With every winter workout, every early morning and every stroke in the water, the men's heavyweight and women's rowing teams are combatting uncertainty with confidence.
Confidence. That's the key word that's been offered up by both men's coach Fred Honebein and women's coach Mike Lane.
And the teams need plenty of it heading into their spring season. Both have new head coaches, and have had to place their trust in new systems.
"We focused on building confidence [in the winter]," Honebein said. "We're sort of in a state where we don't know what our true speed is and what our capacity is. Things learned in practice and actually racing are really different things."
The men had a disappointing fall stretch, but Honebein expected some early bumps.
"I told my team that in order to be what we want to be in the spring we would have to take a step backwards in the fall, and I think we did," he said.
"We were trying to come together as a boat," men's captain Nathaniel Fox said.
On the women's side, the transition has been easier because Lane was the assistant coach before his promotion. The team had a strong fall season, highlighted by four first-place finishes at the Navy Day Regatta in October.
"It's been really easy for us to adjust," women's co-captain Libby Mulligan said. "There has been a lot of change in the team culture and attitude. He's trying to make us more competitive."
Lane has been tough on his team, but he says that it has been willing to step up.
"Their work ethic is very good," Lane said. "They have [for the most part] very good attitudes and will take what we dish out to them and continue coming back and wanting more."
Co-captain Maura Kelley says that resiliency comes from knowing what it's like to lose.
"Our strength is being able to fight through adversity," she said. "There've been times in the past when we haven't done well and we want to avoid that feeling."
In contrast, Honebein doesn't have much experience with losing. He has had an illustrious rowing career, topped off by a spot on the U.S. Olympic team from 1993-1996.
But he's not rushing forward.
"We've set a lot of short-term goals," he said. "There's an element of progression. We don't move to the next peg until everyone is comfortable."
Both teams will have a chance to showcase themselves at the Eastern Sprints in May, which will bring some of the best in the country together.
But neither team is single-mindedly focused on the Sprints. Instead, they've said that winning races along the way is equally important.
"Every weekend for us is an important race because we need to come out of every race with more confidence," Lane said.
In a season that has begun with so much uncertainty for both teams, that confidence may be the only constant.
