Catch, Drive, Finish, Recovery: My Conversation With Navy Rowing Hall of Famer Sean Coughlin

Episode Transcript
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Karl (00:15):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
In today's episode, I'll getyou caught up on some of the new
coaches who have been hired atthe Naval Academy in the last
month, and the Mids also havethree athletes competing in the
under-23 World RowingChampionships taking place as we

(00:37):
speak in Bulgaria.
Finally, we'll continue withour rowing theme, as I'll be
joined by one of the bestoarsmen from the class of 87.
All that, plus our question ofthe day, are just around the
corner, so stay with us.
Alright, it is great to haveyou here on Navy Sports Central.

(01:00):
Thanks for dropping in to hangout with us.
Before I get going, I wanted tomention that we are breaking
records left and right here inPhoenix when it comes to the
temperatures.
This is the 22nd straight daythat the high has been above 110
degrees, and I'm recordingthese final segments on Friday,
the 21st, so that basicallymeans we've been dealing with
this for the entire month ofJuly.
It's pretty crazy and, by theway, I don't want to hear any of

(01:23):
this nonsense that it's a dryheat, because trust me when I
tell you that once you get above110, it's just not very fun at
all.
In fact, any kind of breezethat kicks up when it's that hot
feels like you're sticking yourface into a blast furnace.
Now what I can tell you is thatI'm willing to suck it up for
another four to six weeks,because once the highs drop
below 105, things are much moretolerable because the evening

(01:44):
temperatures can get down intothe low 70s, and then it's
awesome weather until next July.
So yeah, I just have to startoff with that, because I think
one day it was actually about118 or 119.
And even the low temperaturesare only getting down into like
the high 90s.
I think the last one last nightwas like 97 degrees.
All right, that's enough aboutthe weather.

(02:06):
Let's go ahead and get into someof these coaching hires that
have taken place in the yardover the last month or so.
Let's start with baseball,where Chuck Ristano was named
the head coach a little over amonth ago, replacing Paul
Kostacopoulos.
He retired this past spring.
After leading the mids for thelast 17 years, Ristano spent the
last season at Florida State asair pitching coach, and before
that he held the same positionat Notre Dame for about 12 years

(02:26):
, and during that time, he ledthe Irish to three NCAA
tournaments and the CollegeWorld Series.
Coach Ristano is also one ofcollege baseball's top
recruiters.
He has found and developed 9conference award winners, 27
All-Americans and 51All-Conference selections.
41 of his student athletes wereselected in the Major League
Baseball Draft and 9 formerplayers reached the Major
Leagues.

(02:48):
Okay, now let's check in withwomen's lacrosse.
Head Coach Cindy Timchalannounced this past Thursday
that Gabby Capuzzi Solomon wouldbe rejoining the midshipman's
coaching staff.
Capuzzi Solomon was anassistant and an associate head
coach at Navy for six seasonsbetween 2015 and 2020, and she
returns to Annapolis afterspending the last three years at
Ohio State, which is where sheplayed her college lacrosse.

(03:09):
Now, as I look at this coachinghire or rehire, as the case is
here I think this might be asituation where Coach Timchal is
looking to put the band backtogether, to use that old quote
from the Blues Brothers.
During those six years CapuzziSolomon was on her staff, the
Mids won two Patriot Leaguetitles and advanced to the final
four of the NCAA tournament in2017.
Timchal stated that bringingher former associate back to

(03:30):
coach at Annapolis will helpelevate the program even further
as they look to break throughand knock off Loyola while
regaining their footing againsta pretty improved Army program.
So with all that talent, theteam has coming back this year.
The next season should be apretty exciting one for Navy
women's lacrosse, and I've gotone more assistant coach.
I wanted to touch on realquickly before we wrap things up
.
Navy men's head golf coach,Jimmy Stobs, announced I guess

(03:52):
it was a little over a week agothat Jimmy Criscione would be
joining the Mids coaching staff.
Criscione is a PGA class Aprofessional, and he has spent
the last two years as the headcoach of Wagner College up there
in Staten Island.
He transitioned to coachingafter playing his college golf
at Monmouth, but the thing thatI find most impressive about
Criscione is that he's built upsome pretty serious credentials

(04:14):
in a really short period of timeand when you think about it, he
was playing high school golfjust seven years ago.
That's right.
In 2016, he led his team to thethird of three consecutive
state championships and he wasnamed a first team all state
selection for both 2016 and 2017.
And then he also won theprestigious American High School
championship in St Andrews,Scotland, and that was as a

(04:36):
freshman.
So I think it's safe to saythat he's built up a pretty
impressive track record so far,and it's going to be pretty
interesting to see how thingsplay out next year as Criscione
starts to make his mark on theNavy Men's Golf program.
So that covers the coachinghires I wanted to talk about.
But before I close out thissegment, I did want to mention
that there are three Midscompeting on the world stage
this week as part of theunder-23 US National Rowing Team

(04:59):
.
Jackson Fuller, who graduatedthis past May with a class of 23
, and Mason Banks, from theClass of '25, have reached the
finals in the Men's LightweightPairs, and Lauren Day, from the
Class of '24, is part of thewomen's A crew that also
qualified for the finals.
The championships are beingheld in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
I'm not sure if the results ofeither final will be ready by

(05:21):
the time I release this podcast,but I will be sure to post them
on the Navy Sports Nation GroupFacebook page as soon as they
are available.
All right, that gets you all upto speed on things going on in
the yard this weekend and beyond.
Coming up next is our deep divesegment, music.

(05:49):
All right, welcome back.
And it is time for our deepdive segment.
And those of you who arefamiliar with either this
podcast or the Navy SportsNation blog know that I'm a huge
drawing fan.
Back at the beginning of June,the lightweight team finished
third at the IRAs and the womenreclaimed the Patriot League
title.
And, as I mentioned in theprevious segment, the Mids have
three athletes competing in theunder-23 World Rowing

(06:11):
Championships.
So my guest today was a highlyrecruited rower when he gained
admission to the Naval Academywith the class of 87.
In 1982, his prep school'soared four shell with coxswain
won the New EnglandInterscholastic Rowing
Association SchoolboyChampionships at Lake
Quinn-Sigamon, massachusetts.
He was also invited to theJunior National Selection Camp
in 1983, but he couldn't attendbecause of Plebe Summer.

(06:34):
During his first year he wasnamed captain of the Plebe
Rowing Team and led them to athird place finish at the IRAs.
And he reached the podium againwith another third place finish
the following year as a memberof the first Varsity VIII.
And finally he was named teamcaptain for the varsity his
senior season, where theyfinished fourth in a highly
competitive IRA championship.
Following graduation, hecompeted in the World University

(06:55):
Games and was invited to tryout for the 1988 Olympic team.
So I am very happy to have SeanCoughlin, from the class of 87,
join me today.
All right Se an, thanks forbeing here with me on Navy
Sports Central.
I appreciate you taking thetime.
You're more than welcome, allright?
So there are so many thingsthat I want to cover with you
today and I think the best thingto do is just jump right in.
So let's go ahead and get rightto them.

