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Welcome Back, Old Friend

 
On May 11, 2003, tucked back in the gray pages of the Orlando Sentinel sports section, an obituary ran to mark the end of Dennis Kamrad's illustrious coaching career at the University of Central Florida. 
 
 
Eight years later, on May 13, 2011, Kamrad will rewrite history. Two weeks after celebrating his 71st birthday on April 27, Kamrad will return to the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta as the first-year women's coach at Grand Valley State University. He will be the only active coach on hand with a trophy named in his honor. Yes, the Dad Vail women's varsity lightweight eight trophy was renamed The Dennis Kamrad Trophy way back in 1997, when Grand Valley's current seniors were entering grammar school.  
 
As it turns out, classic Kamrad didn't quite agree with retirement. His synapses still fired, 
sparked by 50 years of rowing passion. 
 
"He's still going strong," says GVSU head coach John Bancheri, who asked Kamrad to take the reigns of his women's program this year. It's hard to imagine a more capable candidate existed in the job market. Living legends aren't commonly available.  
 
To attempt to sum up Kamrad's ongoing legacy and impact would be a disservice. The Trenton, N.J. native rowed collegiately at Rollins College under esteemed head coach Dr. U.T. Bradley, one of Dad Vail's founding fathers. Following a series of jobs after graduation and a near-tragic car accident (more on that later), Kamrad gave birth to the women's rowing program at the University of Central Florida in 1972. He served as the team's first and only head coach until his "retirement" at age 63. Kamrad elevated the UCF program to varsity status in 1996 and oversaw crews responsible for winning 17 Dad Vail titles.  
 
Over the past eight years, as a retiree, Kamrad served as a volunteer consultant of sorts to the rowing programs at Washington College, the Florida Institute of Technology and Rollins. All along, though, "I thought I still had more left in the tank and that I really could still teach," Kamrad says. 
 
If you happen to find yourself on the GVSU campus in Allendale, Mich., keep an eye out for a bearded man, about 6 foot 2, with a slight hobble and an endearing disposition. That's probably Dennis Kamrad. With Debbi, his wife of 14 years, living nine hours north in Hancock, Mich., Dennis lives in the honors dorm at GVSU. While most men his age spend their days on a golf course and their nights relaxing on a breezy porch, Kamrad lives in a single-room dorm that he mockingly refers to as his "monk's cell." 
 
"Kids are running around outside and up until all hours of the night," he says before describing his surroundings - pointing out the lounge chair, the bed with a firm mattress, the chester drawers, the closet, the computer desk, the kitchen and the bathroom." 
 
In a scene unseen at any other college, GVSU team treasurer Laura Marshall, a senior rower, set up Kamrad's campus meal plan at the beginning of each semester. 
 
"Yeah, they've got these nice food courts on campus," Kamrad says nonchalantly. "It's about a five minute walk over there. I've got my meal card and go over and stand in line with the kids and they're wondering, 'Whose this old fart wandering around?'" 
 
When Kamrad landed at GVSU, the women's crew team didn't quite know what to make of him. Even now, most still don't fully understand the history and achievements under his aged exterior. 
 
"The first impression he gave us was that he still had so much energy and a lot of positive things to bring to the program," Marshall says. "At the same time, we all thought he was crazy for coming out of retirement." 
 
Despite a 50-year age gap, Kamrad has made inroads with his new team. He's the first to tell you that aspects of his coaching style cut the binds that tie convention. His modus operandi is based solely on technique. No over analysis. His lessons are not transitory stances; they stand the test of time. He takes a Lombardian approach - pound the fundamentals, let the rest take care of itself. And do so selflessly. "I don't need to win and I don't need to be the head coach - I want the kids to win and I want them to have the edge," he says.  
 
The women of GVSU crew might come to fully understand who their coach is once the Lakers arrive in Philadelphia in mid-May for the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta. They've seen Kamrad's far-reaching popularity at other regattas ("When we travel places, he'll just know people. Everybody," Marshall says), but Kamrad is an institution at Dad Vail. 
 
