O.D. Vincent, our Senior Associate Athletic Director, former Husky golf coach and tour professional had a grin on his face all day. Would Phil or Tiger have been so gracious among serious high-handicappers?

The smile was there for good reason. The third edition of the Dave McLean Memorial Golf Tournament was a huge success. Beginners, hackers, student-athletes, old oars and a few ringers stormed Washington National on August 15 and had a great afternoon. It helped to have the Husky cheerleaders around to keep everyone's minds off slices and snap hooks.

For the record, the winning foursome included Pete Spear, former Cal rower, who seemed pleased, for once, to be surrounded by national champions. And in a new wrinkle, a young contingent of volunteers from the Samamish Rowing Club helped out as volunteers. More than one of them could be seen taking envious looks at their former club mate, U.S. U-23 team member and current varsity eight national champion, Hans Struzyna.

During the auction, Bob Ernst took the microphone and marched the group through a highly sought after list of donated items. Dean Boender outlasted spirited bidders and walked away with a top-of-the-line Xbox. (Isn't 70 a little old to be playing Grand Theft Auto?) Cakes and helmets and jerseys and wine and trips all hit the block and brought record prices. But the sale of the night was a white bladed oar signed by Luke McGee and his national champion freshman eight. It got so competitive that once Bill Pitlick had the winning bid, Coach Ernst turned to the second bidder

The tournament is directed by the McLean family in memory of their father and husband, Dave McLean '67, who died unexpectedly and far too young of sudden cardiac arrest.

Today, his son, tournament director Pete McLean, is an executive with Cardiac Science, a leading manufacturer of defibrillator equipment, the sort that might have saved Dave's life. The company is a major sponsor of the tournament and took the opportunity to donate two defibrillators to the University, one for the rowing program and another for the athletic department.

This year's tournament established a new baseline for success, returning $15,000 to Husky Crew. In the process, it has become far and away the biggest event contributor to the program. The money will be held in reserve and combined with next year's proceeds to underwrite an endowment in Dave McLean's name.

We thank our major sponsors, Cardiac Science, CBUK and Brotherton Cadillac, Buick, GMC for their support and we thank our corporate sponsors Athletic Supply, Compass Corporate Events, Eclipse Marketing Group, Heineken, El Gaucho, Washington National, and State Farm agent, Barry Glenn for their support.

The Dave McLean Memorial Golf Tournament is made possible through an unusual partnership between the McLean family and their tourney foundation and the Washington Rowing Stewards. Pete McLean approached us

with the idea four years ago but we had too many initiatives underway to participate. That first event, however, returned $5,000 to the program and that told us we had to join forces with the family. Last year's tourney returned $9,500, this third installment returned $15,000, and everyone involved is aiming to break through the $20,000 barrier next year.

As you see in the photos, this is a full family effort. Dave and Connie McLean's grandchildren (Pete and Heather's children), Zach and Skyler, caught the Husky spirit and presented their lemonade earnings of $100 to the coaches.

John Collins walked into Conibear shellhouse two years ago just as most of us have over the years, drawn by curiosity, the search for a new experience, and the lure of competition. When he graduated last June, the universal opinion among his teammates was that he left far more with the program than he took from it.

Many of you know that Michael Callahan grew up in a naval family and something about John's bearing that first week, and in his clothing and gear, suggested that John had a connection to the military. So he asked freshman coach, Luke McGee, if Collins was in the service. The word came back that he was, indeed, in the U.S. Navy and that he had been sent to the University of Washington to finish his degree.

Shortly after, Luke heard one of his student-athletes say to John: "Man, you look a lot older than we do. What are you, like, 30?" John's response was: "I hope so, I'm 29."

So from the get-go, the coaches knew they had someone special in the program, but just how special would be revealed quietly over his two school years. John proved himself to be dedicated, honest, tough beyond measure, a friend to all and an athletic, academic, and personal role model for his teammates. Although his experience with

college nine years earlier had been a bit rocky, this time around he was a standout student. He majored

in mathematics and economics, took a full load of difficult classes each quarter and made the Dean's list consistently. During his final quarter, coinciding with spring racing season, he earned a 3.9 GPA.