(07:16):
You named your memoir the Cultof Pain, and that title
certainly got my attention and,as book titles go, it was an
interesting choice, especiallywhen you consider how many
inspirational stories come fromthe sport of rowing.
You've got Navy's Great Eight,which dominated the sport from
1952 to 1954, including anOlympic gold medal.

Sean (07:39):
Right.

Karl (07:40):
And also the boys in the boat from the University of
Washington back from 1936.
They won the gold medal inBerlin that year and I haven't
met a single rowing fan yet whohasn't read that book.
So how did you settle on thattitle and how do you think it
fits?

Sean (07:56):
I like the.
You know the Cult of Pain.
I just think it's a pretty gooddescription of what goes on in
rowing and because it is verypainful when you do it.
Well, you can.
You know, race is a verypainful prospect and the great
Harvard coach, harry Parker,hated that title.
So I was, like you know, alittle bit hesitant to use it.
But one of my classmates on thePLEEB team at Navy said that he

(08:19):
loved the title and he thoughtthat was so accurate Because
when he first, like, got intothe sport and he saw me like
doing Ergon the early days onthe team and I threw up the end
of it, he said what have Igotten myself into?
And he said the Cult of Paincaptured that exactly.
So I just, you know, I thoughtthat was great, yeah, yeah, I
can definitely see that.

Karl (08:40):
And one of the and I'll ask you this and we'll get into
this a little bit later on, butI want to get your.
I want you to describe thefeeling physically that you had
the second.
You crossed the finish line inany race, whether it's a 2000
meter race or 6000 meter race.
Finish line, cross, race over.
What do you feel physically?

Sean (09:00):
Different races take different effort.
You know, some races you win bya lot, some races you don't win
, but I'm the races that arereally close and you're really
going, you know.
You know, like I can't say theword I'm thinking of because
it's kind of dirty when you goand balls the wall.
You know, like it, when you'regoing, that it's just utter

(09:24):
exhaustion.
You know, when you expendeverything, you're just you know
usually you're actually yourvision goes down or a small
point you lose sight.
You can actually dry, heave.
You know, like you, just you gothrough some.
It's like running really reallyhard and but because your whole
body involved it even a littlebit, you know I think more

(09:44):
rigorous, but you know so likeif you're really pushing that
hard, then you know you're doinga good job.
I once thought that unless youthrow up the end of a race,
you're not rolling hard.
So like you know.
So if you really have thatphysical reaction, you know that
you put out as much as youcould.

Karl (10:01):
Okay, right.
So next question some athletesbecame elite Roars at the
Academy and they were introducedto the sport at a pretty early
age.
I had a chance to chat with DanLyons from the class of 81 a
couple years ago and he talkedabout the time that he was first
put in a, in a shell as acoxswain by his dad, and I

(10:22):
forget how old he was then.
I think he said he was abouteight or nine years old and he
got others who didn't pick it upuntil they got to anapolis.
And Again, in conversations I'vehad with both Coach Friedrich
and Coach Bagnall, who's a coachof the lightweight team, they
talked about several rowers whonever picked up an ore until
they got there and they wereable to really become Elite

(10:43):
Roars.
Now you fall somewhere in themiddle, because you actually did
row in high school, yes, andthen you went on to have a
really great career.
So talk to me a little bitabout how that happened.
How'd you become exposed torowing and what was it that
appealed to you compared to theother sports that you played?

Sean (10:57):
Well, I went.
I went to a school calledBelmont Health School in Boston.
It's in Belmont, right outsideof Boston, and the coach there,
kim Bassett, like I kind of tookme under his wing because I was
a, you know, I was a big-sizeyoung man, I didn't do any drugs
, I didn't drink anything, butthat's the kind of person he
liked and he really like kind ofGuided me along and I took the

(11:19):
sport.
My first year was in a tenthgrade and I did relatively okay,
but I really wanted to succeedat the sport now it's terrible
at baseball, hockey, football,basketball.
I just didn't succeed at all inthose sports.
And then I found crew in mysophomore year won't know, my
junior.
I was actually lucky enough tobe in a boat that was like

(11:40):
really really good and I justfit into that boat and I didn't
make any waves.
You know, we were actually theNortheast schoolboy champions
and then the Canadian schoolboychampions, so I was probably the
top recruit of my year.
And then coach Kenny Dreyfus Iowe him more than anything.
He wouldn't quit because mysenior year in high school I

(12:01):
always want to go to the NavalAcademy.
But then I got called feet andI was thinking, well, maybe it's
not the best place I should goto because it just limits my
options, which wasn't true atall.
But I was just thinking allsorts of crazy things as a
senior.
Coach Dreyfus like kept on meand he like never shut the door
and he just kept encouraging me.
It's why I ended up at Navy andthat's, like you know, I think,

(12:22):
the best school in the world andI, you know, I'm a teacher.
So I think that every school isa great school if you just you
get out of it.
We put into it.
But for me, navy was the bestplace ever and I met my wife
there and I really flourished asa rower there.
So like, um, I think me andcoach Dreyfus both was like a
gave to each other.
I did a good job for him as arower and he was Unbelievable as

(12:46):
a coach and also getting methere.
So like I owe him so much.
Both a coach Clodier and coachDreyfus were Instrumental in my
development as a human being andas a rower.

Karl (12:57):
All right, all right, well said now.
It was interesting to hear youtalk about all this because in
your book you speak to the factthat and and though the best way
I can characterize it isprobably saying that you have
kind of a love-hate relationshipwith rowing while you were
doing it, because on a couple ofoccasions you stated you know,
you know, I'm going into thisrace knowing that it was gonna
be my last one, I wasn't gonnado it anymore, and then the race

(13:18):
after that.
There you were.
So can you walk me through?
Can you walk me through thatmindset a little bit?

Sean (13:24):
I think that you know that's just, I think, cuz you
feel you do feel so much pain inthe course of a race and you're
not sure if you can like liveup to that, that like
requirement.
So like every race is aquestion like, am I gonna be
able to like put as much as Ineed to into this race, or am I
gonna pull back?
And then you're always afraidof catching a crab.
You know, like I was definitelyafraid of my whole life of just

(13:46):
like catching a crab andstopping the boat dead in the
water.
You lose in the race.
So, like a, you know, I thinkit's I just allowed so much
pressure and I don't know ifthat was like a thing to like
help me do better because I putso much pressure myself.
I like it was actually amotivating factor, but that
might not be the case.
But I definitely should have.

(14:07):
Um, you know, looking back, Ithink I just let it become too
big and then I should have justdone the best I could at every
point and then let it go.
You know, looking back on mywhole Olympic career, everything
, well, I think I would havebeen much happier if I just put
everything into it and left iton the water, not agonize so
much about not being good enough, because I was really always

(14:27):
worried that I was not goodenough.

Karl (14:30):
Right, right, and that's something I'd like to get into a
little bit later, but before wego on, you mentioned a term
called catching a crab and Forthe listeners out there, I just
want to give you guys somecontext.
Sean and I know each otherbecause I was his squad leader
during second set plea detail inthe summer of 1983 Sean being
class of 87, obviously and hewas the first one to first

(14:51):
explain to me what catching acrab was, and I remember that
from a distinctly remember thatfrom a Conversation we had at
the squad table one day duringdinner.
So I was wondering if you couldkind of describe what that is
and and what it looks likephysically when, when you're
rowing when you're rowing, youknow you're everybody's rowing
in order and trying to light,not upset the boat.

