Team players in any sport usually don't make
waves, that is, they don't make trouble, and the expression above might
come from sculling, in which a rower's strokes must be smooth and uniform,
not choppy. But the phrase might be from the old joke about a person who
arrives in hell and hears the place filled with lovely serene voices
singing, though he can't make out the words. Amazed at such peace and
serenity in the nether regions, he approaches closer only to find the
chorus of hell standing up to their chins in excrement, singing endlessly
to each other, softly, serenely, carefully, "don't make waves, don't make
waves."