Former three-time All-American and Division II NCAA champion Sarah Whipple joined the California staff as an assistant coach in July 2008. Whipple spent the past season an assistant coach at UC Davis, her alma mater. A coxswain, Whipple won the Division II championship with the Aggies in 2002.
Whipple's duties at Cal include working with Bears head coach Dave O'Neill and the varsity squad as well as coordinating Cal's recruiting efforts.
Prior to returning to Davis, Whipple worked for two years as an assistant coach at Sacramento State, guiding Sacramento State's novice eight crew to a perfect 7-0 dual-meet record and a bronze medal at the 2006 Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) Championships.
Before that, Whipple was the novice women's coach for Capital Crew, the noted Sacramento-area rowing club, and was a junior pre-elite rowing coach at the Sacramento State Pre-Elite Junior Development Camp. While at the latter camp, she led the women's pair to back-to-back gold medals at the 2004 and 2005 USRowing National Championships. She also coached the junior women's varsity four to a bronze medal in 2004.
Whipple coached Capital Crew to a gold (novice four) and silver medal (novice eight) at the 2004 Southwest Junior Regional Championships. In 2005, her Capital Crew's novice four won a gold medal at the same championships.
The Orangevale, Calif., native earned her undergraduate degree in wildlife, fish, and conservation biology from UC Davis after participating on the Aggies' rowing team from 1999-2002. She was a team captain and All-America honoree while helping the Aggies win varsity eight and overall team championships at the national regatta in 2002, the first year the NCAA sponsored a Division II title.
Sarah's twin sister, Mary, will cox the U.S. women's eight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