Sean (15:13):
When you catch crab, your ore gets stuck in the water.
You know, for whatever reasonyou can't get it out.
So it dragged the whole boat toit like a dead stop and like it
goes sideways and it makes abig mess.
So that's what catching a crabis it's just getting stuck in
the water and you got to justwrestle it out of the water.
Now, when I told my wife thefirst time, she thought like

(15:33):
didn't he see a crab before?
She thought the roar hadreached over the side of the
boat and picked out a crab inthe boat.
But no, it's like when the oregets stuck in the water.

Karl (15:42):
So that's catching a crab, wow and they can be pretty
violent too.
I mean, I've seen some video ofrowers getting taken out of the
shell by the ore coming backand hitting them.

Sean (15:52):
If you go with it you can sometimes let the take a stroke
and then recover.
You know you just could be veryeasy, but if you fight it it
can launch you out of the boat.

Karl (16:01):
Wow, now I did want to talk a little bit more about
your decision to attend theAcademy, and you mentioned in
your book that you were actuallyon the fence because you were
considering another school.
Which one was that?

Sean (16:14):
U Penn University of Pennsylvania for rowing.

Karl (16:16):
Yeah.

Sean (16:17):
Well, a lot of my friends from the Bellman Hill went to U
Penn and I would join them andthey had a really successful
Wrong program during my times incollege.
But so I was like kind of likethinking I would go to U Penn,
but but Coast Rifus didn't giveup and he just kept pushing,
push and push.
And in my father when I wasabout five years old I said, dad
was the best school in theworld.

(16:38):
And he said the US NavalAcademy.
And I had always wanted to gothere from that point on.
But, like I said, my senioryear I got cold feet and then
for some reason I didn't want togo there.
And when I got in, you know,courtesy of coach Rifus, and you
know that's why almost of thistoo, my father said, sean,
you're going to Navy.
And he just like laid the lawdown.
And I was all Resentful atfirst but I'm so happy he made

(17:02):
me do that because I would havejust, you know, pissed away a
wonderful opportunity if Ihadn't gotten to Navy.
Because, again, I just I justlove Navy and everything to
stand for.

Karl (17:12):
Now, when you were rowing, specifically in high school,
were you mostly in the foursshell or the eights or both?

Sean (17:21):
In high school we only had fours.
Okay the eight.
In college I started rowingeights, but in high school it
was just.
My school was fours.
Okay like and over or extrarose.
Eights by Belman Hill withgrottin and metal sex in St
Mark's.
We were fours.

Karl (17:36):
Okay now, how is rowing in the fours compared to rowing in
the eights?
The same and, and how's itdifferent?

Sean (17:44):
well, the sweep rowing is like the what you do in the
fours, in the eights and thenyou can do that in the pair.
But I have so many regretsbecause when I was trying off
the Olympic team, there's onlylike one seat that I possibly
could get in the in the on thesweep team, and my chances of
doing that were very slim.
So what I should have done issculled.
That's when you have two oarsMm-hmm.

(18:05):
If I had sculled I would havehad a chance to get one of seven
seats, but I was afraid to takea chance and try something new
and I'll always regret that tothe day I die.
If I had sculled and then Icould maybe wrote with you know,
have you heard of Greg Montesi?

Karl (18:21):
Yeah, I've heard the name.

Sean (18:21):
He's a great rower and he was a scholar.
He was also an Olympic athlete,you know from Navy.
But he was poking around aroundthe time I was rowing and I
think I would have ended up withhim and I think we would have
done very well.

Karl (18:35):
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so it sounds like there'sa big difference between
sweeping and sculling.
Huge, yeah, but not so muchwhen you're talking about
sweeping in our four shellversus sweeping in a eight shell
.

Sean (18:45):
No, you know, okay, sweeping on the small board,
like in this in the pair, yougot to be like a little more
attuned to what's going on inthe boat.
No little better of a rower,but there's very little
difference between four, eightand two.
Okay yeah, I was a small guy,so I would have just my.
My best chance was like for thebow or the smaller boats.

Karl (19:08):
The one thing I've always been curious about.
I remember the one of the firsttimes I saw the fours race,
because you know they have fourswith coxson and fours without.
And Even when you, when I'mwatching the fours with race the
first time I saw one, I'm likelooking okay, well, where's,
where's the coxon?
I see four dudes up there forwomen, but I don't see.
I don't see the coxon, andactually had to ask my friend

(19:30):
Tom Callahan From my class.
I said where, where is thecoxon on these things?
And he goes if you look realclose, you'll see them.
You're, she'll see their headin the, in the, in the front.
So how, how does that?

Sean (19:43):
work.
In the old days we used to rollthe coxon, used to ride in the
stern.
Mm-hmm on a little seat andsteer the boat with his rudder.
And now that he rides in the inthe bow he lies down and his
head pokes up above the bow, youknow, just above the deck, into
a tiny little compartment, butagain, used still the use of the

(20:03):
rudder to steer.
That's why it's different now.
When I first started rowing itwas all the guy that he set in
the stern, but that's like okay,days.
They don't do it Now and nowit's all like lying down in the
bow Right, right, okay, cool,all right.

Karl (20:18):
Now I want to talk specifically about the stroke
seat.
Okay, compared to the otherseats in an H shelf, when
somebody rose from the strokeseat, what specific skill sets
do they have to have and howappreciably different are they
from anybody else rowing inseats one through seven?

Sean (20:33):
I think a good stroke is a can keep a great pace and I
know it can feel his boat likewhen the time to push, when the
time to pull back.
And I was not a good stroke, Iwas actually a horrendous stroke
and you know I rode stroke mysenior year.
I wish I had not done thatbecause the best stroke in our
team was a guy named MikeGaffney and he he won the boat

(20:54):
races stroke for Oxford when heis a road scholar and he was
just a great stroke and we hadone of our best races our Junior
year, our second-class year,when he was stroking.
I was seven.
It was against Harvard and Pennand Penn beat us handily.
What mean Harvard and our boat?
Or neck and neck and it's thelast like 10 strokes.

(21:16):
We like I think we beat thembut they call it a tie.
But that was one of the bestlike finishes I've ever involved
with.
We definitely came in secondbut again, mike was stroking and
I credit him with all that andit was just he's able to keep
the pace and he just feels theboat and knows what it's called
for, it every sip of the way andyou know it's just a lot of
trust that goes into the intothe stroke.

(21:38):
I don't regret.
I had a few hours of powerwhere our you know, the Roars
trusted me a lot because I wastheir captain and stuff.
So there was some great hoursof power, like the Leading bow
length went way ahead of us andthen by the end of the race We'd
caught up and that was aglorious race.
That was with Bob pescatore, my, he was my seven man and we

(21:59):
just had, you know that was aone full time.
But you know I don't think Iwould have kept myself in the
stroke seat for the seasonbecause Mike was definitely a
better stroke.
You know I regret that.
Okay, All right you know my highschool coach, kim Bassett.
He he tried me in the strokeseat and he quickly took me out.
I don't know what he saw, buthe was like a brilliant man and

(22:21):
he knows what.
He's no wrong for so long.
But I just wish I hadn't stroke.
I think Clothe was just beingnice and let me take a chance
and let me do that, but I don'tthink it would have been better
in the long run.
I wish Mike had done it.

