas Macky and Master of Protocol Douwe de Graaf. But when the trio and the rest of its classmates stepped foot on campus in the fall of 2018, no one could have imagined the journey that was ahead of them. The one certainty, however, was they would do it together and for Harvard.

“We all started out freshman year together, and we’re ending our super senior year together,” said Dean. “The team was unique in the way that almost every guy took a year off at some point in the last few years through COVID and spent that time training. We’ve all been in it for the long haul.”

“It says a lot that we all wanted to take a year off and come back and commit to this season together,” Macky added. “I think partially because we’re so invested in the program, but also because we enjoy it, racing hard together as a class.”

The class, and the roster, for that matter is larger than usual, but the sheer numbers have made the experience enjoyable especially considering the history of the sport.

“It’s pretty fun, it’s a much bigger team than normal,” de Graaf said. “The five is now stacked with amazing rowers as com- pared to 5-10 years ago when it was walk-ons only. It’s quite fun having that much talent and seeing what we can do with it.”

“Having been in the program for three or four years, there’s a lot of leadership throughout the whole program and it’s definitely, by no means, just us,” Macky said. “I think Clark does a great job as captain, getting everyone on the same page, but there are a lot of people who step up and want to work hard, too.”

Getting on proverbial “same page” is an easier task when the team’s seniors are connected as they are.

“I think back to the whole gap year thing, when we came in as freshmen, many years ago, at this point, we were all super gung-ho and excited about rowing, and we still are,” Dean said. “And when everyone decided to take a gap year, I think that really showed our commitment to the team and embracing as much as we can with Harvard and now basically five years later we’re rounding it out, everyone’s still rowing, everyone’s still all in. And we’re just excited to see how it ends up.”

How it ends happens on Saturday at this historic event, this the 156th edition of the Harvard-Yale Regatta.

The four-mile race is one of tradition, pageantry and when it comes to the nuts and bolts of things, head-to-head competition.

“When I was in high school and talking to different colleges, a guy who rowed here at Harvard and graduated before I got here, who was also from Sarasota, Florida, told me if I wasn’t going to go to Harvard, I should go to Yale, because the boat races, there’s nothing like it in college sports,” Dean reminisced. “Obviously, I ended up here at Harvard and just from my freshman year going to Red Top, seeing the race and just seeing the tradition around it, there really is nothing like it in sports today. Being a part of that and, you know, racing in that race and living in those cabins, it’s just it’s something that very, few people experience.”

“It’s just a different level from anything you could get,” Macky said. “For me, back home in Australia, it’s just this storied tra- dition in this race. It’s such a cool element. And then combined with that, just the nature of what the race is, side-by-side over a long distance, is so exciting to be able to do something like that.”

The Regatta is just one slice of the Class of 2023’s Harvard experience, one filled with ups and downs, starts and stops, friendships on and off the water. The one certainty through it all was they reached the finish line together, united as one.