The Harvard men’s water polo team entered last year’s Northern Division Championships riding high. The squad was ranked No. 15 nationally and had earned the second seed in the prestigious tournament. The Crimson had to be considered a shoo-in for an Eastern Championships berth.

But lowly Brown, thought to pose little threat to Harvard’s future plans, stunned the Crimson with a dramatic 7-6 victory, courtesy of a game-winning goal scored with just 15 seconds remaining.

Since then, Harvard’s squad has undergone a major overhaul. Five of seven starters have graduated from last season—including Honorable Mention All-American Mike Masteron ‘03—and four freshmen are now on the roster. Add in new coach Scott Russell to the mix, and the team is barely recognizable.

But none of Harvard’s changes have righted the ship for this struggling, puzzled team.

Since the Bears slammed the door shut on the Crimson’s 2002 campaign, Harvard has won just once in 10 games.

The reason cited for the poor performances is not poor team chemistry nor is it lack of talent. Rather, it is simple fatigue from an intense workout schedule the likes of which none of the swimmers has ever seen.

“In the previous years we only did mornings at the beginnings of the year,” junior captain Rick Offsay said.

Not so this season.

Three times a week the squad practices twice a day—for an hour beginning at 6 a.m. and then for two and a half hours in the afternoon—with afternoon workouts on other non-game days. In other words, the Crimson has been worked to the brink of collapse.

“[It] makes the college schedule pretty difficult, considering we’re not done at practice until seven and later dinner at eight,” Offsay said.

Add in three or four games each weekend for the past three weeks and the result is a team running on fumes.

“We don’t have one-hundred percent in the tank at the beginning of the game,” Offsay said. “We can go out and play that first quarter as tough as anyone, which is the promising thing [and] gives me hope for the rest of the season.”

Unfortunately for Harvard, games are longer than just one quarter.

Worn down, the Crimson have collapsed in the second half of close games on several occasions, most recently in a rematch against Brown.

Harvard trailed just 2-1 after a tough opening period, only to be out-scored 11-1 the rest of the way.