Karl (22:36):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, all right, so Freshmanyear, you're selected as a team
captain.
Yes, and you want.
You guys went on to have apretty strong year.
What was it about that teamthat stood out to you in
particular?

Sean (22:48):
We just kept trying, you know.
You know it was really specialbecause Princeton, we, we had a
door the way race with Princetonand we beat him and I was going
bananas, I was splashing waterand everything, but the Ernie
Harper, my, the man, who werejust ahead of me.
He yelled at me.
He said what are you doingsplashing?
Like?
They had no concept of what wejust done, because Princeton was

(23:10):
a hugely recruited boat.
I raised most of the guys inthe boat in high school and I
just knew they were like packedwith rowers and this Navy boat
with like few recruited people,just like a whole bunch of guys,
just like doing better thanthey thought they could.
You know, like had beatPrinceton.
So that you know that.
Just that's why I love Navy,because they just had no idea of

(23:31):
like the quality they were in a.
You know, I was just astoundedme and coach drivers were like
in seventh heaven and justlosing our minds with like we'd
be Princeton in, but nobody elseknew that.
What an accomplishment that was.

Karl (23:45):
No, that's funny.
All right, I'm gonna read aquote from your book and then
I'm gonna ask you to give us alittle bit more insight, given
how things played out.
Because when I think about howthings progress for you in terms
of the international experienceyou had your tail end your last
couple years at the Academy andthen even post anapolis I was

(24:07):
actually a little bit surprisedthat you felt this way.
So I'm gonna go ahead and readthe quote now and then I'm gonna
ask you to comment on it.
Okay, during plea beer, crossingthe campus at night and
listening to the sounds ofMother B, I remember thinking
that I would probably do well atNavy as a plea rower.
But as time went on, I wouldalso probably have to resign
myself to rowing in lower boats.
The others would catch up andmy head started.

(24:29):
Rowing would no longer be asdecisive.
I resolved to do as well as Icould for as long as I could.
Now, sean, when I think aboutelite athletes, I think a lot of
them at some point in time forlack of a better phrase might be
plagued by self-doubt.
I would ask why did you feelthis way, knowing that as time

(24:52):
went on, you continued to matureand grow as a rower, and you
actually had some reallywonderful opportunities that
presented themselves later.

Sean (24:59):
I think I was trying to keep myself motivated and not to
let my head get too big.
I wish I had had that mindsetwhen I was trying to offer the
Olympic team, because it waslike when I did try for the
Olympic team I thought I was inmuch better place than I
actually was.
I thought I was much closer tothe bout of the eight than I was
.
If I had known that everythingyou get in life you got to steal

(25:23):
.
If I had gone out with the samemindset as I did as a plea,
that I got to bust my ass foreven getting on this team, if I
had said I'm going to doanything I can just to have some
hope of making this, if I hadsculled, that would give me much
more of a chance to have anyhope at all of making it.
But because I thought when Iwas older I thought I was much

(25:46):
closer to the bout of the eightthan it was actually the case.
So I think what I said there asa plea, I think that was just a
healthy way to keep my mind incheck and to motivate myself to
do well Okay.
So I wouldn't say that was asmuch self-doubt, it was just a
way of me to keep myself honestand keep striving and don't like

(26:07):
the rest of my laurels, becauseKyo Schreifers did say one of
my strengths as a team captainwas how, like, we were all on
the same level.
I didn't act superior, and Iknow he had a trouble with
athletes in the past who hadbeen recruited who did act a
little superior and I didn'twant to do that at all, like I
think you read in my book whereI said like there were people in

(26:29):
our plea class like JD Fulp andpeople like that that prior
listed, that like really broughtthe other plebes along with
them and made them better.
I wanted to do that for my Navyrowers make them better, but
like sort of don't put it on anyheirs.
So I think that was just a wayof motivating myself to keep
humble.

Karl (26:47):
Yeah, right, right, okay.
So what I wanted to do also wastalk a little bit about give us
a little bit of a snapshot.
You already kind of talkedabout your freshman year where
you guys beat the Princeton boat, which was pretty much a
highlight of that particularseason.

Sean (27:04):
No doubt Yep.

Karl (27:05):
I was wondering if you could talk about a similar
instance in both your sophomoreand junior year, that either A
was a huge highlight or, b, ithelped you become a better
captain when you got to yoursenior year.

Sean (27:18):
Well, I was kind of like a quasi captain my junior year
because the class ahead of us,86, didn't have many rowers on
the team and the captain, he wasa good man, jim Coe, but he
wasn't like a, wasn't a forcelike on the rowing team.
He was a really great leaderand a great man, but I think
like people looked more towardsme for leadership.

(27:41):
So that was kind of aninteresting and odd situation
because 86 was, like you know,just like kind of a holding
pattern.
But, and again, the highlightfor 86 was the you know when in
Harvard and in the Irish boat,like tied at the Adams Cup.
The highlight in 85 was like ayear that we were really really

(28:02):
great that year, that we couldhave gone, like, I think, really
far, but a whole bunch ofthings conspired against us.
But the highlight for 85 wasbeating Harvard again, winning
the Adams Cup.
That was huge.
And then then kind of thingstear it off from that and then
we also get the third, you know,a bronze medal at the IRAs,

(28:23):
which is great.
And then my senior year wasbeating Harvard again, and again
I thought that that put us in amuch better place than we
actually were.
So again.
I just wish I had had anotherstroke.
Mike Gaffney and I had rodeseven behind him, or three or
one.
And so really, the Adams Cupsbeating Harvard both years third

(28:46):
class year and first class yearit was actually maybe the
highlight of my life.
And Andy Sardis, he's the greatHarvard rower.
He was like in the boat that wedefeated and that was just a
huge thing.
We're actually on the cover ofthe Boston Globe when we did
that, because I was such a bigupset that I went to the Harvard
Boathouse and because you knowthat's right down the road and

(29:07):
there's no mention of us beatingthem in 85.
And there is a lot of stuff on85 walls being the greatest boat
ever at Harvard, but there'snothing mentioned that.
You know this scrappy Navy brodhit, beat them in the Adams Cup
.
So like I know that drove HarryParker crazy.
I remember I saw him on thegrass outside of steerage just
staring up at the sky and hesaid like he courted in the

(29:30):
Boston Globe.
He said three times in my lifehave I seen an inferior crew
defeat a superior crew.
That was one of those times.
So he really was so enraged thatwe did this prize boys.
But you know, we like likeAdmiral Patrick Piercy just he
and he was a bad ass.
Patrick was a tiny guy but hewas like a one 20 years on watch
.
He was in his full just blues.

(29:52):
And one of my friends I'm likeJuanbo was wearing his you know,
who was out of uniform, and hetook off running and Patrick
chased him down halfway acrosscampus.
But I said you never challengedPatrick, but it was.
You know, it was kind of peoplelike Patrick who were in the 85
boat it brought it to Harvard,and Ben Wright, who's another
one I think he know.
Ben, okay, oh, yeah.

