“He’ll spend time with everyone,” captain Mike DiSanto said. “He’ll treat them just the same on and off the water.”

Parker’s concern with the performance of the whole team has paid off. Just last year, every single Crimson eight went undefeated during the dual season.

“From the bottom up, the bottom guy in the team pushes the guy ahead of him,” DiSanto said. “You have guys pushing each other all the way ... everyone down there just wants to win. Everyone just wants to give their best. He has installed that in our program.”

TOUGHNESS

“If Harvard is tied with you at the thousand, you can damn well be sure you’re going to lose to them at the finish,” McDaniel said.

All of Parker’s innovations in technique and training would have been for naught had his crews lacked the toughness to compete.

But luckily for the Crimson, Harry’s mental toughness and his ability to find it in his rowers are among his greatest strengths.

“I’ve been coached by many people,” said McDaniel, who rowed on the Canadian national team from 2005 to 2008. “The mental toughness he instills in his athletes is unparalleled."

One beneficiary was Howard.

“When I got to Harvard, I was a talented rower,” he said. “But I don’t think I was a very good racer.”

“Malcolm was always a phenomenal physical specimen,” recalled McDaniel, who raced against Howard in high school. “But I was able to beat him.”

But that changed when Howard got to Harvard.

“A lot of what I learned from Harry was how to race,” Howard said. “He gives you that fire inside of that makes you want to go out and win … and I thought each season and each year under Harry, I became a better racer.”

Howard’s three straight undefeated seasons with the Crimson and 2008 Olympic gold medal would certainly suggest so.

COURAGE