Alumni Spotlight: David Reeder

EDITOR’S NOTE

While I was doing program research, I stumbled across David quite by accident. I immediately noticed his success with the strong lightweight crews of the mid 1980’s and that he has a long track record as both a coach and an educator. Since 1999 David has been teaching and coaching at Northfield Mount Hermon, a boarding school in central Massachusetts close to the Vermont and New Hampshire borders. These combined elements compelled me to reach out and get to know him more. I hope you enjoy getting to know him as much as I did.

David Herrick ‘14 It was great learning something new, being on the river, and gradually learning what it meant to be an athlete. My first race was against Gonzaga in the fall, we raced below the dam. There was a competitive switch that turned on for me and from that point I was hooked. I can thank my teammates and Coach Struckmeyer for that.

DH: Any particularly strong memories of your time at WSU?

DR: That first year we had some veteran guys, very committed athletes and smart too, engineering and math types. They were pretty excited about the team; they had been working hard building it. We won PAC-10’s that May for the first time. We loved beating the Huskies. Then we did it again next year. My wife, Mary Farrell (an alum of the women’s team), reminded me we used to skip rocks before practice, trying to hit the pylons.

David Herrick: When did you row for WSU? David Reeder: I started fall of ’84 my sophomore year and finished in 1988, so I took the five-year track.

DH: What got you into rowing?

DR: A group of guys in my dorm were on the team and they sounded like they were having fun. I was in the marching band and had never been an athlete. I was convinced to try it out.

DAVID REEDER

DH: You have two PAC-10 titles to your name as a lightweight, who were your biggest competitors during those seasons?

DR: UW of course, they had lightweights then, so did Oregon State. The southern California schools were particularly fast, Cal, and San Diego State. We usually had them in mind. We went to the Crew Classic and suddenly were racing Yale and Penn and realized we could compete with them; I think we took 3rd. We loved racing them when we got the chance, I don’t think they paid us much attention though.

DH: What was your motivator to start coaching?

DR: I remember I wanted to stay connected to rowing. I moved east on a whim and landed in Boston. While I was there, I was looking for teaching positions. I interviewed at a boarding school just outside the city and they had a pretty historic program, and they said “great you can help with the team” so I did that for two years. Then I moved back to Seattle and coached at Mount Baker for four years. I find it exciting to help develop a team— considering training philosophies, helping high school kids figure it all out—I really enjoy that.

DH: How did you land at NMH?

DR: I was in graduate school at Dartmouth working towards a PhD, but my wife and I started a family, so we did a big search around New England, and I knew I wanted to coach. NMH had an opening in the science department, and their rowing program is quite established. We thought it would only be a few years but gradually we realized this is where we are.

DH: What has practice looked like for you in the last few months?

DR: It was a blast to row this fall, despite everything, since we had a bubble on campus. The kids were so grateful to row together. Initially we thought it was going to be small boats, but we rowed in 4’s for most of the fall, the kids wore masks the whole time. They even competed in the virtual Head of the Charles. We trained daily, but we had a rigorous testing protocol on campus, and luckily, we’re in rural area so the case count stayed low. It was fun to see them compete against each other too.

DH: Any indication about a spring season?

DR: Not yet, we’ll have a NEIRA coaching meeting in a few weeks.

DH: For our readers who aren’t as familiar with the boarding school scene, can you describe what a typical spring season would look like? Who the major players are, if you have a rivalry with anyone, what boat classes are raced, etc.

DR: It’s quite different from my experience in Seattle. Each team has one type of boat they race. We can race twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday. I wouldn’t say we have as developed a rivalry as others, but we have great racing relationships with other schools.

We also went from an 8’s program to a 4’s program, and we didn’t race last spring, so we still need to build new rivalries and relationships since we won’t be racing schools we traditionally have. Deerfield is just down the river from us, they are very fast and set a good standard.

DH: When you aren’t coaching or teaching, how do you spend your time?

NMH VARSITY 4+ - HOCR 2019

DR: I’ve been hiking a lot, Mary and I enjoy the woods behind the school. We hike with friends in the area. Plus, balancing family life, coaching basketball for my son, swimming for my daughters. But since the pandemic shut everything down it was nice to get out and not worry about the other pieces of our life.

DH: Any favorite parts about living in central Massachusetts? What’s the area like?

DR: It’s beautiful, but not as dramatic as out west. I was a park ranger in and just after college. Very hilly, lots of woods. More rural than you would expect. The Connecticut river is beautiful, I do some kayaking out there too, can’t get enough of that.

DH: Do you prefer the east or west coast?

DR: Well this is home now, but every time I head out west it just feels right. When I’m in eastern Washington especially it just feels like home.

DH: Do you think you’ll make it out to Pullman for Cougar Crew Days, whenever it can happen?

DR: Yes! I couldn’t make it to the 50th which was disappointing because we had a training trip to South Carolina that weekend. Though that wound up being a moot point. We have some friends we haven’t seen in a long time and need to.

Thanks for taking the time David, and as always, Go Cougs!!