One story told elsewhere deserves to be repeated. John's wife Emily Collins was pregnant with her first child last winter and spring and, as luck would have it, about to deliver their child on Opening Day. So John parked his car by the Seattle Yacht Club, arranged telephone connections to the hospital, rowed his race, got dropped by his teammates at the yacht club, sprinted to his car and arrived at the hospital in time for the birth of his son, Henry Alexander Collins, a healthy 7 pound 5 ounce boy. That's Henry, of course, in his father's arms on the day of John's commissioning ceremony this summer. And flanking him in the photo are some of his teammates who attended the ceremony.

We salute you John Collins. We know you are serving your country well and we are proud to have had you among us. Don't forget Washington's white blades. Keep your email address current and come back to visit us as often as you can.

What a summer for Huskies! They were everywhere, proving the strength of the program and putting the world on notice that our success will continue. Here are some highlights:

Just home from the IRA, our national champion varsity eight threw out the first pitch at the Mariners game on June 20.

Adrienne Martelli was named Pocock first team All American and Kayleigh Mack second team All American by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association.

Isabelle Woodward was named to the Academic All-District Third Team by the College Sports Information Directors Association. Majoring in International Business Administration, Isabelle carries a 3.75 grade point average.

Superwoman, Megan Kalmoe, coming off a fifth place finish in the double sculls in the Beijing Olympics, just keeps flying. This summer she won gold in the 2009 World Cup and three hours later stepped into the quad and won silver. That nifty performance made her the year's first Husky to be named to the U.S. World Championship squad.

After coxing the men's varsity to a national championship this spring and graduating, Katelin Snyder joined Megan on the Women's Senior National Team as cox of the eight.

Several Huskies rowed at the U.S. Club National Championships in Oak Ridge, TN this summer. Ambrose Puttmann and Rob Munn, fresh off their undefeated season and IRA Championship in the freshman eight, continued their success in the pair. Ambrose and Rob won both the Intermediate pair and Senior pair events. On the women's side, junior to be Kerry Simmonds and senior to be Heather Young paired up to win the Senior pair, while sophomores to be Adriene deLeuw and Victoria Nenchev claimed the title in the Intermediate pair.

The 2009 U.S. World Championship team was announced in early August. Huskies who made the Senior U.S. National Team included Katelin Snyder, Giuseppe Lanzone, Brett Newlin and Megan Kalmoe. The Senior Canadian Team included Rob Gibson, Max Lang and Conlin McCabe. Racing in Poznan, Poland, Katelin won gold coxing the U.S. eight and Rob won silver in the men's eight.

We heard from Donald Mack this summer. He rowed his last race as a Husky at the 1947 IRA in Poughkeepsie. He reports that he is "pleased that rowing at Washington continues to flourish."

Washington varsity assistant coach, Wyatt Allen, has accepted an assistant coaching position at California. He proved his coaching chops this last season working with the outstanding Husky second varsity and leading them to a national championship in June.

On a sad note, we lost Roger Morris, the bow man of the 1936 Olympic gold medal winning eight. Roger was 94, the last of the famous Husky eight. His presence at Conibear will be missed but the visible proof of his great contribution hangs from the ceiling and fills the shellhouse with his spirit.

Rowing is a faceless sport and it works best when it remains so. When we launched this newsletter in February, 2005, we decided to honor that tradition by keeping bylines to a minimum. I'm violating the rule this month because the message is so important.

Strong words like "crisis" are overused in fund raising campaigns. Perhaps Malcolm Gladwell's "tipping point" fits our situation better. A year ago we were certain your support would move us this year to a point where our income would cover our expenses. But the market meltdown over the last year changed all that. Simply stated, we need to double the revenue from our annual fund raising efforts in each of the next three years in order to meet our financial obligations.

Husky Crew has a unique funding arrangement with the University. The athletic department has been generous and very supportive but you need to know that we alumni pay for all equipment, some travel, and all men's scholarship costs. Many student -athletes at most of our principal competitors easily qualify for generous university financial aid. Ours don't. Our travel budget is lower than our competition's but our travel costs are higher. Our coaches earn less than other major coaches and we carry one fewer coach than our principal competition. That's why our endowments and your annual support are so critical to our success.

You may remember we were at a tipping point back in 2005 when our traditional rivals were spending us out of the game. We faced the very real possibility of becoming a second tier program, but when we outlined the situation to you, you stepped up. In four short years we sit at the top of the intercollegiate rowing world and we are positioned to remain there. Make no mistake, without your investment in the program this success would not have occurred.

