Lewis wins Division III Rowing Coach of the Year award

Posted by: Andy Walter on June 4, 2007

View the CRCA Coaches of the Year release

LEWISTON, Maine — Anne Lewis of Bates College received Division III Coach of the Year honors Monday from the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association, following Bates women’s rowing’s superb 2007 season.

As interim co-head coach along with Eliot Pitney at Bates in 2006-07, during which time head coach Andrew Carter was on leave, Lewis guided the Bobcats women’s crew to a third-place finish in the overall team standings and the bronze medal in the grand final at the NCAA Rowing Championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Bates sent two boats to NCAAs after winning fourth place in the 1V finals and third place in the 2V finals at the New England Rowing Championships. Bates also placed two crew members, Nicole Ritchie and Jackie Olson, on the CRCA All-America eights for the first time.

A native of Belmont, Mass., Lewis attended Williams College with little rowing experience. As a sophomore she was a member of Williams’ 1V boat that won the grand final and took home the first NCAA Division III Rowing Championship in 2002. Lewis also captained the Williams crew to a third-place national finish in 2004. After graduating with a physics and political science double major, she served as a volunteer assistant at Boston University in 2004-05 before joining the Bates staff as assistant rowing coach in 2005, guiding the Bates women’s novice crew to a silver medal at the New England championships and a bronze at ECACs in 2006.

Other winners of the award were Will Porter of Yale (Division I), Virginia’s Steve Pritzker (Division I assistant) and John Fuchs of Western Washington University (Division II).

According to the CRCA, the award recognizes “the rowing coach that fits one or more of the following criteria from each of the three NCAA divisions: he/she has had outstanding success during the current season; he/she has demonstrated great team improvement from prior season; he/she has fulfilled his/her team’s potential; he/she has demonstrated a high level of professionalism and integrity as a coach.”

The Spring 2007 Bates women’s crew: Back row, standing (L-R): Co-Interim Head Coach Eliot Pitney, Nicole Ritchie, Gabby Voeller, Sarah Ewing, Catherine Cluett, Josie Cutts, Alexia Zhang, Danica Doroski, Kara Constantine, Co-Interim Head Coach Anne Lewis. Middle row, kneeling (L-R): Laura Director, Emily Chandler, Jeanethe Falvey, Jaclyn Olson, Laura Hubbell, Brianna Belanger, Kate Harmsworth-Morrissey Front row, seated (L-R): Chelsea Thibodeau, Caitlin Murphy, Charlotte Coulter, Rachel Tofel, Lindsay Thomson, Emily Howieson.