OARSMEN GATHER AT FIRST MEETING

More than 250 crew candidates swarmed into Smith Halls Common Room yesterday afternoon to hear Captain Geoffrey Platt '27 and Coach E. J. Brown '96 outline the plans for the coming season.

Among the candidates were four members of last year's first University crew, three from the second crew, and seven from the combination crews, as well as the huskey oarsmen who made up the undefeated 1929 Freshman boat.

Captain Platt, the first speaker, refused to make any predictions. "A crew season contains too many turns of fortune to make any phrophecy justifiable," he said. "We are going to be up against crews with experience, and against well-bred rowing systems: most of our men are inexperienced, and our coaching system is as yet untried. Usually at these meetings the captain talks about beating Yale. But the Yale race is a long way off. That is not the important thing at present. The main thing needed now at the establishment of a new system, is confidence and a spirit of cooperation, and I am sure you have both."

Coach Brown emphasized the fact that no University squad would be picked until some time in April, probably at the beginning of the Spring Recess. Until that time, he said, he would try to keep his eye on all the candidates on the class crews. From his long experience as class crew coach he has found that in the past many class crew men have developed during the spring but have not had a chance on the University squad, which was formerly picked at the start of the season.

Some division is being made immediately, however, the large squad being divided into parts with squad "A" comprising four or five crews. On these crews will be the men who have already had experience. As far as possible these crews will row in the same order until April, but strokes and coxswains will be shifted frequently from crew to crew, and oarsmen on the other squad will be shifted to one of the first squad boats as they show improvement.

Coach Brown said that no decision has been made as yet on the site of practice during the Spring recess. An invitation to train on another river has been received and is under consideration.

Emphasizing the fact that inexperienced oarsmen would be given every opportunity, Coach Brown said that all through the season he would endeavor to keep his eye on the class crews even after the vacation. A. L. Hobson '24 will be again in charge of the class crews, which he assisted with last fall. C. S. Heard '25 will coach the 150 pound crew.

Coach Brown said that because races were scheduled with Cornell on May 28