Minas, UW Crew Dealing With Death -- Bow For Men's Eight Finally Rediscovers Passion For Rowing After Tragedy Involving Ex-Teammate

Matt Minas awakens to dark mornings. Usually wet and chilly, they nurture a certain kind of loneliness. Relief comes and goes quickly with only eight hours of daylight.

But it was more than years of dark mornings and practices on a cold lake that created the fog in Minas' heart. It got so thick, so heavy, even his friends and teammates could not begin to understand.

A little more than two years ago, on a cold winter afternoon, Minas' best friend David Ingham drowned in the Montlake cut. No one knows for sure, but it was determined that Ingham, then a 19-year-old freshman rower for the University of Washington, killed himself about a month after a skiing accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.

It was the most difficult year in Minas' life. The summer before Ingham's death, a member of Minas' immediate family died. Minas, then a junior, finished the crew season, rowing stroke for the UW's varsity eight. His boat finished fourth at the national championships.

But the routine got to be too much, too familiar.

"When the days start to get shorter, you get those winter blues," said Minas, now a senior on the Washington crew team. "It was all starting to get to me. I needed to get away. But it was easy to take time off because I knew I would come back. I knew the feeling would come back."

The posture Minas took yesterday in the Conibear Shellhouse suggested he never had left. After taking last season off, Minas is back in the varsity boat, this time rowing bow. Saturday morning he will row in his sixth Windermere Cup Opening Day Regatta.

"Honestly, it feels like I never left," Minas said.

He is just one of the reasons Coach Bob Ernst suggested this year's varsity boat might be the best he has ever coached, one replete with former and new stars. Rowing stroke will be Jason Scott, a Pan Am Games medal winner and transfer from Boston University. Behind him are two Olympians, Scott Munn and Roberto Blanda.

Munn, a senior, also returned after a year off training with U.S. Olympic team. He rowed the third seat for the U.S. team in Barcelona. Blanda rowed for Italy's Olympic team in Barcelona. All of which takes considerable pressure off Minas, who rowed stroke as a junior after Munn was injured.

"Probably the thing he enjoys the most is being one of the good guys instead of being the good guy," Ernst said. "He's gone from the stroke seat to the bow seat. I've challenged him to be the best bowman in the country, and he's done that. He could row (higher) almost anywhere else."

Minas has been at both ends of the boat, but said he feels most comfortable at the bow and has no ego problems with the position change.

"Matt is above that," Scott said. "If it were me, my attitude would be bad, and it would detract from the boat. But that's me; I'm a control freak. But Matt's attitude is great. That's just Matt.

"We all look to Matt for support, in and out of the boat. A lot of people wouldn't have been able to cope with what he's been through. Taking the year off was probably the best thing for him."

Though it has been two years since his death, talking about Ingham is difficult for everybody on the team. The rowing community is so closely knit, Munn said, that Ingham's death struck even rowers not on the team. Munn and Scott met Ingham in 1988 while at a junior rowing camp. Munn and Scott both qualified for the junior world team after the camp. Ingham was one of the last rowers cut.

"He was such a promising athlete," Munn said. "Talking about it is still very upsetting to a lot of people."

Talking about Ingham is easier now for Minas, who during the 1991 season would not discuss him at all. The two were two grades apart, but were friends at Seattle's Lakeside School. Minas can say now that he was in no way prepared for Ingham's death.

"I really couldn't imagine what he was going through," Minas said. "I can't really understand, to have to watch your friends walk out the door . . . I can't imagine."

Minas attended school in the fall of 1991, but stopped rowing. He spent the winter of 1992 living in Sun Valley, Idaho, with a friend. He spent most of his time skiing and thinking of Ingham because skiing was something his friend loved.

"Taking the year off had a lot to do with school too," said Minas, who is two quarters away from graduating with a degree in political science. "I didn't know what I was doing there. I'm definitely more focused now. I needed time to do things I wanted to do. I couldn't do that with school and crew. In Idaho, I could go hiking, go skiing, do whatever I wanted."

To some extent Minas had stopped enjoying rowing. Rowing and skiing are loves for Minas, as they were for Ingham. But Ingham lost his will. During the year off, Minas rediscovered his.

The cold mornings and races through the cut still evoke memories of Ingham, who died near the finish line for Saturday's race. Until last season, Minas had competed in every Opening Day race since 1987, when he was a member of the Green Lake crew.

"I think about him when I'm on the water," Minas said. "I'm still dealing with (his death); there's no question about that. I will for a long time. I guess there are still a lot of questions in my mind.

"He meant a lot to me as a friend. We had common dreams and goals that tied us together. I guess I just miss him a lot."