(30:13):
He was the class below you.

Karl (30:15):
But you know it was just like that.

Sean (30:16):
That's the kind of spirit in Eric Shea and John Walters.
You know he was our stroke, so,like you know, it's just really
powerful team.

Karl (30:25):
All right.
All right, there is anotherrowing, I guess concept I wanted
to ask you about, and that isand this is something that I
never even knew about until DanLyons informed me of it.
Now I will say that a couple ofyears ago, when I was writing
about the Kings Cup and and see,I started that blog in 2020 and

(30:47):
the King, the Kings Cup ithappened the summer before, in
July of 2019.
And it was actually ScottGordon and Tom Callahan that
told me about it, and the reasonI wanted to write about it was
because the pandemic had justhit, so there was no spring
sports going on, so there'snothing really to write about at
all.
That was current and I thoughtit would be a good opportunity

(31:08):
to do some like look back pieces, right, that's what I tend to
call them.
And they talked to me about theyou know, the rowing team, and
how they competed at the, theKings Cup, at the Henley Royal
Regatta, and I said, oh cool.
So I did the, I did the piece,and I was just kind of observing
that.
You know, towards the end ofthe article, I was kind of
talking about the fact thatyou've got a group of athletes

(31:29):
here who are really kind ofdifferent from everybody else.
Because you look at abasketball team and, yes, it's
fun to watch a basketball teamplay together, but they all have
different jobs, right?
Same thing for football, samething for baseball, but in
rowing everybody has got thesame job.
Everybody with an oar in theirhand has got the same job, right
?
Yes, so I just thought it wasreally kind of a unique

(31:51):
experience because, okay,they've really got to be dialed
in.
They're doing the same thingover and over again, just
putting an oar in the water andpulling it through to make the
shell go faster.
And I just had to believe thatthat when you get to the point
when, when you get really,really good at it, it must
really bring you closer togetheras as a team.
And I heard from Dan Lyonsafter that.

(32:13):
He happened to read the articleand he described to me a word
associated with rowing that Iheard for the first time then,
and that was the whole conceptof swing.
So, first of all, I waswondering if you could explain
in your words what swing meansto rowers and then, secondly, if
you can think of a time whereyou ever achieved it as a, as a
group rowing, whether it was inpractice or in an actual race.

Sean (32:37):
I think swing is like I was coaching for Andover Crew a
while and also I think I was avery good seven man.
And the thing is, I think,coach Bassett and Grant Inderley
, you just try to copy the manahead of you as best you can,
just mimic his every movement.
And you know when you do, whenthey'll have four people or
eight people on the boat doingthat, then you will get swing

(32:58):
and that's what that is.
You know just everything goingtogether and you just like you
go beyond where you think youcan go.
It's just like every everymovement is like complement to
every other movement.
But I do think rowers become alittle too mystical and, you
know, make a little too much ofswing, you know like you only
swing when you win, but when youso like that you know, when you

(33:21):
win everything is good.
You can be as tired and sick,and you know winning has a way
of like we're doing very quicklyand losing is the toughest
thing Because you know, thenthere's no swing, it's just
misery.
And that's why the HarvardWraiths, where we were behind,
like you know, caught up and, Ithink, beat them.
But you know, in my secondclass year, behind stroke Matt

(33:43):
Gaffney was such a big race inmy memory because we didn't have
a swing and then all of asudden we had it and they just
both took off and it was just so.
That's the time I can think ofwhere I really fell swing.
The other time I felt like astrange situation was in my
third class year in the IRAs,the finals.

(34:06):
For like the first, like 250meters of the race, it was like
time had slowed down and I thinkthat's because your heart and
body were moving so quickly.
The time were literally aroundyou just slowed down.
I remember thinking I'mdefinitely going to catch crab
here because it's taken me somuch time to go up the slide.
It was just so.

(34:26):
And then within a few strokestime resumed its normal course,
but for a moment there it wasjust like it was just really
eerie, and I think that was.
I never experienced that again.
It was just like time, slowingdown, just like being.
I think a guy like MichaelJordan or Tom Brady can do that
all the time where they justslow my students, like I asked

(34:47):
them, I said what do you think aman like Tom Brady like, how is
he so good?
And they all thought togetherthat he could just slow down
time where he, like we just seethings happen around him in slow
motion, go to the right personand I think, like great athletes
like Michael Jordan, you knowTom Brady, you know LeBron James
, they have that ability and Iknow you know rowing is such a

(35:11):
like a goofy sport compared to,like basketball is amazing,
soccer, lionel Messi, you know,because there's so many people
who competed it.
Rowing is such a small pool ofathletes.
I've heard one athlete tell mewhere the Michael Jordan's are
rowing.
There's no, michael Jordan'sare growing, michael Jordan is
being large.
Rowing is a small, goofy sportand it's just like.

(35:32):
You know, people who do it arelucky to do it, but it's not
like a soccer.

Karl (35:37):
Okay, all right, I tell you what this looks like.
A pretty good place to take abreak, but don't go anywhere,
because when we come back wewill continue our conversation
with former Navy rower SeanCoglan.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral, carl Darden here with

(36:05):
you, and I'm joined today bySean Coglan, from the class of
87, who is one of Navy's finestoarsmen during his time at
Annapolis.
So, sean, you'd mentioned oneof your classmates, mike Gaffney
, as someone who was ideal,occupying the stroke seat.
Now, can you give us a littleinsight into what goes into
selecting the other members ofthe crew?

Sean (36:25):
Well, you know, Coach Clother used to have us do
pyrrogata's every Friday and we,the seniors, the first classmen
, always picked the boats.
In my senior year I never had aboat lose a pyrrogata, because
I knew every athlete and whatthey would bring to the boat and
I could, like I may just met,meshed them up very well.
And I think you know, I know wenever lost a race in the fall

(36:48):
season of 86.
So I think, like you just gotto know your athletes and what
each person brings to the boat,because they might be strong in
one area and a little not asstrong in another area, but you
know, the sum of the parts likemakes it go as fast as possible.
And this goes into my teachingand everything.
All my classrooms were reallytight and all the students were

(37:08):
really like hug each other, likebrothers, and I do teach like a
Marine, like everybody goesforward together and nobody's
left behind.
And that's why I brought thesame skills from crew into my
classroom and I think so I havesuch fond memories of every
single person I rode withbecause I kind of knew their
strengths and weaknesses.

(37:28):
When you're working in suchclose proximity to other, you
can hide weaknesses and build upstrengths, and I think I
learned that at Navy.
That's what you do as a leader,and that's why the Marine Corps
was a perfect match for me.

Karl (37:43):
Okay, all right, good, good During your time while you
were at Annapolis.
Just give me the name of one,maybe two rowers that really
stood out to you and why thatwas.

