What Really Matters: Rusty Callow Award Goes to Yale Third Varsity Lightweights

by Jeff Moag, Rowing News Magazine; Check out the magazine online

Just when you think you know what rowing is all about, something happens to show us what is truly important. Nobody knows that better than nine young men who rowed in Yale’s third-varsity lightweight eight at the 2006 Eastern Sprints, barely 48 hours after the death of their teammate Alexander Capelluto.

The crew’s resilience won them the Russell S. “Rusty” Callow Memorial Award, presented each year to a crew which exemplifies spirit, courage, and unity throughout the year. The award is a fitting tribute to Capelluto, a person who was gifted in almost everything but rowing. Valedictorian and president of his high school class four years running, he was brilliant, funny, and well-liked; but in the broad universe of rowing attributes, he possessed only two: a winning attitude and a strong work ethic. He had those in spades.

On the strength of his attitude, the undersized sophomore in the bow of the third varsity somehow became a team leader. “Rowing fit perfectly with the type of individual he was,” says his father, Jacques Capelluto. “Always pushing to be the very best, but doing it as part of a close-knit team. The aspect that really appealed to him was the bonding developed from the hardship endured with his teammates.”

Alex’s teammates would endure their greatest trial without him. They had finished their final practice together, a good row on a perfect spring morning. Someone ran across the street to buy a disposable camera, and the 3V lights passed a few idyllic minutes taking photos of each other strutting bare-chested across the dock and diving into the water. “I have only the best memories from that morning,” says James Schulmeister, who caught the bus back to campus with all but one of his teammates. Alex, who was preparing for a 4,000-mile bicycle trip to benefit Habitat for Humanity, started home on his bike. The 20-year-old went straight at an intersection when a delivery truck turned in front of him. He was killed instantly. 
The next morning, the Yale 3V lights sat down with their coach Eric Carcich and head lightweight coach Andy Card. A bus was waiting to take them to Sprints. But first, the crew needed to decide whether to get on it. “Losing a friend makes the race seem meaningless, but it also gave it an added weight, because what you’re doing is what you shared together,” says stroke Dave Zaragoza.

Each of the nine men in Alex’s crew needed to find his own reason to race. Many seized on the obvious: that Alex would have wanted it that way. Alex’s father took pains to convey that sentiment in the first hours after his son’s death. Between confronting his own grief and consoling family, the elder Capelluto passed a message to Berkeley College Master John Rogers, who gathered Alex’s friends and teammates for an impromptu remembrance Thursday afternoon. Go to Sprints, Jacques Capelluto urged, and honor Alex with a special effort. “Alex and I had talked about rowing, but we didn’t have to talk much for me to know how much it meant to him,” his father says. “I could see it with my own eyes.”
The team talked for a few minutes Friday morning and voted unanimously to row. They arrived at the racecourse late that afternoon, and launched hurriedly for a practice row. Then, as Card remembers it, “a massive rainbow appeared, stretching from the finish line bridge to about the 1,000-meter mark. I’m not a big one for signs, but in our state of mind, it was powerful.”

If the 2006 Eastern Sprints had been contested on Hollywood’s silver screen, the team would have rallied for a dramatic come-from-behind win; but this drama unfolded on Lake Quinsigamond, where six minutes of hard racing brought the Elis a fourth-place finish and a small measure of emotional release.

“Losing Alex made us slower in real terms, not just emotionally,” Card says. “I know the guys put on a brave face in public, but alone in the hotel rooms it had to have been tough. I know it was for me.”

On the racecourse, after Alex Capelluto’s death, his teammates channeled the physical pain they had shared with him in earlier races and during thousands of hours of practice. They welcomed the burn of an all-out physical effort, willing it to exorcise their grief.

“You’re faced with this thing you have no control over, but at least you get to go out there and take it out on an oar,” Zaragoza says. “It’s an emotional as well as a physical release.” 

Too often in rowing, we obsess about results. That’s especially true in the lead-up to a championship regatta. Classes, work, relationships, family–all of it takes a back seat to the season’s ultimate, defining crucible. We rowers nurture and celebrate the obsession. We dream of distilling nine months of practice into six transcendent minutes. Because for most of us, most of the time, nothing is more important than the Big Race.

But every so often something shows us exactly how wrong that viewpoint is. Something as small as a sunrise or as momentous as the death of a friend reminds us that all of it–the racing and training and talking technique late into the night–is merely the means to an end; and that end is not beating another crew. 

–Ed note: The Capelluto family has created the Alexander Capelluto Foundation, which awards grants to high school and college students who lack the financial means to fulfill their academic potential or to pursue community service endeavors. www.alexcap.org.
 

On January 8, 2007, the Alexander Capelluto Award was officially presented to the faculty at the Horace Mann Upper Division. 

