At Crew Classic, Coach Has Many Oars in Water

The importance of being Ernst was evident Friday at the 15th annual San Diego Lowenbrau Crew Classic, and it will be even more clear today as the regatta continues on Mission Bay with races scheduled from 6:50 a.m. until 3:10 p.m.

Very few people are as busy this weekend as Bob Ernst, the men’s coach at the University of Washington and also the Olympic women’s eights coach.

Because he is the Olympic coach, Ernst is coaching Seattle’s Lake Washington Rowing Club. It and the Boston Rowing Center are the two United States training teams. Both are in San Diego for the classic, as is the University of Washington.

In Friday’s women’s Elite four-plus final, Ernst’s Lake Washington teams finished second (7 minutes 24.31 seconds), third (7:26.4) and sixth (7:44.78). British Columbia finished first in 7:21.3.

“The Elite kids are really pretty independent,” said Ernst, downplaying his weekend double-duty role. “They know that the university crew is my first priority. And I don’t have to baby-sit the university crews, either. They know what they’re supposed to do at races--that’s why we spend all year training them.”

Ernst will have crews in as many as three and possibly five races today. The University of Washington men’s junior varsity eight will race at 6:50 a.m., the university’s varsity eight will be in a Copley Cup preliminary at 9:10 and the Lake Washington crew will be in the women’s Elite eights final at 2:15 p.m. If the junior varsity and varsity eights do well in the preliminaries, they will advance to finals later in the day.

“My life has been very busy over the last few years, because I’ve coached kids every day all year long,” Ernst said. “And I suppose I have at least as heavy a load as anybody here this weekend, but it’s fun.”

Ernst has been coaching crew at the university level since 1969, when he got the men’s job at UC Irvine. After six years, he accepted the women’s coaching position at the University of Washington. This year, he’s back with the men.

He also is preparing for his fourth Olympic Games as a coach. In 1976, he led the women’s double to a fifth-place finish. He was the women’s quad scull coach in 1980 when President Jimmy Carter ordered an Olympic boycott. And in 1984, he guided the women’s eight to a gold medal.

“He’s pretty much done everything you can do in women’s rowing, both collegiately and internationally,” said Kelly Salonites, the second-year UCLA women’s varsity coach. “Obviously, I think very highly of him. When I started coaching, he did everything he could to help me. He invited me to watch the Olympic training camp last December, which was a nice gesture.”

Sarah Gengler, who will row in the No. 5 seat for Lake Washington in the women’s Elite eight final this afternoon, said, “One of the reasons he’s so successful with the rowing clubs is that he’s a technician. He expects great things out of people. He keeps on pushing until he gets what he wants.”

Said Ernst: “Before I got into coaching, I knew I wanted to be able to deal with the best athletes in this country. I wanted to go against teams like the Soviet Union and East Germany and have a chance at beating them. And certainly at Washington, I coach good college rowers.”

Ernst, who has coached in all 15 San Diego Crew Classics, is on the water with his University of Washington team at 6 a.m. each morning. As soon as he finishes, the Lake Washington women practice.

“I go all year, every year,” Ernst said. “It gets to be an emotional drain, but in our country, to compete against the Soviets and East Germans, you have to (go like that).”

Last year, the Washington women won the Whittier Cup, the college women’s varsity eight championship in this meet. This year, the Washington men will be racing for the Copley Cup, the Whittier Cup’s equivalent for men.

“I really don’t know how good people are,” said Ernst in sizing up his eights competition for the Copley Cup, which was won by Harvard last year (Harvard did not send a varsity eight team to defend its championship this spring). “UCLA is excellent, Wisconsin will be tough. I think we have a chance. Our guys are very motivated. They were extremely frustrated with their (overall) performance last year. They’ve trained hard and should be competitive.”

In addition to the women’s Elite four-plus race Friday, there were 19 preliminary heats. Fourteen more preliminary heats are scheduled for today, followed by 28 championship races.

The only people who may be as busy as Bob Ernst this weekend are the concession-stand workers, who were sold out of Crew Classic tank tops and tee shirts by noon yesterday (a rush order was placed Friday afternoon so more would be on hand today). The size of the crowd was said to be much larger than last year’s.