Accolades Abundant for Crimson Captain

After three years of playing second skipper on the Harvard sailing team, senior Kyle Kovacs finally got a chance to step into the spotlight. And boy, did he shine.

The former captain of the Crimson squad racked up honor after honor in his final season, capping the fall campaign with a victory at the NEISA Singlehanded Championship.

With the departure of his longtime training partner Clay Johnson ’07, a four-time winner of the NEISA singlehanded event, Kovacs stepped up admirably and kept the title in Cambridge for the ninth straight year.

“It was pretty exciting to win the New England Singlehanded Championship. Harvard has a tradition of winning the regatta,” Kovacs said. “It was nice to continue the tradition.”

He went on to take fourth place at the national singlehanded regatta in November.

But Kovacs’ individual honors of the fall pale in comparison to what he brought to the team in the spring. Along with his crew of three years, senior Elyse Dolbec, Kovacs led the Harvard co-ed team to not one, but two national berths.

Kovacs and Dolbec’s second-place finish in the A-division at April’s ICSA Coed Dinghy National Semifinals paced the team to a seventh-place finish and a spot at nationals in dinghy competition.

The following weekend, Kovacs led the charge in securing the squad a surprising bid at nationals with the Crimson’s third-place finish at the New England Team Race Championship.

Ever the team competitor, Kovacs earned some well-deserved recognition following the event.

He walked away from the regatta with All-New England honors as a skipper as well as the Senior Award, honoring his talent and sportsmanship.

To top it all off, Kovacs was named the New England Sailor of the Year.

“It was pretty exciting. There were a bunch of really good sailors, and we’ve been really close all year,” Kovacs said. “It’s sort of nice to get the recognition when you put a lot of time into the sport.”

Although Kovacs racked up numerous individual accolades, it is his dedication to his team that stands out to coaches and teammates alike.

“Sailing with [Kyle] I feel very involved in the boat. I really feel like we’re a team,” Dolbec said. “He’s had so much experience, and he really sees the races as [they are] happening. I’ve learned so much from him.”

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