Cougar helps float UW crew's boat

A Cougar is in the top-ranked Huskies' varsity eight that will try to win the national rowing championship starting today in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Officially, David Worley is an ex-Cougar who transferred to Washington last fall as a senior, but his Apple Cup sentiments remain crimson and gray.

"I've gone to a lot more Apple Cups wearing crimson," he explained.

The Oak Harbor rower is truly an improbable Husky. Senior transfers from colleges where rowing is a club sport are ultra-longshots to make varsity boats at major rowing schools.

Worley pulled it off.

This guy is full of surprises. Most UW rowers were decorated high-school athletes or longtime rowers. Worley has been rowing three years. He didn't make the Oak Harbor High School golf team and played one year of high-school tennis.

"I just decided I wanted to try tennis," he said. His main high-school interests were snowboarding and motorcycle riding. One of his passions is downhill mountain biking.

Worley, who is 6 feet 5, was approached by the WSU rowing club about pulling an oar as a freshman, but he never showed up at the informational meeting after learning that practices started at 6 a.m.

He said his priority his first two years in Pullman "was to enjoy the Washington State lifestyle, which is all it's rumored to be."

Finally, as a junior, he was walking toward the campus recreation center with a tall friend one day when a crew recruiter confronted them. Worley and his friend agreed to try rowing.

"In a week I was hooked," he said.

He spent his first year in the novice boat, then moved last year to the Cougars' varsity. Last summer, he attended a rowing camp at the University of Washington, and he and pairs partner Derek DeVries did well, placing second and third in a national regatta.

Worley went back to WSU, which is on the semester system, and started classes in August. He was in school for weeks when DeVries sent him a text message that said, "It's a shame you didn't come and row here [UW] this year."

Worley had a light-bulb moment and said he was interested. Two hours later, Huskies coach Bob Ernst passed the word: "We'll make this happen."

"Two days later I was in Seattle," said Worley, who went from paying club dues to row at WSU to receiving a partial scholarship at the UW.

Ernst warned Worley that his chance of making the varsity boat was "slim," but Worley is a poor listener when it comes to hearing the odds against him.

The Huskies' system of selecting varsity rowers in the fall worked in his favor. They compete in pairs-with-coxswain at fall practices, and the top four pairs make the varsity eight for the limited fall racing schedule. Worley and DeVries finished third overall and earned seats.

At the UW winter camp in San Diego, Worley teamed with Heath Allen, a transfer from Colorado, and never lost a pairs race. Both have been in the undefeated varsity boat all spring. DeVries is in the JV boat.

Worley, who rows in the No. 4 seat in the middle of the boat, has aspirations beyond a collegiate title.

He has dual citizenship because his mother is British and he wants to row in the Olympics, for the U.S. or England.

"They are rubbing him pretty hard to come over there [England]," said David's father, Bruce, a retired Navy commander who started in the military as an enlisted man.

Ernst said Worley has what it takes to be an international athlete.

"He's a big strong guy, and he's determined," Ernst said. "He's quite a story."

The undefeated Huskies are seeking their first national varsity title since 1997 and enter the three-day Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta as favorites.

"When we get out of the hotel elevator, every other team turns and stares at us," Worley said Wednesday from New Jersey. "It's like we're the big guys on the block right now."

For a former club rower, that's quite a change.

Notes

• The UW varsity is in the first of four heats this morning at 4:36 a.m. PDT against Dartmouth, Syracuse, Brown, Holy Cross and Purdue. Ernst considers Brown to be particularly underrated and dangerous. Twelve of 24 crews will advance to Friday's semifinals and six to Saturday's final. Harvard is seeded No. 2 and Cal No. 3.

• The UW junior varsity is seeded third, and the Huskies freshmen are seeded fourth.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com