The program needs you again. Believe me, we dislike this constant call for contributions as much as you but I am comfortable in promising that the worst of it will come to an end when the markets improve and this new campaign is successfully concluded. Athletic Director Scott Woodward on the subject of non-revenue sports has been quoted as saying: "You eat what you kill." We agree strongly with that philosophy and we are in the hunt.

We want to keep our message focused and clear. For that reason, we eliminated our annual appeal and created a new, three year campaign which we have named The Husky poWer3 Challenge. Our challenge is to secure from you three-year, gap-closing pledges that will offset the draconian decline in our endowment revenues.

In June we put together teams of alumni and they began to call you to solicit pledges. I am thrilled to report that early contributors responded swiftly. We have cash and pledges in hand of about $200,000, a healthy start on our $1 million goal. But it is only a start. Now we need to hear from you.

We are going to keep track of our progress by means of two boat races. Both pit the decades against each other. In the first race, the decade that contributes the greatest dollar total wins. In the second race the decade with the greatest number of contributors wins. Follow the races in this newsletter, in mailings and online at www.huskycrew.org.

We have a unique program in a unique sport with an odd and impractical funding arrangement. But Bob, Michael, Luke, Nicole and the staff have shown that they can develop our own local and regional athletes and compete for athletes with other leading and richly endowed rowing schools. Your investment makes it happen.

Do you remember your Charles Dickens? One hundred and fifty years ago he opened A Tale of Two Cities with lines that resound today. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." What was true for 18th century Paris and London is true for our 21st century Huskies.

Competitively, we rock! The University of Washington Crew is the best collegiate rowing program in the world. Period. These are the best of times.

But in a year when we thought our financial challenges would be surmounted finally, we got blind-sided by the market meltdown. The excerpted companion piece, The Perfect Storm (see sidebar), details the impact of that event on us.

Our student-athletes have held up their end of the bargain; now it is our turn to perform, to prove that we, too, can be national champions. We need to double our revenue from all independent funding sources each year for the next three years just to stay even.

Is this doable? Come on, of course! Did you dog it when you raced Cal or Stanford or Wisconsin or Harvard? No. Did you slack off in the middle of a close race? Never. Huskies rise to the challenge. Do your part today. Write both a check and a pledge today.

Welcome to the Husky poWer3 Challenge. Please consider a three year pledge, and please consider doubling the annual amount you were expecting to give. Surprise the coaches with your commitment to their success and future. Consider a major gift.

Last spring we wrote that in ten years we would think of this financial crisis as nothing more than a blip in our long history. Please prove us correct by filling out the pledge form on the bottom of this page today and mailing it with your first payment to the address provided.

Excerpted from the June 2009 Husky Crew Newsletter

Eighteen months ago we knew we were on the right financial path. With world class athletes, coaches and supporters, we had raised our endowments from $2 million to $6.5 million, and we had raised Annual Appeal proceeds from an annual average of $35,000 to well over $150,000 a year. But then the storm hit.

We didn't see it coming. No one saw it coming. The market crash combined with significant tuition increases changed our reality. Call it a perfect storm that left major damage to our financial structure. When the storm hit, (we) lost enormous amounts of capital over a very brief period, (dropping) from $6.5 million to $4.1 million. After due consideration, the Regents decided to drop the annual endowment payout from approximately five percent to an amount slightly more than two and one half percent.

You can do the math. Five percent of $6.5 million is a great deal more than two and one half percent of $4.1 million. And (when you) add the cost of the tuition increases to the deficit, the shortfall grows dramatically. Stated as simply as possible, here is the point: We have commitments to our student-athletes and we must honor them; we must cover the shortfall and we will do so.

More than a decade ago, Dave Covey suggested to his friend Warren Zimmerman that he make his Tyee Club contribution to Husky Crew. It came to Dave that two goals might be accomplished with the gift. First, they would secure their season football seats; second they would help the rowing program by establishing a scholarship in the name of their late friend, Chuck Holtz. It didn't take long for Dave to recruit a number of Chuck's teammates, fraternity brothers and relatives to the cause, each pledging $125 a year. Between 20 and 25 men and women contributed over the life of the scholarship. Recipients through those years included Evan Stewart in 1996, Bob Cummins in 1997, Whit Hammond in 1998, Mike Chait in 1999, and Hans Hurn in 2000. In 2003 Sam Burns won the prize, and in 2004 Jake Pettit became the final award winner.

