By Wayne Partridge
Staff Writer
Nov. 31, 1996

The recent defection of some of the top athletes from the U.S. Sculling Center in Augusta doesn't concern rowing coaches.

``It's not unusual. It's what we call the `silly season,' - after the world championships and before the Olympics, many athletes make what appear to be irrational decisions, then, after a couple of months, they come back,'' said Mike Spracklen, one of the coaches for the U.S. National Rowing Team.

Some of the ``silly'' athletes are among America's best chances for a spot on the medal stand in '96.

Cyrus Beasley, the top heavyweight sculler in the nation, has abandoned the Augusta sculling camp to train with sweep rowers under Spracklen's watch in San Diego. America's top lightweight sculler, James Martinez, left last week to train in chilly Princeton, N.J.

Some scullers say Beasley, Martinez and other athletes have left because of the recent vandalism to equipment at their Riverfront Drive warehouse and the unfulfilled, 2-year-old promise of a new boathouse with weight training facilities and showers.

Now that a newly renovated boathouse has been promised by spring, some expect the scullers to return. But even if they didn't, Igor Grinko, coach at the Augusta rowing center, said he has enough talented athletes remaining to field medal-quality boats next summer.

He was planning to turn some athletes away, anyway, to concentrate on the athletes most likely to be on the Olympic team.

``Now is time to squish, squish, squish,'' said Grinko, as he closed an imaginary circle with his hands. ``I don't want too many people or it gets too busy to concentrate.''

Besides, Grinko said, Beasley and Martinez are being supervised by top coaches in New Jersey and California, so they haven't been dropped from the U.S. athlete pool.

``People leave for many reasons - girlfriends, jobs, education. They want to train where it's convenient. If they train hard they can make team. But I can't help them if they are not here,'' Grinko said.