Sebastion's Folly

 It had been an early Spring. Lots of sun and warm weather and since we had plenty of time before the first regatta we had an easy going practice week. Going over fundamentals and a little speed training and sitting up the boat and such.  We started the day out in sunny, darn right, hot conditions and so most of the boys were stripped down to shirts and shorts. We warmed up quickly and went pretty far up river and that's where we were when we noticed that there was weather headed our way.  We lined the boats up two to a row and sent them back towards the dock. "Make hast young man!" I laughed and sent the first two boats off and then the next two - the guys loved rowing fast and hard so everyone was still ok.  About half way back we connected with the rain. It was a solid, cool, rain but not much wind - it was going slowly up the river soaking us. There was no wind - no lightening - just this soaking rain that had us all looking like we'd been swimming. As fast as th...

 Billy had had a really tough day on the water. He wasn't hitting the catch with the rest of the boat, but then all four of the guys were hitting at will, he was going too deep and ended up catching multiple crabs and he buried his calves into the tracks so hard, and often, that blood was running down his legs and soaked his socks.  The boat was so badly sit up that all the guys came away with busted knuckles and deflated spirits. They were angry and embarrassed  and couldn't wait to get away. The rest of the program had seen the chaos and they pretty much stayed away from the guys - it was pretty much silent running for anyone around them.  I thought everyone was gone but when I walked into my office there he was. Sitting on the bench along the back wall. He was sort of hunched over with his face buried into his arm.  "Billy. Billy are you ok?" "No." He looked over at me and it was obvious that he'd been crying.  "That was a pretty shitty day out t...

 Over the years several of the boys used to come over and borrow my study when they were working on big projects for school. I didn't have a dress code and I usually had a good supply of snacks on hand for when they wanted to take a break.  There were those times when the guys would just declare "study day" and come by with a book and they'd lounge around the place - sometimes outside on the balcony if the weather was good - and read and chat. They always showed their appreciation and a few of them, more than a few, would stay over night because once it got late they didn't want to disturb anyone going back to the dorm too late.  

 I was visiting a friend nearby campus. His family had an orchard and they grew apples, pears and peaches. It was apple season and I was in the habit of stopping off and picking up two or three baskets of fresh apples to hand the guys after practice. When I was at school, back east, we had a guy that used to show up after football practice and hand out apples to us. I never forgot how we used to devour those little apples and how one of the guys, who I hardly knew at the time but I had a crush on, just walked up to me with his apple and took a big bite from it and then he had me take a bite from it. We ate that apple together and there was no shortage of apples either. That was the whole purpose of the practice - that was part of how we connected as a team. He and I went on to become close friends after that.  Anyway when I showed up to pick up the apples my buddy introduced me to Joshua. He was sort of a character. He was sort of country but not really because he had some rea...

 Joseph had a way of looking right at you and never looking away - if he ever did look away he got you to look with him. As if it wasn't his fault you caught him looking - it was yours. He had eyes that pierced your brain - a smile that was just enough to make you want more but never too much. He had a body that was slender with budding muscles. He was a swimmer originally but I managed to recruit him away from the team - his would be coach wasn't too happy about that but he took it in stride.  "Joseph's a hot little fellow. Where do you think you'l use him?"  "Anywhere he wants me too!"  "You're am evil person."  I just smiled and nodded my head. Joseph came into the office with his gym bag in hand.  "Ok. I guess I have everything." He said and stood next to me.  We walked out of the office and through the locker room and as we headed down the main hall to exit he asked about getting some coffee. "Are we still on for cof...

  I have always wondered about those folks that talk about when they first realized they were gay or bi or whatever. I have no memory of a time in my life when I did not find boys more attractive, physically, emotionally, sexually, whatever. It wasn't just a matter of being more comfortable with boys than with girls - I knew, even as a little boy, that I was attracted to boys and that certain boys were attracted to me.  I still recall the first boy who kissed me with the intent of getting me excited. He groped my crotch and squeezed my butt while he probed my mouth with his tongue. He smelled of cinnamon and clove and his sweat was salty and sweet at the same time.  Neither one of us was shy about taking our shirts off or about demonstrating our affection for each other and he loved giving me a hard on with the other boys watching as much as I enjoyed him giving me one.  I can't even imagine my first kiss with a girl - there would always be a third party in every int...

