Almost any college athlete will say that his or her sport’s season lasts all year long no matter what the official schedule might say. Between the summer training, preseason exhibitions, weight lifting, conference games, and postseason tournaments, there’s little time left.

This is especially true for the Harvard men’s and women’s crew teams. Although they are officially spring sports, both train during the summer break, participate in fall races such as the Head of the Charles, and even keep competing throughout the winter months.

That said, the teams usually head to more hospitable environments to avoid Cambridge’s frigid temperatures and the frozen river. A training trip to Miami was a welcome excursion for the squads during winter break, and just last weekend some Crimson rowers headed to Boston University’s Agganis Arena to compete in the CRASH-Bs World Indoor Rowing Championships.

In the annual event, participants take to the aisles of erg machines lined up across the arena’s floor to individually sprint 2Ks against the clock. Although world-class rowers have set several records at the event, most competitors recognize that the indoor set-up is most likely not the best measure of how an athlete will fair in a real regatta.

With this dilemma in mind, some rowers have come up with another solution for what to do when their usual waterways freeze over: row on ice.

While the new technique isn’t exactly widespread, some rowing groups have pioneered newly designed “boats” especially for such practice. They have attached blades to the bottom of the boat and use ice picks in place of oars to help the boat glide smoothly across a frozen river or lake.

One Massachusetts man has even patented his own design that he describes on his website as a combination of elements from iceboats, bicycles, and rowing shells to create a vehicle powered by traditional rowing movements.

Harvard’s teams may not be adopting the novel idea anytime soon, but don’t be surprised if you see a daredevil or two trying it out on a nearby pond or even a still-solid section of the Charles.

Continuing a storied Harvard tradition, four women’s hockey players have been nominated for the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Award, given annually to the best player in collegiate women’s hockey.

Senior Christina Kessler and juniors Kate Buesser, Liza Ryabkina, and Leanna Coskren are among 45 nominees for the award. The list of nominees was released by USA Hockey today.

Kessler, a goaltender, finished her career with the Crimson career wins and shutouts records, as well as the NCAA career save percentage record. The senior held a 9-3-3 record this season before her year was ended with an ACL injury in January, but she still ranks fifth nationally in save percentage (.944) and sixth in goals-against average (1.39).

Buesser, a forward, is Harvard’s leading scorer this season, tallying 33 points on 13 goals and 20 assists. She ranks second among ECAC players with 30 conference points, and stands 19th nationally with 1.22 points per game.

Ryabkina has been an offensive force since returning from a dislocated knee in late November, scoring 11 goals in 18 games. Five of those goals came in the Beanpot, and the winger was named tournament MVP for her efforts. Ryabkina’s four game-winning goals are good for eighth in the country.

Coskren’s 16 points are tops among Crimson defenders, and her 15 conference points are third-best among ECAC blueliners. The majority of Coskren’s offensive production has come on the power play, and she is tied for first in conference play with 10 power-play points. The junior also anchors Harvard’s defense, which ranks second nationally with 1.44 goals allowed per game.

The Kazmaier Award has gone to a Crimson player six times in its 12-year history. A.J. Mleczko ’97-’99, Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03, Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04, Julie Chu ’06-’07, and Sarah Vaillancourt ’08-’09 are Harvard’s previous winners, with Botterill taking the trophy twice.

The top 10 finalists for the award will be announced on March 2. The Kazmaier trophy will be presented on March 20 in Minneapolis, Minn. in conjunction with the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four.

If football season seems like it took place a decade ago, or if you can’t understand the multiple tie-breaker scenarios in men’s basketball, here’s something to get excited about: men’s lacrosse.

After four straight losing seasons from 2005-2008, Harvard coach John Tillman led his squad to an 8-5 overall record in 2009, including a signature win at No. 5 Duke in the season opener. While last year the Crimson may have had the fortune of flying under the radar, every squad will have its date with Harvard circled on this season's calendar. The Crimson is ranked No. 12 in Inside Lacrosse’s preseason poll, but it won’t catch any breaks throughout the season, as Ivy foes Cornell, Princeton, and Brown also broke the top 20. If you haven’t noticed yet, this is one of the only sports in which the Ivy League can lay claim to being the nation’s premier conference.

