Wendy Davis, who has been a head coach at the University of Minnesota, has been named head coach of the Atomic Rowing program in Oak Ridge.
The appointment was announced by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association on Monday. It follows a nationwide search, a press release said.
Davis was head coach of the Women’s Division 1 Rowing program at the University of Minnesota since 2000, the press release said. While head coach, Davis helped the Golden Gophers rowing team become one of the nation’s leading collegiate organizations, and she was consistently recognized by her peers, twice receiving Big Ten Coach of the Year honors, the press release said. The 2019 Golden Gophers had a mid-year national ranking of 15th, the release said.
Before she joined Minnesota, Davis was a member of the Women’s Olympic Rowing Committee and trained Cindy Brooks, the 1999 national women’s double sculls champion. Davis also coached the Yale women’s team to four consecutive top five national rankings during her tenure there, the press release said. She started her coaching career at Stanford, where her novice team finished the 1998 season undefeated.
As a collegiate athlete, Davis was team MVP (most valuable player) at UCLA in 1982, the release said.
Davis will join the Oak Ridge Rowing Association immediately to prepare the Atomic Junior and Masters athletes for the fall 2019 season. She will be joined by her husband John Davis, the press release said.
The release said John Davis is a similarly accomplished rower and coach, recognized as a past national rowing champion and a world and Olympic trials finalist. He met Wendy while he was building Stanford University’s women’s program into a national powerhouse, and his women’s varsity eights teams recorded five national top five rankings, the press release said.
John Davis currently works with both juniors and masters rowers, most recently with significant accomplishments and championships from his masters teams at Minneapolis Rowing Club at both regional and national levels, the release said.
It said Wendy Davis is engaged with the ORRA board and staff members as they prepare of the fall season that begins August 26.
“She is excited by the opportunity that Atomic and ORRA present and has significant plans for increasing the breadth and scope of the available programs in our rowing community,” the press release said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
You can contact John Huotari, owner and publisher of Oak Ridge Today, at (865) 951-9692 or john.huotari@oakridgetoday.com.
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