Sorry that I have had to miss so many recent discussions. I stumbled upon
below quote this morning and I just couldn't resist posting it. It seems to
me to address some of the questions about whether you wonderful people on
the other side of the pond should dismantle your tradition of "the
gentleman-amateur coach."

"Although in the early 1870s both Club and college rowing chose to
disassociate themselves formally from the professionals and their 'dirty
tricks,' it was not very realistic for American rowing to proscribe
professional watermen in favor of amateur coaches at that moment and in this
country. The example of England was very appealing but not too relevant.
There in a country of modest size with a well-established sporting tradition
such a group had already emerged: amateurs of independent means in
sufficient numbers to provide coaches and expertise for both universities
and clubs. Indeed, the unpaid amateur coach became the rule in England from
that day to this. Little wonder that American rowing, already looking to
England for so much in the way of technique and training, should seek to
emulate this ideal of the gentleman-amateur coach. Over the years before
World War I many of the great English names in this tradition would be lured
over to this country as consultants and even coaches. The end of such
visitors came in 1921 with the dramatic departure of Guy Nickkalls from Yale
as a result of his characterizing the Varsity as 'gutless.'" -Thomas C.
Mendenhall, "A Short History of American Rowing," p. 19, chapter The Rise
and Fall of the Professional Oarsman.

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