Sean (37:55):
Well, john Walters, I'm not sure if you've had him on
yet, but he's one of the greatrowers of Navy at of all time.
He was on the 88 Olympic, hewas in the four width and he
tried out.
I think you know he graduatedin 1985.
And then he tried out for theOlympic team for the next two
and a half years and he made the, he made the team and he rode

(38:18):
in.
Seoul in the four width.
So he's one of the Navy greats.
And then Patrick Parise, who henever went on to anything
further in line but he was likehe won so many IRA medals and he
won somebody like he was on the84 crew, the champion crew, and
then he was a huge contributorin 85.
And Ben Wright, bruce Thompson,eric Shea, my classmate with

(38:41):
Mike Gaffney.
You know, all these people arejust wonderful people and
wonderful rowers.
So you know, I could never likesay that this person is better
than that person because they'rejust like all great
contributors to the sport.

Karl (38:54):
Right, right, and you also mentioned another guy in your
book named Dan Sainer.

Sean (39:00):
What can you tell us about him?
Dan Sainer was a, was a, was a.
He became an FBI agent and hewas intimately involved in the
war on terror.
And when he went to Navy he hadnever picked up in the order's
life and he took up the sport ofrowing at Navy and he was a
member of the 1980 crew, theEllipa crew that you know didn't

(39:21):
go to Moscow because theboycott, but he was a member of
that crew and he was just one ofthe great Navy rowers and he
went on to do like a importantservice for the FBI.
So like I just think he's agood representative of Navy,
what it all stands for.

Karl (39:37):
Right right.

Sean (39:39):
And Carl, I do want to say that you know, with all my
rowing, post-rowing from Navy, Iwas very fortunate to be able
to do that.
But if that had impacted, youknow, I was, I was involved in
the Gulf War and that was thedefining moment of my life, I
think even more than my headinjury.
you know, all my people camehome and I did the mission that
Navy trained me for.
So if I missed the Gulf Warbecause my rowing, I never would

(40:02):
have forgiven myself.
So like it all worked out, youknow that I was able to like try
out for the Ellipa team andthen make it to the Gulf War.
But if I had not made itbecause the Ellipa team, I would
have felt like that was a bigfailure.
I just don't understand.

Karl (40:17):
And I think that, knowing Marines the way I do and the the
opportunities I had to workwith them, I don't know that
that would have ever been anissue.
Because I think, if you know,let's say you're preparing for
the Olympics and then all of asudden, you know, desert Storm
jumps off two years earlier Idon't doubt for one second that
anybody in your position wouldhave said look, this is a great

(40:39):
opportunity, but my job iselsewhere.
So I, you know, I just thinkthat that's the way things would
have played out.

Sean (40:47):
I think you're right in the money.
I think you're 100% right, yeah.

Karl (40:51):
Yeah, all right.
So let's talk a little bitabout that transition from your
graduation from Annapolis andthen you're competing
internationally.
One thing when I was readingyour book was yes, there was
these opportunities to.
I guess there's a certainprocess that it was involved in

(41:13):
getting to a point where youcould compete for the national
team.
So it sounded like you werelike rolling for specific clubs
in the in the Pennsylvania area,maybe New Jersey area.
Can you take us through thatexperience?

Sean (41:25):
Well, I was on the World Revision Games team.
I went to a camp for that andme and Mike Gaffney were on the
same boat and now coach Clodierwas our coach.
You know, I kind of blame.
I don't think that boat wasn'tthat fast, we didn't have a lot
of success and I blame that onme because I was not, you know,
trying to follow the guy aheadof me 100%.
I had an idea in my head ofwhat a perfect stroke was.

(41:48):
Now it's trying to get that.
So, like, right, there is thatyou have the wrong mindset, so I
blame our.
You know, we still did okay.
We came in six in the finals ofthe World Revision Games.
But I think we would have donebetter if my head was more in
the boat.
I was not in the boat, so likeI blame that on me.
And then after that, after Icame home from that, the 87

(42:10):
Copenhagen Gold, the eight.
I was disappointed, I wasn't inthat and they actually won the
gold medal.
And when they won that I shouldhave known that there was no
chance of making the eightanymore and instead I was.
I had a foolish thought that Icould still do it and that's why
my Olympic quest just wentnowhere Because at that point I
should have switched to scullingand tried to go that way or

(42:33):
just rode a pen.
I see, with Dan Lyons that wasa great club.
I don't know why I didn't dothat but I made.
The biggest mistake of my lifewas because I wrote for Vesper
and that was just the wrongplace to be, just the wrong
personalities, wrong place to be.
And so my Olympic quest wasdoomed.
And I didn't know it at thetime.
I wanted to be in a good boatfor the head races but so like,

(42:56):
again, my goals were like offand I was looking at the wrong
thing.
I should have been looking andmaking the Olympic team racing
in the Chadd Charles in the headof the school.
So again I just, and then Ibriefly rode with a guy from
Garmin Hill in the double, but Igave that up when I didn't make
the improvements I wanted to asfast as I wanted to.

(43:17):
So again, I went back to, wentback to sweep in the final race
of my life.
The final huge success of mylife was at the San Diego Cool
Asset and my boat, you know, wonthe elite, elite eights race.
We beat Panacea, we beat Vesperwith all their great roars and

(43:37):
actually Stephen Redgrave, thegreat English roar he was in the
English boat.
They came in second.
We had a wonderful sprint andcaught them at the very end of
the race.
So I have a poster that mygarage that's like the high
point of my Olympic year waswinning that race.
Now, we had wonderful people inthe boat and the stroke of the
boat was Rick Filowbeck and he'sthe man I ended up rolling in

(43:59):
the pair with for the for thefinal trials, and we I think we
came in fifth or something, buthe was wonderful and he could
easily stroke the eight.
But you know it's just you know,rowing is just such a weird
sport that you know you can beas close as you want to be, but
you're still a million milesaway.

Karl (44:19):
Right.

Sean (44:20):
So me and Rick are so close to this day.
But you know, like highlightsfor the my post Navy life was
definitely the San Diego Rokuclassic winning the lead date
race, and I remember theannouncer saying, with a finish
like that, there's no way theseguys are not going to make the
Olympic eight.
And I was like you have no idea, you know, it's just because I
knew at that point I was like amillion miles away from making

(44:42):
it and even though we had thatwonderful race and wonderful
sprint, it didn't mean anything.

Karl (44:47):
Well, you know, the one thing I've come to appreciate
when it comes to the differentathletes I've spoken with over
the last couple of years isunderstanding that there is an
extraordinary amount ofcommitment that's required to
get to the point where you gotto right and then after that,
it's certainly there.

(45:07):
It's a lot of, it is a lot of itis timing.
A lot of it is just just theworld being what it is right,
and I totally admire anybody whonot only is a college athlete
to stand on a college athletebut to the point where they are
recognized as okay, we've gotmore opportunities for you
beyond this.
So I don't think that there'sanything that any athlete,

(45:31):
regardless of sport, thatreaches your level, you know,
should be bummed out about,because I mean, I just I think
it's wonderful, I think thenature of you being a competitor
, I get it right, you know youalways want to achieve that
level and then, once you getthere, you're just not satisfied
.
You want to hit the pinnacleand I guess, as I've got older,

(45:52):
I've learned to appreciate thefact that, okay, yeah, maybe
those guys didn't quite getthere, but my God, I mean,
they're still among the best inthe world.
And how many people can evensay that?