With the season opener just ten days away, look for Harvard to have a breakthrough offensive year to help its young defense and alleviate the loss of goalie Joe Pike. Sophomore attack Jeff Cohen was the Crimson’s leading scorer last season with 34 goals, good for seventh nationally in goals per game. Junior attack Dean Gibbons was right behind him with 21 goals, and the freshman duo of Jack Doyle and Peter Schwartz, part of a top-three national recruiting class, will be expected to make an impact early.

The Crimson will host Canisius in its season opener Saturday, February 27th, at Cumnock Turf.

As the Harvard women’s hockey team enters the final weekend of its regular season entangled in a tight race for postseason home-ice advantage, five of its alumnae are playing for a different kind of hockey prize.

The Olympic women’s hockey tournament opened on Saturday in Vancouver, and Americans Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04, Julie Chu ’06-’07, and Caitlin Cahow ’07-’08 and Canadians Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03 and Sarah Vaillancourt ’08-’09 are skating for Olympic gold.

The Americans and Canadians are far and away the top two teams in the world and are both heavily favored to advance to the gold-medal game—though as the US team learned in 2006, being favored is not enough, as the Americans were upset by Sweden in the semifinals and had to settle for bronze. But through three days of competition, both squads are living up to the hype.

Canada set the tone in front of its hometown crowd on Saturday with an 18-0 shellacking of Slovakia, the biggest offensive output in Olympic history. Vaillancourt had a goal and two assists against Slovakia and followed up that performance with a goal and an assist in a 10-1 win over Switzerland yesterday.

Botterill added an assist on the Canadians’ final goal in Saturday’s rout.

Not to be outdone, the Americans cruised to a 12-1 win over China on Sunday afternoon. Harvard players bookended the scoring for the US squad, with Ruggiero opening the game with a breakaway backhand early in the first before Chu capped the game with a tally off a rebound from American captain Natalie Darwitz.

Chu also had two assists on the afternoon.

The US team takes on Russia this afternoon at 5:30 pm Eastern time. Both the Canadians and the Americans still have their toughest preliminary matchup ahead of them—Canada plays Sweden tomorrow, and the US plays Finland on Thursday. Those four teams are favored to advance to the medal round.

Even with planning that began a decade ago, the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada have already had their fair share of mishaps before competition even began.

The first came early Friday, when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili suffered a horrific crash during a training run at the Whistler Sliding Center. Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled and flew over the outer barrier, slamming into an unpadded metal pole. Attempts to revive the unconscious 21-year-old failed, and he was pronounced dead after being airlifted to a local hospital.

Kumaritashvili’s crash was one of the most horrible accidents in recent Olympic history, but it was not entirely unforeseen. Not only was a luger killed in the sport’s first introduction to the Olympic games in 1964, but concerns were also raised about the Whistler track in particular. In just two days, there were three separate crashes, including another where the athlete was airlifted from the track that many are calling too fast and too dangerous for competition.

Worries of another kind have arisen at more of Vancouver’s Olympic venues as well, especially the ski hills. Last week’s rain and relatively warm temperatures turned the Whistler runs into a collection of soggy slopes and have delayed women and men’s downhill races until no earlier than Monday.

Olympic officials have been working frantically to improve conditions to racing standards, even carting in snow to the site for freestyle skiing and snowboarding at Cypress Mountain.

Finally, as if Kumaritashvili’s tragedy and the dismal weather weren’t enough, the week was capped off by a noticeable blunder in Friday’s elaborate opening ceremony. Due to a mechanical failure, one of the four colossal architectural pillars failed to rise during the climactic lighting of the Olympic cauldron.

All that the Olympians and officials can hope for now is that the opening ceremony marked the closing of Vancouver’s streak of misfortune.