The Kent Boys Third Boat is heading into NEIRAs this weekend with a perfect record. They aren’t just hoping to compete. They are the team to beat. Coach Close is in his second spring coaching the team and his third year with the program. His boat being top seed is a big jump from last year, when the same boat barely made the grand final.

That memory set the goal for this season. “When we started this season, I had a feeling our third boat would be stronger,” Close said. So far, he has been right.

But being undefeated comes with pressure. “Now it’s like, pressure’s on,” Close admitted. “Let’s really perform this weekend.” He does not say he is worried, but he is honest about the stress. “There’s going to be some anxiety and feelings of: Have we done enough? Have we done this right?”

What keeps him calm is the crew. Close calls them “a really tough, resilient, and also just kind of nice group of kids.” When practices go badly or someone gets frustrated, they bounce back fast. He said they recover either in the next piece on the water or the next day’s workout. The results have only gotten faster.

Close likes the culture of the Kent School Boat Club overall. But he is careful not to name just one or two rowers. In rowing, he said, all nine people in the boat are essential. That means eight rowers and the coxswain. “If any one person decides that they’re not going to try today, the boat is going to fail,” he said. “The only way that you can win is if all nine of them are doing really well.”

Several guys in his boat are future leaders on campus. There are also strong underclassmen. But Close’s biggest shout-out goes to the whole boat.

Now that NEIRAs are here, the team is locked in. “The guys have been focused on this pretty much all year,” Close said. “They’ve kind of been thinking: oh man, we’ve got a chance.”