This Page About History of Vassar Rowing

History of Vassar Rowing

Rowing at Vassar began with one young coach, two old wooden shells, and a handful of students who were eager to spend some time on the Hudson River and learn more about competition beyond the classrooms of the Vassar College campus. Rowing was so accurately named "the champagne of sports" by Vassar's very first coach, Scott Sanford, who founded and launched the program in the fall of 1983 as a part-time coach. Though principle of Spackenkill High School at the time, Scott Sanford saw a vision for the future of athletics at Vassar.

Initially rowing out of a local high school's boathouse with a pair of donated wooden eight-oared shells, rowing took on popularity with student-athletes at Vassar. Within a couple of years, Vassar was able to move their small contingent to their own small, but much needed, space donated by A.C. Dutton Lumber Corp. This structure was altered to best suit the housing of the shells and stood next to the Marist College Boathouse, about 2000m down-river of the previous FDR site. Sanford and the team themselves built the docks off of which they rowed. While Sanford coached the men, long-time friend Ed Clark helped Sanford by coaching the women's squad. It wasn't long before Sanford and Clark began to see success as the hard work of their time and efforts began to pay off.

Seeing the need for more space, additional boats, and equipment to support the growing team at Vassar, President Fran Fergusson went forward with plans to help the team expand. In 1994-95, Vassar purchased the remaining riverfront property adjacent to the small boathouse owned by A.C. Dutton Lumber Corp. that included three buildings to be renovated and utilized by the Rowing team.

These are the same facilities currently being used by Vassar Rowing today: a spacious boathouse that is home to seven eights, four fours, and four pairs, a locker room with bathrooms and showers, a club house where the team often reviews videotape from practice and competitions, and a launch house where coaching launches and equipment are stored. In addition, new and larger docks were installed on the property that allow for three eights and two fours to launch simultaneously.

In 1997, rowing was elevated to varsity status at Vassar. The team enjoyed immediate success racing in the fours competition with several medal performances in the varsity and lightweight fours (see Honors page). Since hiring Head Coach Mike Alton in 2000, the focus has shifted to the stronger eights competition. At the 2001 Avaya ECAC Collegiate Championships, the Brewers' Varsity Eight rallied for a third-place finish in the Third Level Final. An impressive showing considering the boat included five freshmen and two sophomores. The boat was ranked nationally in the top 20 for the season. The 2001-02 season showed a continuing increase of success.

The Varsity Eight won both the Knecht Cup and Skidmore Invitational while ranking as high as 14th in the Collegiate Coaches Association National rankings for Division III Varsity Eights. At the 2002 Avaya ECAC Collegiate Championships, Vassar competed in the Varsity Four event earning a silver medal.

The following 2002 fall season saw the Varsity Eight off on a high note, winning the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in the club eight event, in front of many Division I schools. In the spring of 2003, the Vassar women had another impressive run. The Varsity Eight made the finals at the NY State Championships for the first time in the eights event; they placed fifth in the final ahead of all other Division III schools in NY and behind Division I programs Buffalo, Army, and Marist.

The 2003 spring season also saw the team qualifying all three of its women's eights for the ECAC Championship. The Varsity Eight ended the season ranked 7th in the Collegiate Coaches Association Rowing Poll for the Division III varsity eights. This high ranking was achieved by winning several early races in the year including the Knecht Cup and Skidmore Invitational.

The spring of 2004 revealed a number of team highlights for the Vassar College Women's Rowing Program. Head Coach Mike Alton (5th Year) experienced one of the most successful seasons in his career at Vassar as the Women's Varsity Eight placed 6 th in the grand finals of the ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference) Championships behind five of the countries top crews: Smith, WPI, Ithaca, USCGA, and Dayton. This was the highest placing for an eight in Vassar Women's Rowing history at this event, a boat that included five four-year rowers. The Varsity 8+ also advanced to the grand finals at the 2004 New York State Championships (the finals were later cancelled due to bad weather). The Varsity Eight had a 9-1 in conference record last spring as well; Vassar competes in the Liberty League Conference. Most notably, Vassar finished the 2004 spring season tied at 8 th place among all Division III Rowing Institutions in the season-ending Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Poll. Continue to learn more about rowing, please visit Vassar.

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