  Dear Coach Cooper... The email began.  A few years ago my big brother rowed his novice season with you and your crew. He always told me how much he loved it and he still talks about it to this day. He left the school after his first year - transferred to a larger University that offered him an academic scholarship but no rowing.  Anyway he told me I should seek you out before deciding what school to go to after High School. He's taught me some basic stuff about rowing and training and he's always talking about all the times he used to go see you after practice, in your office and even at your home, and it sounds like the sort of thing I truly want to do also.  I know you can't offer scholarships or anything like that but I'm enclosing my academic record here - I'm not a brainiac but I'm not dumb either 😺 I'm also listing my athletics here - our school doesn’t offer rowing and there aren't any clubs nearby - but we, my brother and I, have a boat we use...

 I know him. He's the boy that smells a little like traditional Polo and he likes to smile right at me from across the room. I wont look away and neither will he and he doesn't care that everyone see's what we're doing to each other.  He has a healthy teenage boy muskiness about him but it isn't strong enough to smell bad - just strong enough to drive me nuts when he gets close enough to me to say "Hi."  In the locker room we live right next to each other. It's coaches idea of team building - he's my quarterback and I'm his tackle so we have to have a "relationship" that works on and off the field - "That's how we build champions" coach tells us.  When I sit down on the bench he's quick to walk up and chat a little - his groin in my face and his cock and balls outlined nicely under his designer underwear. I can't take my eyes off him and he wont stop watching me watch him.  Eventually he'll turn around, or to...

 It was the squads first road trip of the Holiday season. We had an ergatta in a town a few hours away from us but we didn't want to get up at disgusting early hours of the morning and cruise over there so we arranged to drive over the night before and stay at the facility available at the hosts campus. All told there would be sixteen rowers and two coaches just from our group. The place was really pretty comfortable and sense ours was the only team to travel, all the others were local, we had it to ourselves.  It wasn't fancy  just a typical long dorm style room with beds on either side and a long aisle down the center. It was the attic space over the old boat house. On the far end was a small seating area, like a little living room, with a heater and some shelves that had old magazines and books and some old photos. The chairs and sofas there were over stuffed and comfortable and we were asked to bring our own blankets and such - it was December and the last event held ...

 William was a devoted rower. He was one of the fellows that connected with me on multiple levels also. He was an athlete, for sure, but he really loved the boats and the process of rowing - of working out and recovery and all. He had a way of physically and mentally connecting with the entire process.  He knew I was good at massage and especially good at acupressure  points also. One day he came to me and said he had been especially sore. "It's been a crazy tough couple of weeks. I'm just feeling blasted - physically and emotionally I'm just feeling ruined right now."  "I can help with that if you want." "I do!" He smiled a little, a whence of pain on his face at the same time. "I mean I know some of the guys told me you could help."  "I'll help. Come by my place tonight and we'll see what we can do."  Eight o'clock sharp he was knocking on the door. He was always ready to go - even with the cooler weather alrea...

 Leo was a good boy. He used to workout hard - he took his rowing seriously but he never lost sight of the fact he was there as a student not just an athlete. He used to come over to my place when he knew the coast was clear and use my study to get his work done without being disturbed by the rowdies back at the dorm.  The school library was pretty good but so was mine and he seemed to really enjoy my dress code a lot more than he did the library. Even if other boys, or an another boy, was around it didn't really bother either of them. The squad was pretty much unfazed by the openness of my sexuality and that of the boys and no one ever really questioned the legitimacy of a boat line up once they got to see it in action - on the water - on race day.  I missed Leo once he moved on - he took everything he did seriously - and when he showed me his gratitude he was mind blowing. 