As a collegian at Rollins, Kamrad first competed at the Vails in 1958 - the same year Uncle 
Sam called Elvis to serve in the U.S. Army and the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los 
Angeles. From his years as a strapping young oarsman, to his days as a "curmudgeon old man," Kamrad has kept a vertical concentration on the second weekend of May. When he talks of the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, the quotation marks fallaway, dropping off one by one. 
 
 
 
It's easy, very easy, actually, to ask why Dennis Kamrad returned to full-time coaching. Is it really worth it when you're on the wrong side of 70? Just retire. Relax. Find a hobby.  
 
Well, there's slightly more to it than that. 
 
Over the course of Kamrad's seven decades, the epoch that shaped his destiny came in 1971. As the athletic director and crew coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, his right femur was crushed in an accident that involved a car crashing into the Huntsville team bus and the bus crashing into a bridge. Ten months were spent in a full-body cast.  
 
During his lengthy hospital stay, Kamrad helped compile and edit a book on rowing and 
coached from the body cast - sending instructions and training regiments from his bed. More 
importantly, though, he reread Dr. Victor Frankl's 1946 book "Man's Search for Meaning," a lifealtering story of Frankl's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp and the psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live. 
 
"At the time, my concentration camp was a body cast," Kamrad says. Enthralled by Frankl's 
book, he decided that upon escaping the hospital and the body cast, he would dedicate himself entirely to becoming the best coach he could be. "I needed a meaning in life and that's whatgave me meaning," he continues. 
 
In 1972, one year after the accident, Kamrad launched the rowing program at Central Florida. 
 
When "Man's Search for Meaning" was reprinted in 1984, Frankl wrote a new preface. It would not have been included in the version Kamrad read while seized by his body cast. If it had, this passage would likely be underlined: 
 
 
 
 
After 50 years dedicated to a cause bigger than himself, Kamrad has found success, happiness and, most importantly, meaning. Who would want to retire from that? Thus, on May 13th and 14th, the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta will welcome back an old rower, an old coach and an old friend - Dennis Kamrad. 
 
 
Brendan F. Quinn 
Editorial Writer 
Dad Vail Regatta Organizing Committee 
DVROC Office Line: (610) 234-2076 
brendan.quinn@dadvail.org. 
www.dadvail.org 
www.twitter.com/DadVaildotTV 
 
 
About the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, Presented by Coca-Cola® 
The Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta presented by Coca-Cola is the largest collegiate regatta in North America with over 100 colleges and universities from the United States and Canada. Held annually since 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the Schuylkill River, thousands of student athletes and spectators visit the City of Philadelphia during the weekend of the second Saturday in May.  
 
About Title Sponsor — Aberdeen Asset Management 
Aberdeen Asset Management Inc is the wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, a global investment management group which is headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, and manages more than $287 billion of assets for both institutions and private individuals (as of Dec. 31, 2010). Philadelphia is home to the U.S. equity and fixed income investment management teams, as well as U.S. client servicing, consultant relations, business development and other operational staff: more than 180 employees in total. Aberdeen manages and services approximately $53 billion in total assets on behalf of North American and international clients. For more information, visit www.aberdeen-asset.us Here in the U.S., Aberdeen is also proud to be one of the supporters of the British Garden at Hanover Square, New York. This New York City park celebrates historic ties of friendship and unity between the U.S. and the UK. Globally, Aberdeen has a long standing association with university rowing competitions having sponsored the Oxford v Cambridge University Boat Race in the UK from 1999 – 2005. The company also continues to support the Aberdeen Universities Boat Race in Aberdeen, Scotland in their annual event which takes place every February. 
 
About Presenting Sponsor — The Coca-Cola Company  
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Together with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company's portfolio includes 14 billion dollar brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply and Georgia Coffee. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate of 1.6 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that protect the environment, conserve resources and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. For more information about our Company, please visit our website at http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com. 
 
 
To download this story in PDF: 2011_Aberdeen_Dad_Vail_Feature_7_Dennis Kamrad.pdf 
 

Content reviewed and published: 4/15/2011 7:41:46 AM