The grant will be given each year to the one Horace Mann Junior who conceives of and best develops a plan for what he or she would do to make the world a better place. The work can be done in the South Bronx or South Africa, in Chinatown or China. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the recipient of the grant embody some of Alexander’s qualities of integrity, of commitment, of a passion for life.  Information on the grant application will be immediately available to all Juniors via the Foundation website. 

Service remembers Capelluto ‘08

Published: Monday, September 11, 2006, View article on Yale Daily News Website

Summer Banks and Cari Tuna
Staff Reporters

Hundreds of family members, friends, teachers and teammates gathered Sunday in Battell Chapel to honor the memory of Alexander Capelluto ‘08, the Berkeley College student who died in a bicycle accident on May 18. Guests hugged, laughed, cried and chatted softly before the service while jazz music played in the background. Members of the light and heavyweight crew teams filed in somberly and sat together on one side of the chapel.

Berkeley Master John Rogers opened the ceremony by addressing the bittersweet nature of the celebration, describing the full life of the young man whose time was tragically cut short.

“He was one of those rare individuals whose generosity and compassion weren’t worn as accessories but seemed to form the very core of his personality,” Rogers said. “What an extraordinary presence.”

Capelluto was described by those who knew him as an outgoing student and friend — an energetic young man whose dedication and love for life spilled over into those around him, whether he was organizing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, gearing up for a nation-spanning Habitat for Humanity bike challenge or just sitting in his suite under a fluorescent Rolling Rock sign.

“He understood people better than anyone I had ever met,” said Capelluto’s sister, Katherine Capelluto ‘04. “He saw goodness in each of us and demanded that we see it in each other.”

Speaking at the service, Capelluto’s friends remembered his caring, love and ability to embrace life while inspiring others to realize their own worth. They said Capelluto made his room and his life open to everyone who came into it.

“He taught me to see life, and I could not have asked for a better teacher,” Tess Borden ‘08 said.

A slideshow of pictures and video clips spanning Capelluto’s life — including footage from Capelluto’s high school valedictory speech and an image of a victorious Capelluto pumping his fist in the air after a crew race — concluded the two-hour ceremony, drawing laughter and tears from those in attendance. Hometown friend Matthew Dennett ‘08 remembered Capelluto for his spontaneity and mischievous spirit, as well as for his academic achievements. During the ceremony, Dennett recalled skipping school with Capelluto during their senior year for a “Lord of the Rings” marathon in honor of the release of “Return of the King”.

“Alex had a zest for life, from Model U.N. to just terrible horror movies,” Dennett said.

Walking onto the lightweight crew team his sophomore year, Capelluto made an effort to become part of the team right away, helping organize a fundraising event for Hurricane Katrina relief in the fall, teammate Ben Elkins ‘08 said. “He worked to make it a team fundraiser,” Elkins said.

“It was certainly something he didn’t think he could do, but he did it.”

Varsity lightweight head coach Andy Card said Capelluto worked as a catalyst on the team, inspiring teammates to work harder and better. Although he was not a superstar athlete, Capelluto inspired and encouraged his teammates by living with a fighting spirit, current varsity lightweight crew captain Brendan Stallard ‘07 said.

“He embodied the spirit on our team to embrace the dogfights in racing and never give your opponents an inch,” he said. “He rowed with his heart. Everyone could see that.”

After the sudden and harrowing loss of their teammate, Stallard said, the lightweight crew team has tried to take the lessons “Cap” gave them and use them to make something positive out of the tragedy.

“After Cap died, we knew we had to row a little bit more like Cap did,” Stallard said. “Putting skill aside, we needed to remember to be scrappy … because that was Cap’s style and it worked.”

The 20-year-old Capelluto was struck and killed by a 10-wheel truck at the intersection of Derby Avenue and Forest Road in West Haven while biking to campus from the Gilder Boathouse. According to the West Haven Police Department, no one has been charged in the incident, but the accident is still under investigation. In lieu of flowers, the Capelluto family asked that donations be made to the newly formed Alexander Capelluto Foundation. Focusing on the schools Capelluto attended — the Horace Mann School in Riverdale, N.Y., and Yale — Capelluto’s mother, Karen Capelluto, said the foundation will support students by providing supplementary funds to help them realize their full potential. Donations can be made at the foundation’s Web site, www.alexcap.org.

Welcome to the Alexander Capelluto Foundation!

You could never accuse Alex of being lazy. He was always doing – thinking, helping, learning, living, loving. How could we sit back and not do?

And so we did.

Alex’s generosity of spirit and the tremendous kindness we have been shown by family, friends, and strangers inspired us to create the Alexander Capelluto Foundation. Starting in 2007, students at Alex’s alma maters will receive the first ACF grants and will be on their way to changing their communities and fulfilling their academic dreams.

What can you do? ACF Grants will not be possible without generous funding. Please donate to the Foundation and send all your friends and family to www.alexcap.org to do the same!

Plus, check out our new website with photos, videos, background on the grants, and a place for you to share your memories! Start posting!