Coach Ricci in the early years of his tenure.

Ric Ricci is what many would call an old-school coach - known for his one-liners, contrarian sculling philosophy, and tenure at Craftsbury that seemingly pre-dates the formation of Great Hosmer Pond. He's a wealth of information on Outdoor Center history, truly passionate about sculling, and an entertaining story teller. He's been coaching Craftsbury sculling camps since 1982 and this is just part of that story.

Ric first came to Craftsbury in 1982, in the early days of the Center’s fledgling rowing operations - when the boats and oars were wood, advertising was done by mailing paper brochures, and bonuses might be given in maple syrup or an all-staff-out-to-dinner evening after the last summer camp. Ric remembers running an extension cord from Cabin B down to the waterfront to videotape campers for technique and reviewing that technique in the upstairs of the old Tamarack building. He recalls going with sculling campers to shop at Dion’s junk barn. He recollects taking campers hiking up Mt. Pisgah and listening to the Craftsbury Chamber Players on the Common. And he can’t forget celebrating the first time thirty scullers registered for a camp.

But of course, it wasn’t all perfect back then in the good old days. There were summers when Ric didn’t know how much money he would actually make, or if his paycheck would bounce at the bank in Morrisville. There were moments of swearing at crotchety old motors that he threatened to unscrew and drop in Hosmer to become fossils. And there were tensions amongst staff. Ric would want you to know that it wasn’t perfect back then, because life isn’t perfect.

So what has kept bringing Ric back to Craftsbury for forty years? Well, at first, Ric just needed a job. He graduated from Trinity College in 1973 with a desire to continue rowing. Ric had competed at Olympic Trials but his double partner got married and stopped competing. Without the finances or connections to start a professional career himself, Ric decided that coaching, while continuing to train and compete on the side, was his next best option. The Connecticut College team hired him as its head coach and from 1973 to 1981, Ric worked hard to establish it as a successful program. From there, Ric accepted a position as the Yale freshmen coach, but that didn’t last. In 1982, Ric found himself between jobs and in need of money.

That’s when he came to Craftsbury - simply in need of a job. And that’s when the extension cord from Cabin B, Dion’s junk barn, and swearing at the motor started. But what really happened was that Ric became a part of something that he loved, that he believed in, that was bigger than himself.

“When I come up to Vermont, I come alive,” he says. And in a way, that first summer, it was like coming home. “I grew up smelling cow shit,” Ric said, “so when I came up here, and I smelled cow shit, it was like being home.” Ric continued to come back summer after summer, while coaching during the school years at Amherst, Rutgers, and then back to Conn College where he’s been since 1988. The summer work allowed him to pay off his first mortgage. It allowed him to keep racing. But most of all, it allowed him to continue his relationship with the simple art of sculling.

Ric loves sculling. “When you’re sculling well it feels like you’re flying over the water,” he says. “It’s very beautiful, it’s aesthetic, it’s challenging.” Ric describes sculling as a combination of golf technique, running aerobics, and strength. And he’s been known to say that when he’s rowing his best, he doesn’t know whether he’s on the drive or the recovery. He just can’t tell. He says, “Think when you’re on land and row when you’re on water.”

Ric continued to compete ever since his college graduation all the way up till two years ago when COVID threw a wrench into racing schedules. While Ric loves racing and has coached competitive programs for even longer than he’s been at Craftsbury, he has a well-rounded view of competition. “A lot of participation in sport is loving the training and loving the sport,” he says. “The competition is part of it but don’t let the competition invalidate the love of the sport.” Ric hopes to return to racing if his current injuries resolve, but if not, competing with himself and continuing to learn about sculling will prove motivation enough.

An innate curiosity about movement propels Ric forward. “I’ve been out there every morning for decades experimenting on myself. It’s just acquisition of knowledge just for the sake of being inquisitive, like how does this work? I’ve always liked mechanical things, but the thing that was interesting to me [in sculling] is that you’re dealing with people, so it’s biomechanics, and people are much more complex than machines.”

“I like the relationship with the people,” Ric says. “It’s really gratifying to be able to share something that you found and have someone go, ‘Wow that was great. That really felt great.’ If you can communicate with someone, that’s really gratifying.” Indeed, Ric’s love of sculling technique and outside-the-box thinking has impacted innumerable people, athletes and coaches alike. Previous COC Sculling Director Troy Howell shares, “Even coaches who scratch their heads at some of the things he says would readily admit that they think about sculling in a different way as the result of listening to him. Ric is hands-down the most influential sculling coach at Craftsbury.”

Most folks around the Outdoor Center who know Ric have also occasionally scratched their head, but with a smile, when he shares one of his Ric-isms, calls in to the office asking for a weather check during all-day sunshine, or radios out that he’s “stuck on shore” when accidentally ditched by the launches.

It’s refreshing to experience his indefatigable ability to be himself - not bending to the whims of current sculling fads or society’s movement toward technology. But that doesn’t matter, even to those of us who have to track him down face to face to schedule an interview, because Ric makes us smile.

Ric has not only brought smiles and new ways of thinking to campers and other coaches for forty years, but has also learned from them. Ric sincerely enjoys the diverse set of people that he gets to interact with at Craftsbury and he cherishes the conversations he has on the docks, water, and the porch of the dining hall. Here, he learns from architects, doctors, students, and more. These scullers, along with the broader Outdoor Center community, keep Ric coming back.

Through all of these relationships, Ric has become part of a family. It started in the ’80’s with Russell Spring, former owner of the Outdoor Center, the person who hired Ric and made him feel welcomed and appreciated. “He was a guy you’d walk through fire for,” Ric says. That loyalty to Russell and to the original vision of the Outdoor Center - to put people in boats - is something that Ric still feels today and has felt through each change and iteration of the sculling program. “I feel like It’s my responsibility to keep it going and promote their vision in the 21st century,” he says.

And what does Ric have to say about how it’s worked out not just for him but for the Outdoor Center? “It was serendipity.” No design could have guaranteed that a young coach, down on his luck and in need of a summer job, would still be here forty years later. No specific replicable plan could have morphed the nascent sculling program in 1982 into what it is now. But there is one person who has been a constant in that Outdoor Center growth equation through those epochs of aging - this man, Ric Ricci, of whom it’s been said, "it wouldn't be Craftsbury without him,” and with who I sat for two hours, listening intently to his stories, yarns, opinions, and memories, of life, of coaching, of sculling, of Craftsbury. “I think it’s a really special place, I think it’s like, blessed,” he says.

How long might campers continue to hear the wisdom of this sculling sage? “As long as I’m healthy I’ll keep doing it until they tell me to leave.” Well, Ric, from what I know, it’s not time yet to tell you to leave, but it is time to tell you thanks. For the forty years of dedication to the sculling program, educating campers and coaches, and being Ric Ricci, we thank you.

Ric Ricci’s Forty Years at Craftsbury: A Reflection