Sean (46:01):
Well, thanks, carl, but it still hurts me because I always
have these regrets, because Ididn't put myself in a position
where it was all up to me therewere too, many variables.
If I'd sculled it would havejust been one person, me, with
two wars, and I could have madeit or not.
But you know, with a sweep yougot to get a partner and you got

(46:23):
to get a boat and you got to golike be in the right club, and
there's just so many variablesand I didn't handle those
variables well.
So, instead of making thingssimple, just sculling, sculling,
sculling to invest I could, andthen getting in the boat I
could, I, like you know, threwmyself into the sweep cycle,
hoping against hope that somecrazy miracle would put me in
the bousy of the eight, and thechances of that happening were

(46:45):
so slim.
It was just.
That was an insane decision.
You know what do they say?
The definition of insanity isthe same thing expecting a
different outcome.
Well, that's exactly what I did.
I did the same exact thing andyou know so many.
Even Coach Korsanowski, thenational team coach, had told me
in 87, sean, you should scull,but I was afraid to try.

(47:05):
So, like I just want to leaveany of your listeners that don't
ever be afraid to try.
Just go for your best, take achance If you're going to be
different go for broke.
I did not do that and I'mpaying the price and I regret
that every day.

Karl (47:21):
Well, that's definitely some good advice and I will tell
you that I, you know, I knowthat feeling as well, just not
necessarily from an athleticsense, but just you know, in my
professional life, differentopportunities I could have taken
that I didn't.
And then you kind of think backokay, what if I'd have taken
out of the fork in the row?
You know what would havehappened.
Anyway, let's go ahead, and Iwant to talk a little bit about

(47:43):
how your experience as a rowerimpacted your career as a Marine
.
In other words, what were someof the key takeaways from rowing
that you were able to kind ofbring to the table as a Marine
Corps officer, particularly, youknow, when Desert Storm jumped
off in the early 90s there.

Sean (48:02):
I think you know, mike, I'm not sure like what came
first, my abilities or theabilities come to me, but I
think I've always been prettygood at the leadership position
and because I'm not like a, youknow, I don't bark orders and
stuff.
I try to get people together toaccomplish in the side mission.
You know, that's what I did asa rower and that's what I did in

(48:24):
the Marine Corps and that's notwhat I do as a teacher and it
works very well on all, you know, on all arenas.
You know, I don't know ifthat's like something I learned
or something I had or whatever,but that's really what I do is
just try to like get everybodytogether, you know, get our
strengths, you know, inweaknesses, minimize the
weaknesses, fortify thestrengths and try to accomplish

(48:45):
the mission.
And you know that's why I thinkmy rowing crews are all been
very tight knit.
My Marine Corps units have beentight knit and then my, my
classroom is very tight knit.
And that's because I don't tryto like, you know, have too much
hubris.
I like I just try to say let'sall do this together, We'll go
forward together, nobody getsleft behind.

(49:06):
But there were a few challengingepisodes, carl, I'll tell you.
And I felt good because Iremember they were like in the
admin section of my unit.
They were like going todischarge a female Marine for
being overweight and she came tome for help and she was in
tears and I went into the adminoffice and I said you guys can't
do that.
You got to give her a chance tolose the weight and they were

(49:29):
like totally bummed and shockedbut they couldn't do that, you
know.
And then there were some otherracial issues that I don't know
if I should get into now.
But you know like what?
Where?
Like a staff sergeant had saidsomething awful to one of my
Marines and I like confrontedhim in a gathered evidence and
they eventually dismissed himand that kind of made a like a

(49:50):
war between me and the seniorNCOs in the unit.
But others NCOs hit my backbecause I stood up for somebody
who had not been stood up forbefore.
So you know all these issuesand I think all that came
directly out of my rollingexperiences of just being strong
.
You need to be strong even.
You know if the things areagainst you, if you know you're

(50:11):
firing in the good fight, thenkeep on fighting.

Karl (50:15):
Right, right, yeah, very good.
So give me the timeframe whereyou were an active duty Marine.
Obviously you graduated in Mayof 87 and then walk me through
the timeline from there.

Sean (50:27):
I was on the World University Games team in 87 and
then trying out for the Olympicsin 88.
In 88, late 88 and 89, I was inTBS, the basic school for the
Marine Corps, my training.
Then I was assigned to my unitin 89.
In 90, I was at the unit wingsupport group oh no, the Marine

(50:49):
Wing Support Squadron.
I was there for quite a while,for almost a year, and then we
went to the Gulf War, the higherheadquarters, the Marine Wing
Support Group.
They took me because I was agood writer.
They were like I was assignedto the group.
I left my support squadron andwent to the group.
That's when I went over to theGulf War with.

(51:12):
Then I came back and I stayedwith the group and then I got
out in 92.

Karl (51:17):
Okay, good.
So when you got out, you wereliving, were you in California
still?

Sean (51:21):
Well, I got accepted to film school and then I want to
go to film school.
I had California residency so Iwent to UCLA.
That's where I was.
I was in UCLA in 92, 93, 94.
I had a massive head injury.
I finished UCLA in 95.
Then we were on Californiauntil 99.
The birth of my first son wasin California.

(51:42):
Then we came back east to beclose to my parents.
We came to the Boston area.

Karl (51:48):
Then we had my second son.

Sean (51:51):
My first son was Thomas.
He was born in California.
Owen was born here in Mass.

Karl (51:55):
Okay, all right.
How old are they now?

Sean (51:58):
Owen and Thomas are 25 and 23.
They're both gainfully employed.
One works for Epic, a hospitalcompany, One works for Esri,
which makes geographicinformation systems information.
They make maps.

Karl (52:11):
Okay Now Sean, when I started reading your book, it
begins with a pretty scaryaccident You've actually alluded
to a couple of times here.
I was wondering if you could gointo a little bit more detail
on that so that our listenersknow what you're referring to.

Sean (52:26):
I was skiing in California at Big Bear Mountain in 94,
december 16th with my brotherRyan.
We were racing down themountain like we always do, not
wearing helmets, of course.
I think nothing of it.
Then I wake up five weeks laterin a hospital.
I was in a coma for five weeks.
I don't know what was going on,but I knew that everything was

(52:49):
going to be okay.
When I woke up I wasn'tterrified or panicked because I
knew everything was as it shouldbe.
Then I had a long orderrecovery, years of recovery.
That was that accident.
The defining moment of my lifeis probably that, but it may be

(53:12):
the war, I'm not sure.

Karl (53:14):
Now you don't remember it happening, but was it just a
wipeout or was it colliding withsomebody?

Sean (53:23):
I was totally my fault.
I was skiing like a knucklehead.
I was doing 87 miles an hour.
I thought the force would bedissipated over time
horizontally, but I didn'trealize the force vertically was
instantaneous.
My brain sloshed inside myskull and it killed one of the
cells in the basal ganglia.
I also shattered my rightshoulder.

(53:44):
I was hit with a sledgehammer,smashed it into 27 pieces, but
because that took the burn ofthe fall, the head injury wasn't
as bad as it could have been.
That actually probably saved mylife, but I just wiped out on
snow.

