Willing His Way to the Top

Some athletes are bred from childhood by parents or coaches to be great and are pushed into the spotlight at an early age. Take Tiger Woods, for example, or the Williams sisters. But other athletes stumble upon greatness, one day making a conscious choice to pursue excellence in a sport they love.

Given his innate athletic ability and the rowing legacy in his family, Will Newell certainly could have been the first of these two types of athletes. Even his surname is synonymous with rowing greatness—the Harvard men’s boathouse is of course Newell Boathouse, although Will notes there’s no relation.

But Newell, now the captain of the Harvard men’s lightweight team, truly belongs in the second category, having made a series of decisions later than most elite athletes do that propelled him onto the Harvard and world rowing scene.

Despite having a mother who rowed for Radcliffe while herself attending Harvard, Newell made it all the way through sophomore year of high school without developing a callous or racing in a shell. Even when his younger brother, Alex, picked up crew as an eighth grader, Newell wasn’t tempted to jump in a boat right away. Instead, the standout athlete was hitting his stride and making a name for himself running cross-country and track.

“I ran three seasons freshman and sophomore year and was doing well, but I didn’t really like outdoor track,” Will says. “So, after that, I ran the fall and winter of junior year but decided I wanted to try something else in the spring.”

At that time, rowing and coaching great Tom Bohrer had recently started coaching Alex at Wayland-Weston Crew. The plan was to put together a lightweight four to race that spring, but the group was short two rowers. The timing and opportunity were perfect for Will to make the jump from track to crew.

“I said to myself, if there’s ever a time to start rowing, it’s now, because there’s a really good coach, and I am running out of time,” Newell recalls.

That spring, the Wayland-Weston youth men’s lightweight four made it all the way to the USRowing Youth National Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio. The crew finished second overall, and after that exposure to high-level racing, Newell had caught the rowing bug.

“Will had been considering running in college and had been contacted by several running coaches,” explaines Will’s mother, Nelia Newell ’79. “But, after that summer experience, he came back and said, ‘I want to row in college.’”

In a single season, Newell transitioned sports and caught up to or surpassed most rowers his age that had been racing for years, enough so to catch the eye of collegiate coaches.

“Yeah, he was mostly a runner,” recalls Harvard lightweight men’s coach Charley Butt. “But he rowed enough for us to know that he had a lot of potential, and a long-time friend and trusted coach said, ‘This guy could do it.’ Will’s enthusiastic about the racing, and he’s not one to back down. I’d say he has a good competitive spirit, just the sort of thing that you look for.”

In the fall of his senior year, Newell started looking at schools. Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard all had boathouses within walking distance of the main campus and consequently became his top choices.

“I had a great time on the recruiting trip [to Princeton], was all set to go to there, and then at the last second I came here,” Newell says. “I think what it finally came down to is that they were basically even academically, but that it would be a better experience coming to Harvard.”

Again, Newell made a decision all his own. And looking back on his career at Harvard, the results have been unprecedented.

After excelling as a freshman, stroking the first freshman eight, Newell advanced to six-seat of the first varsity boat as a sophomore. In the 2008-09 season, he helped the first eight to an 8-1 finish in the regular season, a silver medal at EARC Sprints, and a bronze medal at the IRA National Championships.

Last year, Newell was in the first varsity boat again. This time the eight went 10-0 in dual racing action but again came up short of its goal, finishing second at Sprints and third at IRAs.

“Well, it’s tricky, because you can’t medal four times out of four races in three years and say you’re disappointed,” Newell explains. “That’s not fair to everyone else out there who didn’t medal. But at the same time, everyone was disappointed.”

Now the captain of the lightweight squad, Newell is drawing on his summer experience stroking the U.S. Under-23 lightweight men’s four. The senior’s boat, which included junior teammate Austin Meyer, took bronze at the 2010 World Rowing Under-23 Championships, further fueling the Crimson’s desire for gold this year.

“Racing over the summer, the difference was just that you take the dedication you put into it day to day up to a different level,” Newell says. “You learn how to increase your focus level, increase your game, increase your capacity for training. Those are all sorts of things that I’ve gotten better at over the past summer and that I want to bring to the team so that when we’re on the water, we’re capable of working harder and working smarter. And hopefully that will give us the edge we need.”

Newell is in the stroke seat again this weekend for the Head of the Charles as a member of the varsity eight for the third consecutive season. The team and Newell have high hopes for what they can achieve this weekend and this year. Before Newell graduates and potentially makes his next move onto the senior national team, he has a few goals yet to achieve—starting with a win this weekend.

“Will has always had a knack for rowing, and he’s built his mileage up considerably rowing in eights and small boats at Harvard,” Butt says. “I like to see the guys pursue the opportunities and just see how far they can go. And he’s done that, so I’m very happy with the way he’s made the best use of his opportunities here.”

—Staff writer Jessica L. Flakne can be reached at jflakne@fas.harvard.edu.