In 2005 we discussed converting the award to an endowed scholarship. Bob Ernst cooperated by holding the annually contributed dollars in an account to give us a running start on the required $50,000 minimum.

We launched a focused fund raising campaign in 2008, contacting all those who had contributed to the scholarship in the past. In a matter of two months a combination of contributions and pledges were secured for a total of $82,000.

Last spring we published a long list of contributors to Husky Crew but the names of the Holtz Endowment underwriters didn't make the list. We don't know why but we've taken steps to insure that it doesn't happen again. So for all of you who didn't see your names when you should have, here they are.

Megan Callahan, C. Kent Carlson, Dave Covey, Terril Efird, Laframboise Foundation, Jim MacFarlane, John Magnuson, Ted Nash, Mike O'Byrne, Dave & Carolyn Rice, Jon Runstad, Chuck Schluter, Craig Swanson, Chuck Turbak, John Wilcox, Warren Zimmerman.

Thanks to the contributors for moving the award to a new level and insuring that a Holtz scholarship will be granted on into the future.

He's a skilled oarsman and coach, a crack race organizer, a husband and father, an entrepreneur, and an invaluable presence at Conibear shellhouse. He speaks Spanish, Catalan, French and English fluently. Student-athletes and recent grads know him as an available and kindly guide, the coaches as a man who challenges orthodox thinking. All who know him agree on one thing: he spends most waking hours working on ways to make the Huskies go faster.

Carlos walked in the front door of Conibear in 2006 and introduced himself to Michael Callahan by saying: "I want to help." Surely, Michael had little idea what he was in for when he said, "okay." Carlos showed up every day and quickly became not just a volunteer fixture but an important contributor to the Huskies re-emergence as the dominant power in the sport. But who is he?

In 2004 the Catalan Rowing Federation sponsored the Junior World, non-Olympic boat World and Adaptive Rowing World Championships at Banyoles, Spain. Carlos organized this major event for the association.

Shortly after he moved to Philadelphia where he met his wife, Julie. They relocated to Bellingham where, with a Spanish partner, they launched a summer camp for Spanish youth interested in improving their English and experiencing life in the United States. When Julie began work on her Ph.D., the couple moved to Seattle. But who is he?

Carlos knows rowing and in Callahan's words he "has a passion for learning to do it better." Perhaps more important, he loves the sport and is prepared to talk, analyze, help or instruct endlessly in the pursuit of rhythm, balance and speed. Callahan points to Carlos education in a French school, his Catalan heritage and Spanish citizenship as a source for his descriptive ability. He said: "Carlos has a special way of communicating, soft and direct but intense like George Pocock, a manner that draws you into a conversation and holds your attention." And most important, he ignites a similar love for the sport in the hearts of those around him.

Talk to those who know him and they will tell you he has a huge heart. In the winter and spring of 2007, the Dinares family housed Husky and U.S. Olympian, Scott Gault, who said of the experience: "I've never known anything quite like it. Carlos has a passion for giving, for generosity, for bringing a person into a family and making him feel part of it."

Endlessly entrepreneurial, Carlos and Julie maintain their summer camp and Carlos now runs a rowing instruction school as well, Row Smarter, and a companion online program, Rowsmarter.com.

Two years ago he met a South African named Ursala Groblers who was about to paint a mural in their baby's bedroom. She mentioned she wanted to learn to row so Carlos traded lessons for the mural. Today, Ursala is posting times in the lightweight singles and pairs that are as fast as some of the heavyweight women and even some of the men. London, 2012? Stay tuned.

Callahan observed that he and Carlos think alike on rowing. Not long ago they gathered a group of used Row Perfect ergometers. Carlos repaired them and wired them to a computer. They are now able to graph the power curves of one or more athletes and to show graphically where and how to improve their stroke.

The tool, Michael says, rewards technique. There are other rewards to the equipment but we must remain silent on them for the moment. The important thing to know is that Carlos' original idea and doggedness led to teaching tools that work. Scott Gault calls it a "great leap forward in technology for elite rowers." Carlos is now the North American distributor for an improved computer-based output system.

Who is Carlos Dinares? He is a complete man, at home in his skin, passionate about his life, and generous to anyone in his sphere. When you think of Husky national championships, know that he owns a piece of them and, in return, we owe him our thanks and appreciation for all he has done.

Published by the Washington Rowing Stewards four times a year in October, January, March and June.
Editor: John Wilcox     Production Manager: Katie Gardner.
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