Karl (54:00):
Okay, just to recap here.
You were on active duty from 87to 92.
We were living in California atthe time of your active duty
discharge and attended a filmschool at UCLA.
Then, eventually, you wound upback east in Massachusetts to be
closer to your parents.
Now you're an adjunct professor.
Do I have that title correct?

(54:20):
You're correct, okay.

Sean (54:22):
I teach at the Wentworth Institute Technology and also
Rocksbury Community College.

Karl (54:26):
Okay, talk to me a bit about how you happened upon
those opportunities and some ofyour experiences as we start to
wrap things up.
I'm really curious to do thisbecause I am basically retired.
One of the things I do to keepbusy is I teach junior high kids
math and science, and then I'malso sponsoring a math club

(54:49):
where my kids used to go tojunior high.
I'm always interested in theeducation aspect of things.
How did that happen for you?

Sean (54:57):
Well, the film thing didn't really work out.
I was involved with aproduction called American
Fighter Pilot in the early partof the century.
That would mean my partner hada big falling out.
I had to file suit againstScott Free Productions to get my
money and my credit.

(55:19):
I kind of sat around the wholefilm biz thing.
I just looked around because mywife really makes the money for
the family.
She works forPricewaterhouseCoopers.
She is very smart andhardworking woman.
Once I was a stay-at-home daduntil 2012, and then I decided I
should go back to school toteach.

(55:40):
I started doing that, I lovedit and I continued to this day,
looking for more opportunitiesall the time.
I'm an adjunct professor rightnow, which I don't make much
money at all, but I do love whatI'm doing.
I teach at a predominantlyblack institution.
That's what Rocksbury CommunityCollege is.
I also went to an Institute ofTechnology.
I've taught a number of schools, but they say those who can't

(56:04):
do teach and those who can't doanything teach English.
That's a joke.
I think teaching English is themost important thing there is.
The foundation of all I do isFrederick Dulles.
He's like the backbone of allmy teaching.
It's like he's an example, inall my classes I open with him
in every class.
I just love teaching and Ithink that I am a good at it.

(56:29):
I do a good job.

Karl (56:31):
Yeah, judging from what I've read and I did read a
couple of other articles thatwere and, by the way, for those
of you listening, sean's book isin digital form on the Naval
Institute's website you can goto that site and just click on
the archive section and pull itup Again.
It's called the Cult of Pain,but if you just type his name in

(56:51):
, there are a bunch of otherarticles that'll come up.
So when you get some time, feelfree to check them out, because
it's pretty good reading.

Sean (56:59):
Carl, I also have my published book is a book form
Storming the Desert.
Oh, okay, that's by MacFarlaneand Press MacFarlane Company.
Okay, that was published in1996.

Karl (57:11):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, thanks for the heads upon that one as well.
All right, sean, we are gettingclose to the end here.
I wanted to see if there wasanything that I haven't brought
up or haven't talked about thatyou would like to discuss at
this time.

Sean (57:27):
I think you've covered everything I wanted to hit.

Karl (57:31):
Okay, One quick question before we finish up.
I asked Coach Bagnell this onetime what's the weirdest thing
he ever saw during a crew race.
So I'm going to ask you thesame question, whether you are a
competitor or you happen to beobserving one what's the
strangest thing you've ever seenin a crew race?
I?

Sean (57:49):
can tell you what happened to me in the Olympic finals and
the straight four, the boatthat actually won the silver
medal in the games itself we hada head on collision with.
We were in our boat and thecollision was my fault because I
wasn't looking.
I looked out and saw themcoming.

(58:09):
The next thing I was in,everything was green and I was
in the water.
What had happened is their ballball was an Ampaka ball ball,
so it was like a fist and thankGod or I would have been speared
because, it ripped my right outof the foot stretchers and
launched me in the water.
I remember Coach Corzinalis.
He was saying what is Sean?
What is Sean?

(58:30):
Tom Bohr, who's a good friendof mine.
He's one of the greatest rowersin American history.
He was just hanging his headbecause his was the boat that
launched me.
But it wasn't their fault atall.
It was my fault because Iwasn't looking and we couldn't
race.
So that was like again, anothersign of the denouement of my

(58:53):
Olympic hopes.
I'm in for the camps.
After that I recovered wellenough to make it to the camps
but we couldn't compete in thetrials, so everything just went
downhill from there.
And again.
So the big errors in rowing arekind of like can be placed in
my feet.
So I really can't like I didn'tfollow well enough at the

(59:16):
Warren University Games boat andI wasn't looking in the trials
boat.
So there's always a reason forthings to go haywire and I
wasn't paying enough attention.

Karl (59:26):
Well, all that notwithstanding, again,
congratulations on a fine Navyrowing career.
By the way, folks, Sean is amember of the Navy Sports Hall
of Fame, if you didn't know that.
And again, Sean, thank you somuch for joining me today and
best of luck to you as youcontinue with your teaching
career there up in Boston.

Sean (59:47):
Carl, thank you so much.
This has been a wonderfulexperience.
I really appreciate it.

Karl (59:51):
All right take care man.

Sean (59:52):
See ya, Carl, Thank you.

Karl (59:54):
All right, that was Navy Sports Hall of Famer Sean
Coughlin from the class of 87.
We're heading down the homestretch here, guys, so stay with
us.
We'll be back shortly with ourquestion of the day.
This is Carl Darden and you'relistening to Navy Sports Central
.
All right, it is time now forour question of the day.

(01:00:25):
Let's circle back real quick tocheck out how you all responded
to the one from the lastepisode.
Here was the question BradenPresser set a school record in
the Javelin at the NCAA OutdoorTrack and Field Championships
with a throw of 249 feet fourinches.
How many of the top 10performances in the event does
he own?
Is it A6, b7, c8, or D9?

(01:00:47):
And as I look at the responses,it looks like 7% of you chose 6
, 53% went with 7, and 40%thought 8 was the right number.
Nobody picked 9.
So it turns out that thecorrect answer is 7.
Presser owns the top two spotson the list of 10 best
performances, as well as thefourth through eighth positions,

(01:01:09):
and you know he's coming backfor a senior year, so there's a
pretty good chance he could ownall 10 spots before he leaves
Annapolis.
Okay, now let's check outtoday's question.
Earlier in the show.
I mentioned Navy's great eightcrew that won the gold medal at
the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki,finland.
So the question is how manyconsecutive races did that crew

(01:01:31):
win between 1952 and 1954?
Was it A29, b30, c31, or D32?
You all can give that somethought and let me know what you
come up with.
I will have the question up onthe Navy Sports Nation Group
Facebook page by the end of theday.

(01:01:51):
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us.
Now, if you like what you'veheard, be sure to follow us
wherever you get your podcastand remember to spread the word
to all the other Navy fans outthere.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Sports Hall of Fame rower
Sean Coughlin for joining metoday.
It was really great having himshare some of his experiences.
We have been getting a greatresponse to our question of the

(01:02:13):
day.
So if you want to jump in onthat, just go to the Navy Sports
Nation Group Facebook page.
I will go ahead and pin it tothe top so you won't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to
your courtesy of Audio Jungle.

(01:02:33):
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those we
feature in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Carl Darden.
Go Navy beat Army.

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