Of all the exceptional athletes that have been profiled in this space, none have achieved entry into their sport's Hall of Fame, at least not yet. Peter Beardsley '01, though, has already reached that milestone in his career as a sailor. Beardsley achieved this last summer, when he became the youngest person ever inducted into the College Sailing Hall of Fame.

Induction into the Hall is only the latest of many awards that Beardsley has won in a sailing career that began at age three. That his family was big into sailing is evidenced by his early exposure to the sport.

"I was first on a boat when I was six weeks old, and I started racing with my dad when I was three," Beardsley said.

This family interest led him to begin sailing at the junior level when he was nine in Stamford, Conn. After five years in the juniors, though, the commute from New York and the time commitment became too difficult to sustain, and Beardsley stopped sailing regularly. In fact, the future Hall of Famer almost didn't even plan on sailing at Amherst. Beardsley came in with dreams of playing lacrosse for the Jeffs and hadn't even mentioned sailing on his Amherst application.

"I just randomly saw the sailing table at the activity fair at orientation. I was about to leave and Willie [Rogers '01] came up to me and said I should check it out because he knew that I used to sail," he said.

That fall, the team had one boat, went to one regatta, and had three practices. But when lacrosse didn't work out and the then president of the team went abroad in the spring, Beardsley was left in charge.

"Andrew Blum '99 went to Rome that spring, and he left me with a box of sailing stuff and said, 'You're running the team now,'" said Beardsley.

From that inauspicious beginning, Beardsley slowly built the team into a large club sport. In the fall of 1998, the team went to eight regattas and held regular practices using old boats that had been left at the Oxbow Marina, where Amherst used to sail. As the team grew, so did their need for boats. With a loan of $10,000, the team purchased four used boats from the Merchant Marine Academy. The team began going to more and more regattas, and this spring the team will attend 25. Over 100 Amherst students have been exposed to sailing in the last three years by Beardsley's account.

His work with the Amherst team earned Beardsley recognition within the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) and he was elected as the central New England representative to the organization. During the two years that he served in the position, he spent most of his time trying to help the smaller sailing teams at colleges in Massachusetts. "The position is responsible for the health of the teams in Massachusetts, and I tried to build the small teams like we did," Beardsley explained.

Since there are no divisions in college sailing, small schools are at an inherent disadvantage, and Beardsley felt that small schools were not getting enough attention at the regional level.

Between presiding over his own team, helping other teams, and serving as the webmaster for NEISA, Beardsley was spending most of his free time on sailing. But all of his hard work paid off last summer when he was inducted into the Hall during the national collegiate sailing competition held at the Merchant Marine Academy. The honor came as a surprise to Beardsley, especially since most of the other 100 or so members of the Hall are either All-American sailors or long-time coaches.

"I got an email from Mike Horn (who used to coach the Amherst team) telling me 'congratulations' and that I had been chosen." The honors aside, what Beardsley really hopes for is that the Amherst team will continue to grow and thrive. "My goal was not just to do this for myself," he said. "My goal was to be able to come back here in thirty years and see a team at Amherst."