The Boston College sailing team rarely gets the attention it deserves.
Despite being ranked in the top five in the nation and having qualified for the national championship for two straight seasons.
The team competes throughout both fall and spring, staying on-campus for almost the entire month of June to practice and train for the national championships, yet there is no buzz around campus about the sailing team.
"It's kind of weird; a lot of people don't know what sailings all about and don't really concede it as a varsity sport or any kind of sport. It's more people's perception of it than anything else. Hopefully if we win nationals, that will start to change," said team captain Alan Reid.
The women's and co-ed teams have had tremendous success over the past few years, and the program continues to grow, both within in the school and on a national stage. BC has had to overcome the disadvantage of practicing in poor, cold weather and not being able to begin practice until the teams' spring break trip to either Florida or California. The Northern teams have been helped recently by NCAA rules that restrict the number of practices each squad is allowed, but still, the weather is not conducive to sailing.
"Being up here in the cold, all the regattas are here, all the big intersectional regattas are here and every team has to deal with the cold eventually," said Reid. "I guess it is knowing that you have to go out, and practice, and that if you don't practice when its 10 degrees out, then the teams down south are going to get more of an advantage."
BC has thrived recently; in the past three years, the team has held the No. 1 ranking. The co-ed team finished the fall season ranked No. 1 and the women's squad finished ranked No. 3. They compete in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association, a conference that includes Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Tufts, and other New England-based schools, and is the best sailing conference in the nation.
The women's squad has already qualified for nationals for a second straight year, and the co-ed team will look to qualify for a third-straight season this weekend with a top-four finish in the United States Coast Guard Alumni Bowl regatta.
"We've actually only sailed one fleet racing event this spring, and we got second two weekends ago down at Coast Guard," said Reid about the familiar venue, "and that's where New England's are going to be held. We've won the last two years in biggest regatta of the fall and that's been there [Coast Guard]. We definitely feel comfortable at Coast Guard and hopefully we'll win New England's for the first time ever, I don't think BC's ever won New England's. We're definitely one of the favorites, us and Dartmouth."
"I don't think there's anything that's even a question, we are going to win," said junior Reed Johnson about the team's chances of victory this weekend. "Right now we're feeling pretty confident in our fleet racing abilities, that as a team we have a really good chance to step up and show everybody what we can do because we missed out on qualifying for team racing last weekend."
The women's team and the co-ed team have a friendly rivalry, pushing each other everyday in practice. They cheer for each other both as teammates and friends, and are motivated by the fact that both teams have been to nationals two straight years but have yet to win a national title.
Last season both teams finished seventh out of 18 teams, and the year before the co-ed squad finished 13th.
Last season the co-ed squad went into nationals ranked second in the country, but the squad did not finish with the results they were hoping for. This year's team is more prepared for the challenges ahead and has multiple standout sailors ready for the task.
"Reed Johnson and Julie Howe should be all-Americans this year," said Reid of his teammates. "Adam Roberts and Aly Whitehead will also probably get All-American; they were All-American's last year and Reed was honorable mention last year. Brian Kamilar and Andrew Schneider should get honorable mention or full All-American."
The women's nationals will be held at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., while the co-ed nationals will take place at the end of May at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. While the rest of the student body at BC starts to prepare for exams, the BC sailing team will be fighting hard for another shot at a national championship.
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