Tim joined the rowing team in the late Fall. That means he was just on time to get a few weeks on the water and found himself hooked. It was rough because there was no way he was going to make a boat for the last regatta of the Fall season but he stuck with it anyway - he was a wonderful coaches helper.  After the last regatta we go into what we call holiday training. We move indoors to avoid the cold weather and the training becomes mostly light weightlifting, erg work and running on the indoor track. It's boring  and monotonous and exhausting but it really is necessary if you want to be a competitive squad in the Spring.  Tim was in pretty good shape, like a lot of the squad at that point, but they had a real advantage over the poor guy. After one of our tougher weeks in December some of the guys came over to feast and hang out - we used the occasions for team building. Timmy kept falling asleep and I finally told to go in and get some shut eye in my room - No problem....

 Weigh and Measure Day was a day that came early in every boys time on the squad. We had to know just what it was we were dealing with so we took their weight and calculated their body fat percentage - we simply put them on a scale that did that for us -  and then we took key measurements.  We ran the tape around the chest - over their nipples.  Next around the body at the belly button - their official waist line.  Next around the body at a point a few fingers below the belly button - usually about where the pubic hair, if they had any, would top off.  The final measure was their butt - the tape ran around the body just above the boys cock - their legs together - standing straight up.  Some of the boys would offer to let me measure more and, eventually, wanting to be as thorough as possible, I'd take them up on the offer. 

 Jackson was a freshman when we first met. He had been on campus for about a week after having attended a special summer session and he was given permission to stay on in student housing during the short break between the last summer session and the start of the Fall term.  There was a hot tub in the student gym that few people knew about. The students weren't really into soaking in it anyway and the few coaches who knew about it usually didn't say anything to anyone about it - it was a sort of private/secret club.  Anyway one day I was off my game a little and decided to hit the hot tub rather than to workout - there weren't usually any students in the gym at that time of year so there wouldn't be any missed recruitment opportunities. When I got there - there was Jackson. He was naked and gorgeous and he had a look, not exactly a smile but not entirely surprised, on his face that just called out "I've been waiting for you!"  "Hello." He said wit...

The first time I met him he was just the younger brother of one the guys on the team. He was on campus to checkout the sites and hangout with his older brother for the weekend and we turned it into a sort of recruiting weekend.  James' brother wasn't gay but James certainly was. Being gay wasn't a requirement for joining the rowing club but it helped because most of the guys were gay and they tended to blow off steam in a sort of open way - they also tended to bond really well because of it. James' brother was a cool guy though - willing to experiment and try new things but he wasn't judgmental about things when he decided to go in another direction.  So James was the first of what became many of my weekend recruitment fellows - he was cute - blond hair and pale, midwestern white skin, and eyes that looked right at you and never looked away. He was in good shape too. He'd used the erg at home but he'd never been in a boat until that weekend and he was a natu...

 I hadn't known him for very long. He was one of the boys I found in the student gym in the first few weeks of class.  We started a conversation about work outs - mine was designed to develop endurance and some flexibility - the sort of thing that rowers needed to have. His was a hodge podge of things he'd seen other people do over the years.  "I'm not real smart when it comes to sports and stuff but I like being in shape." He said as he showed me the work he'd managed to do on his body. "What'd'ya think? I mean I think I'm doing ok but nobodies ever really said anything."  "Well I think you look beautiful. I hope you don't mind my saying it that way."  "No." Tommy was one of the few boys around campus that was obviously gay. I mean he wasn't a flashy, flaunting, sort of fellow but when he started taking it was pretty obvious and his hand gestures and all made it clear that he wasn't afraid of being open wi...

As a collegiate rowing coach I wore many hats. Coach, recruiter, Uncle, big brother... One of my favorite times of the year came in late August and early September. Because I was the coach of the novice squad I was always involved with younger guys - I would scour the campus hangouts - the field house, the gym, the student union building and the student activities center, essentially just a big gym for students not on official programs.  I would go to varsity practice in the morning and then off to class and then, by mid day, I'd relax a little and then start my own workout. It was almost always based on the workout I was going to put my squad through that afternoon.  I'd watch the boys watching me and, eventually, I'd start chatting with them. I looked for loners who could get themselves to workout, or try to - and who showed some interest in learning new techniques, new equipment - the indoor rowing machines (ergs) were a genuine mystery to most of these folks.  I'd g...