By VICTORIA MONACO
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fordham football is not the only team placing high in the national rankings this fall. With the release of the most recent Coaches’ Poll from the magazine Sailing World, Fordham sailing has earned the title of No. 1 College Sailing Team among 194 club teams in the country, as well as the number 12 spot overall among both varsity and club teams nationwide.
Though the sailing program is over 50 years old, it has not always seen such success. Throughout the last 10 years, the Fordham sailing program has grown and improved vastly. In 2009, the team ranked 28th in the country, which was its first appearance in the rankings in club history. Since that time, team director Joe Sullivan credits the success of the team to the newly-hired head coach, Reed Johnson.
When asked about what has really helped shape this team into such an elite group of athletes, Sullivan replied, “The employment of Reed Johnson as head coach, combined with his ability to recruit very experienced high school sailors and teach them to become better.”
Since he was hired in 2011, Coach Johnson has helped the team by focusing on two specific areas. When asked what he is doing to help the team improve, he replied, “One of my biggest priorities when I was hired at Fordham was to create a team that was deep from top to bottom.” He discussed the high intensity and skill level of all the sailors, stating that “having your best people get pushed on a daily basis, is what I think is the most helpful.”
Johnson’s second focal point is the leadership shown by co-captains, Mary Hamilton and Matt Winter, and their willingness to push their team toward success. In discussing the leadership of Hamilton and Winter, Johnson said, “We’ve kind of come up with the idea of turning our team into more of an elite team. And to be an elite team, you need to do things that other elite teams are doing.”
Both Johnson and Sullivan identified better physical fitness as an important quality of an elite team of athletes. In an interview with Sullivan, he claimed, “Having organized physical fitness training as a club team is not easy for a number of reasons, but our kids are successfully making the transition, and in time, being fit will be a part of our team’s DNA.” Both the ideas of improved team depth as well as increased team physical fitness have played a large part in shaping the success of the team.
Both Sullivan and Johnson also proudly discussed the capabilities of their new talent, the freshman class of sailors. As this year’s freshmen are Johnson’s first true recruiting class at Fordham, both Sullivan and Johnson have taken pride in the sailors they have been watching since high school. When asked about the new sailors, Sullivan said, “They are talented, serious about sailing, have a mature work ethic, [are] dedicated to improve and [are] committed to our concept of ‘Team First.’ I couldn’t be happier with them…” Johnson added about the freshmen class, “We have 10 or 12 freshmen that are all very talented sailors, and that’s been another great thing…the freshmen have done an excellent job at helping to work towards that culture because they’re very hard working.”
When asked to comment on the success of the team as a whole, Johnson finished, “I think it’s incredibly impressive what this group of kids has done…these kids have put in a tremendous amount of effort when it comes to sailing and getting better at sailing, and competing… I’m really proud of what they’ve accomplished so far…”
Sullivan also gave credit to the many unseen members of the sailing team
He added that this success is also in part a success “for Charles ‘Bud’ McEntee ’72, who helped resurrect the sailing team 14 years ago, and the scores of sailors who competed for Fordham and helped establish the legacy which is now Fordham sailing.”
He extended congratulations to Johnson and the “dedicated and hard-working members of the current team, who enabled Fordham to become the No. 1 college sailing club team in the country.”
Johnson concluded his thank yous with an acknowledgement of the “scores of alumni, parents and friends of Fordham sailing, who as our primary benefactors provide the financial and non-financial support which allows our program to continue to improve every year.”
Though the team is now approaching the winter offseason, they will continue to practice and improve for an equally successful spring 2014 season.