When stranded at sea, most feel scared and nervous, but for Monmouth University’s sailing team, that is where they feel most at home.
“I just like being out on the water,” senior co-captain Matt Marciano explained. Marciano, a four year member of the sailing team, leads the team with fellow senior captain, Paul Stevens.
“My favorite part of being on the sailing team is that my best friends are on it too,” Stevens said. “I definitely prefer to sail with a teammate versus being alone. It’s nice to have someone to discuss tactics with, as well as chat with on those days of little to no wind.”
Coaching the team for the second consecutive year is Lee DiRubbio, an MU alumnus from the class of 1975.
“I have been sailing since I was a teen growing up on the Shrewsbury River. After retiring, this seemed like the perfect part time job for me,” Di Rubbio said. “I also belong to a yacht club where I race on offshore boats and am currently the Vice Commodore of the club.”
When Di Rubbio was an undergraduate student at the University, he was also part of the sailing program. He explained when he was a student, the sailing program was poorly developed and the team did not even have any boats. Even though the sailing program has improved much since those years, they have not met the varsity level requirements and are still declared as a club. Yet, Marciano does not feel the club label takes away from the team’s professionalism.
“It would be cool to have sailing become a varsity team but I like the club atmosphere. It’s not as regimented. There’s a lot of other stuff that comes with being a varsity team that we aren’t really into. The way we have it is more relaxed and more fun,” Marciano said.
His coach concurred. “Competition is formidable since we are a club sport and not a varsity sport. The difference is they are larger teams and classes are scheduled around their practice. We need to practice around sailor’s classes. We are competing against the maritime academies and the Naval Academy all very competent teams.”
Stevens also explained that MU’s sailing team has to schedule around student-sailors’ schedules while varsity teams do not have this dilemma. “Since we are a club team we do not have priority scheduling like varsity teams do. This makes it extremely difficult for us to set a practice schedule,” Stevens said. “Our team could become so much better if we were able to have everyone out on the water at the same time practicing.”
To further the difference between the University’s sailing team and varsity sports, the sailing team never really gets an off season. “We go until about November marking the end of the fall season and then the spring season starts around March,” Marciano said. “The southern schools start a little earlier, so sometimes we may go down there and race in February.”
During those months, the team competes every weekend at different venues. They prepare for their races by practicing three times a week for three hours a day at the Shrewsbury Sailing Yacht Club.
Marciano explained that more than one practice a week maybe extensive for a club team, but it is also very necessary when looking at the team’s vast competition.
“Our conference goes all the way down to the Carolina’s. It’s called MAISA, Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association. There’s a whole college sailing competition,” Marciano said.
Di Rubbio added that the conference consists of 53 universities. “Our ranking is currently 27 out of the group but we are already improving on the ranking. Final rankings for 2013 will come out in December of this year and I have already been told that it very much improved from that,” Di Rubbio said.
Although the sailing team has improved through training, their competition has as well. “The toughest race of the year would definitely be the War Memorial Regatta. The location of the regatta changes every year, but this year it will be at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The top schools in our conference sail in this regatta,” Stevens said.
As of next year, MU will be capable of hosting MAISA regattas due to the expansion of their fleet. Prior to 2013, the sailing team’s fleet consisted of five boats, but that number has changed to 18 boats due to donations from benefactors.
“We usually sail double handed boats and there are two fleets so it would be four people that get to sail, but we switch people in and out throughout the day,” Marciano continued. “There is a skipper and a crew. The crew is the person that works the jib, which is the front sail, and the skipper drives the boat and works the main sail.”
Currently, the team has six members who compete throughout the seasons and a total of fourteen who practice. The team competes next on the weekend of October 4 and 5 in the Philly Fleet Race at Corinthian Yacht Club in Philadelphia, PA.
