Two years ago, John Pescatore got the job offer of a lifetime. But before he accepted the position of men's heavyweight crew coach at Yale, he made sure his new employers knew of his "strong desire" to enter his crew in the national championship regatta.

To the uninitiated, that doesn't sound so controversial. But to Yale crew traditionalists, the real national championship is the Yale-Harvard Regatta at New London, the oldest intercollegiate sports competition in the nation. And what the rest of the country thinks of as the national championship -- the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta -- takes place every year at a time when Yale crews traditionally take up residence in their New London boathouse to prepare to face Harvard.

Gone are the days when Yale and Harvard were the nation's two best crews.

"I've been around the program a long, long time," says George Pew '58, a former crew manager who has headed the Yale Crew Association and sits on the Yale-Harvard Regatta's organizing committee. "To a lot of us, the Harvard race was the thing to shoot for."

Pescatore argued that the days when Yale and Harvard were by definition the nation's two best crews were over. In recent years -- 18 of the past 20 -- Yale rowers have spent weeks preparing for the race, only to see their season end in a loss to Harvard. Why not add more races against the rest of the nation's best crews? "In light of recent Yale-Harvard results, something clearly had to change," says former rower Nate Kirk '02.

The Yale athletics department felt the same way, and Pescatore, who rowed at Penn in the 1980s and won an Olympic bronze medal in 1988, added the national regatta to the schedule soon after he arrived. This meant that the Bulldogs would compete in up to four 2,000-meter races over three days, then switch gears for the much longer (four-mile) Harvard race just a week later.

In Pescatore's first year at Yale, his varsity boat finished 15th at the national regatta. But this year, his rowers narrowly missed qualifying for the grand final among the top six teams -- falling to Princeton by just half a second in the semifinal -- and then won the petite final to finish seventh overall, ahead of higher-ranked clubs such as Wisconsin and Dartmouth. The crew's style was equally exciting. "They were rowing down lead crews and passing them," says Pescatore. Even the former head of the Yale Crew Association has become a full-fledged Pescatore supporter. "He's the right guy right now," says Pew.

Pescatore and his rowers speak highly of former coach David Vogel '71, who coached the lightweight crew for 16 years and the heavyweights for 13, winning a national championship in 1982. But Pescatore says that in the two years before he came, the club fell into poor shape. "There was a large flight from the program," he notes. Just two seniors and six juniors were on the roster in the 2002-2003 season.

Among the rowers who remained, some had developed what Pescatore considered a subpar work ethic. He was disappointed to find that crew members rarely took extra time in the rowing tank. "People wanted to sleep in," he recalls. "I knew I had a battle of getting people in shape." He started to see the tank fill up last September, but he says more work remains. "The people I inherited weren't working hard enough, and they still aren't working hard enough, but they're working harder."

Vogel, who now works in Yale's fund-raising office, says that his rowers always gave their all, and that the sophomore class Pescatore inherited was deep and strong. Still, he says that the class of 2002 "never really jelled," leading to three down years after Yale's come-from-behind win against Harvard in 1999.

Rowers say they've embraced Pescatore's relentless style and harsh demands, which he somehow tempers with equanimity. "Pescatore has a vision and doesn't take or want much input from his rowers, which I think is a good thing," says last year's captain, Andrew Brennan '04. "The goal of rowing is to have everyone doing the exact same thing all the time." Adds Matthew Brown '06, of the increased volume of daily workouts, "It's a team that buys into the pain."

The crew hopes to do even better next year; 14 of the top 18 boatsmen are returning, and the freshman boat placed third at the national regatta. But Harvard is still way out in front. Its longtime coach, Harry Parker, added the national race to his schedule just after Yale did, and his crews have won the last two national championships. In June, Yale's varsity boat lost to Harvard at New London for the fifth straight year.

Still, Yale halved the margin of defeat -- from 50 seconds the previous year to 25 seconds. Pescatore and his oarsmen hope their success will attract recruits, and that new blood and hard work could bring a national championship and a victory over Harvard in the next couple of years. Ironically, if Yale does reclaim its spot among the nation's best teams, the Yale-Harvard Regatta will reclaim its national prominence -- thanks in part to the coach who tampered with tradition.