"Everyone is moving at once," she said, "and you've got to figure out how to outmaneuver your opponents and find the quickest route around the race course while everyone else is trying to do the same thing.

"It calls for strategy and tactics, two good military skills."

Haberland should know. She's been sailing since she was 9 years old. Haberland grew up in Chicago, sailing on Lake Michigan. Her father went to a boat show and bought a boat, so the family could go boating as a family activity.

"I would steer and my father, brother, sister and sometimes my mom would crew," she recalled. "We won a bunch of stuff."

By the time she was 13, she had entered her first national sailing competition. By the time she was 20, she was competing on the world level.

Now, at age 44, she has won 25 national and world sailing events, some on her own and some with other sailors. "Of the 25, some were in small boats that could be sailed single-handed; others were double-handed, and still other keelboats had a three to five person crew," she said.

During her 35 years of sailing, she has raced in regattas that have had as few as two boats entered and others with as many as 400 boats. She's competed in 40 countries and been to the Olympics twice. The first time she was an alternate. The second time she competed.

"I tried for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona in the women's singlehanded class," Haberland said. She placed third in the Olympic Trials. Chosen as an alternate, she helped train the women who participated in the Olympics.

"I left after the opening ceremonies," she said.

In the fall of 2003, she was offered the opportunity to go to the Olympic Trials as part of the women's class, three-person keelboat.

"This was the first time the Olympics has ever had a women's keelboat class," she said. The team won the Trials. Haberland took time off from coaching to train for and compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In mid-October, she and the other U.S. Olympic athletes went to the White House to meet with President George Bush.

"At 44, I was one of the oldest athletes on the U.S. team," Haberland said. "It would be enticing to try one more time for the pinnacle."

While Haberland has already been approached to join a 2008 Olympic team, she says it's too early for her to make that commitment. "But maybe," she muses. "It would be nice to win a Gold Medal. I've achieved 90 percent of my sailing goals."

Next to the Olympics, she remembers most winning the World Match Racing Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "Betsy Alison and I were representing the U.S. It was the first world championship in match racing, and we won it.

"We were first on the podium and they played our national anthem and gave us our medal. It's something I'll never forget."

Haberland has sailed quite a bit with Alison. She regards her as one of the best women sailors in the world.

While Haberland can be a fierce sailing competitor, she has spent periods of her life sailing recreationally, coaching and skiing, biking and swimming. During high school and college, she worked either as a sailing instructor or as a director of sailing. After college, she coached first at the J World Sailing School. Then, she coached at various places.

While she has a degree as a dietician, she always comes back to sailing. "It's more fun," she says.

Haberland has coached at the academy twice. The first time, from 1994 ? 1997, she coached both the Intercollegiate Sailing Team and the Junior Varsity Offshore Sailing Team. Since her return in 2000, she has just coached JVOST.

Comparing her team to the VOST team, she says it's the difference between preparing someone for a quarter-miler and a marathon. She teaches the midshipmen the sailing basics, water safety, and about sailboat racing. Her team consists of 10 J-24s. Each is manned by three plebes and one youngster.

She holds tryouts in August and picks the top 30 plebes for the team. She also picks the top 10 youngsters from the previous year to captain the boats.

One of the best leadership opportunities a youngster can have, it puts them in charge of their own boat, she says. "They are in charge of the crew and their safety and teaching them everything they know, while also progressing themselves."

Sailing also teaches teamwork. "Each crew member is an integral part of the victory," Haberland said. "You have to know your job really well and other people's jobs some. You have to have the confidence to handle any situation, whether it's a collision, equipment malfunction or a squall.

"All the crew has to work together quickly and efficiently to get speed around the race course. How efficient they are, their speed, strategy and tactics can all make a difference in whether they win or lose a race."

In many respects, the same qualities that make a good sailor will make a good officer. "You need someone who is a good and quick decision maker," Haberland said. "You have to pay a lot of attention to detail. You have to focus on the big task while a lot of little chaos is going on around you.

"Your equipment may be breaking and your crew may be arguing about how to fix it, but you can't get distracted from all the other things that are going on. You've got to focus on your tactics and what the other boats are doing."

Even with 35 years of sailing, Haberland says she is still learning. Just recently in practice, she asked her midshipmen to sail backwards. Most did what she expected, but a few flew their spinnakers in reverse. "I'd never tried doing that maneuver," Haberland said, "but it worked."

That brings Haberland to why she loves coaching at the academy. She loves it that everyone comes to practice and the whole team seems to have a passion for sailing.

"When everyone is having fun and wants to learn and get better every day, it's fun to coach and teach them," Haberland said.

As she enters her eighth year of coaching at the academy, Haberland said she has never seen a superintendent so supportive and understanding of how sailing can help midshipmen in their naval career.

"(Vice) Adm. (Rodney) Rempt's support of the sailing team is great for the program," she said.