Women's Rowing
- Title:
- Women's Rowing Head Coach
- Email:
- kmsanfor@syr.edu
- Phone:
- 2336
Kris Sanford is back for her 10th season as head women’s rowing coach at Syracuse University. She is looking forward to re-establishing her team as the fastest in the BIG EAST and helping it secure a team bid to the NCAA Championship. In 2005, Sanford’s varsity eight qualified for nationals for the fifth time in school history. The goal this year is to have each boat, each individual improve enough throughout the course of the season so that Syracuse will be one of the 12 schools selected to compete for a national championship come May.
If anyone can inspire a group of individuals to achieve such lofty goals, it is Sanford. Her rowers have consistently over-achieved, whether it be erg scores, a team championship event, performing in the classroom or volunteering for community service. Sanford’s strong values and coaching philosophies make a definitive impact on the student-athletes she mentors. Her team is probably the most well-rounded within the SU athletics department.
Sanford believes it is important to recruit "character kids," student-athletes who regard their schoolwork as top priority, followed by a strong commitment to the team. She believes that each rower on the team has a role and it is important for each individual to give 100% effort in everything they do, whether it be a conditioning session, a lift in the weightroom, a workout on the erg, or competing at a major regatta. The goal for Sanford is the same. She is setting out to teach her student-athletes about the value of hard work.
"We understand the need for students to come here and be students first," Sanford says. "At the same time, we’re in this to win. The realization is that to get to that point, it takes self-sacrifice. To get to the top you have to be willing to take responsibility for your actions because you’re going to be doing both winning and losing during the climb."
Sanford was promoted to head coach in the fall of 1996, after spending two seasons as SU’s novice coach and recruiting coordinator. She wasted little time getting acclimated to her new leadership role. By the time the NCAA was ready to hold its first championship for women’s rowing in the spring of 1997, Syracuse was part of it. In her debut season, Sanford guided the varsity eight to a fifth-place finish at the Eastern Sprints (the team’s best finish up until that point) and a spot in the inaugural NCAA Rowing Championship.
During the next three years, Sanford and her staff continued to pursue "character kids" that were capable of maintaining SU’s position among the top teams in the nation. Names like Libby Graves, Kate Modolo, Alicea Kochis, Rachael Kirchhoff and Jillian Kott helped take the Orange further, faster.
The hard work was beginning to manifest itself into impressive results. Sanford’s 2000 varsity eight earned an NCAA at-large bid and finished ninth at the national championship. That began a string of three-consecutive campaigns for the Orange at the nation’s premier collegiate event, the NCAA Rowing Championship.
Sanford’s 2001 season proved one for the record books. SU won the inaugural BIG EAST Rowing Challenge. The varsity eight was experienced, technically sound and fast. The boat won its first eight races and finished third at Eastern Sprints and sixth at the NCAA Championship. Both were program-best finishes. It was the first time in SU history that a boat made the national championship grand final. Sanford was recognized for getting her team there. She was named the BIG EAST, Mid-Atlantic Region and Eastern Sprints Coach of the Year.
The success spilled over into 2002 when another milestone was reached. SU received its first-ever "team bid" to the NCAA Championship. This meant the Orange had become multi-dimensional as a squad, more balanced. From top to bottom, Sanford had successfully got her point across that everyone on the team had a role to play. Her varsity eight now had support, and members of the JV8 and varsity four were all involved in the Syracuse quest for a national championship.
The 2002 and 2003 seasons marked the second and third consecutive BIG EAST Rowing Challenge titles for SU, and Sanford was the conference’s coach of the year both seasons.
She was not only guiding successful teams, she was also inspiring individuals on her team to reach their potential. The Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) began an All-America program in 2000 to garner recognition for the women who dedicate so much of their time and talent to the sport. Since the inception of that program, Sanford has placed four individuals on the list, including three-time All-Americas Jillian Kott and Anna Goodale, two-time honoree Kate Modolo and Kelly McGrorey in 2005. In addition, 14 SU rowers have been named to the CRCA Mid-Atlantic Region All-America team.
A Syracuse native, Sanford returned home in 1994 after spending four years as the Executive Director of the Indianapolis Rowing Center and one year as the Midwest Regional Technical Director for USRowing.
As executive director of the Indianapolis Rowing Center, Sanford was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the center, developing and coaching rowing programs, supervising fundraising and publishing a quarterly newsletter. Sanford served as the co-race director for the 1994 World Rowing Championship in Indianapolis. In 1996, she served as a statistician for NBC at the rowing venue at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
An accomplished rower herself, Sanford’s competitive career included a two-year stint on the U.S. Junior National Team (1983-84) and four years with the University of Washington women’s rowing team. At Washington, she was the stroke of the 1987 and 1988 National Collegiate Championship varsity eight. Her teams won four-straight Pac-10 Championships. In 1996, Sanford was named to the University of Washington and the Pac-10 All-Decade crew teams. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington in 1988.
Sanford continues to serve not only Syracuse University student-athletes, but rowing student-athletes across the nation. She was a member of the NCAA Women’s Rowing Committee, a group that oversees rules, regulations and policies pertaining to the sport, from 1998-2000.
She was elected by her peers to serve as President of the BIG EAST Coaches Association in 2004-05, and currently serves on the executive committee of the Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges (EAWRC).
Sanford comes from a large coaching family. Her father, Bill Sanford, retired in 2002 after coaching the men’s crew at Syracuse for 37 years. Sister, Jennifer, is the head women’s rowing coach at Connecticut. Her cousin, Tom Sanford, is the Director of Rowing at Marist College.
