The Princeton University women’s open varsity 8 churning through the water in a 2024 race.

Lori Dauphiny Enjoys Unprecedented Success as Head Coach for PU Women’s Open Crew

By Bill Alden | Photos courtesy of Row2K

When Lori Dauphiny decided to walk on to the University of Washington women’s crew program in 1981, it didn’t look like she had much of a future in rowing.

As an undersized former high school swimmer with no experience competing in crew, Dauphiny was a long shot to make the squad.

“All over the Washington campus were posters — ‘If you are 5’10 or above, walk on to the rowing team,’ and I am 5’6,” recalls Dauphiny, a Seattle-area native. “I went to the rowing team meeting and said, ‘I am not 5’10, but I really want to row.’ And they said, ‘Well if you can compete with others, and you are a good athlete and competitive, then we will give you a shot.’ They gave me a shot.”

Displaying grit and tenacity, Dauphiny made the team, ultimately rising to the second varsity 8 and sparking a love affair with the sport.

“I loved it, it was really cool; it was a water sport, and I had always been in water sports, but it was just different,” says Dauphiny, noting that legendary Washington coach Jan Harville had a major influence on her development as a rower. “It was sensory overload in the beginning because I was so used to being in the pool and following this black line. There were birds and trees. Some of the same elements apply to swimming and rowing. A lot of the training in rowing is similar to swimming: there is a stroke, a catch, a finish, there is a recovery, and there is a drive.”

Driven to stay in sport, Dauphiny got a job coaching at the Green Lake youth rowing program.

Dauphiny lugging oars before a session on the water.

“It was my first introduction to coaching and I absolutely loved it,” says Dauphiny, who was initially considering becoming a physical therapist. “I loved the people I worked with; they were fantastic coaches. I really enjoyed teaching kids.”

Heartened by that experience, Dauphiny headed east and eventually ended up coaching collegiate rowing, where her love for the sport has led to a fantastic career.

After coaching the women’s novice program at Columbia for two years, Dauphiny came to Princeton University in 1989 to take over its women’s novice program. She was promoted to guide the Princeton women’s open program in 1997, becoming the first women’s head coach in program history. Since then, Dauphiny has established herself as a legend.

Dauphiny, second from right, celebrating with her rowers after Princeton placed third in the team standings at the 2022 NCAA Championships.

She has guided the Tigers to every NCAA championship regatta since its inception in 1997, with Princeton winning the varsity 8 title in 2006 and 2011. She has coached in the 2004 and 2024 Olympics, and several of her rowers have excelled in Olympic competition. She was a Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Hall of Fame inductee in 2019, the 2006 USRowing Woman of the Year, and a two-time National Coach of the Year.

In reflecting on her journey, Dauphiny maintains that serendipity has played a key role in her success.

When she initially came east on a one-way ticket after coaching at Green Lake, she had nothing lined up and was bouncing around the Boston-Washington corridor with no set plans.

“I was encouraged by the coach here at Princeton, Willie Black. He said, ‘You should look at Columbia. It is pretty cool — the coaches there are nice. I think they might be looking for a women’s novice coach,’” said the affable Dauphiny, 62, sitting in the Princeton boathouse this past January looking out on Lake Carnegie. “So I went to the Columbia campus and one guy was a wearing a rowing jacket and I said, ‘Hey where are the rowing coaches’ offices?’ And he was like, ‘Follow me’ and he took me to the Dodge physical fitness center down in the dungeon.”

Once there, she found another love of her life as she encountered Columbia women’s crew coach Ed Hewitt, her future partner. “I went there, knocked on the door, and Ed opens the door,” says Dauphiny. “He had just gotten done with a workout and had no shirt on and said, ‘Excuse me,’ because he thought it was just another coach. He closed the door and put his clothes on and opened the door again. It is never love at first sight for me, I have to get to know someone, but I thought, ‘He is intriguing.’”

Dauphiny got a tour of the boathouse from Hewitt and ended up applying for the novice job.

“I went through the formal process, but the honest part of this is I think they were desperate, and I just happened to stumble in,” says Dauphiny. “They didn’t have a coach. Their coach left, and the season had already started. They really needed a freshman coach. I don’t think I wowed them. I think he was desperate, and I got the job.”

It didn’t take long for Dauphiny to realize that she had found her calling.

“That was my first collegiate coaching experience and early on he said, ‘I think you should coach, you are good at this,’” says Dauphiny. “I never have any confidence. I was, ‘OK, I am glad you gave me a vote of confidence.’ I worked really hard. That was the first time I felt like this was something I should pursue at a higher level.”

During her two years at Columbia, Dauphiny gained valuable experience on and off the water.

“It is a great place; it has challenges, and I learned so much as a novice coach there,” says Dauphiny. “Back then there were freshman sports, so you were given half the team. You have the recruits and all the freshmen, and you develop people. As a coach it was a great area for opportunity to learn how to develop a team. I had to learn how to drive a boat trailer in New York City and it was fast learning. I had to learn how to deal with the Harlem River, which is swift with currents and there are other obstacles. The Circle Line is coming through, and you learn very quickly about the elements and nature.”

With Hewitt’s encouragement, Dauphiny came to Princeton in 1989 as its women’s open novice coach and once again good fortune intervened.

“He said, ‘OK, Lori, I think you are a good coach, I think you should apply for this job’” says Dauphiny, who has now been with Hewitt for 26 years and the couple has a son, Connor, a star defender for the Princeton High boys’ soccer team. “He said, ‘You should go, this would be a good place for you to go.’ So, I applied, and I didn’t get it but the person who did get the job decided they didn’t want it and I was the next person.”

Upon coming to Lake Carnegie, Dauphiny found herself working with rowing legends.

“I stepped into the Princeton boathouse with the old guard — Dan Roock, Joe Murtaugh, Curtis Jordan, and Gary Kilpatrick,” says Dauphiny. “They were the old guard and they had developed this boathouse that had such unity that exists like nowhere else. The other lucky break was that Mike Teti was hired on the same day as me. Mike was the freshman men’s coach and I was the novice women’s coach. Mike is one of the best coaches and I have learned so much from him. He has an eye like no one else I know. I still call Mike for advice. This is what I mean by being surrounded by such amazing people — I truly am riding on the shoulders of giants.”

Current Princeton men’s heavyweight head coach Greg Hughes was a Tiger lightweight rower when Dauphiny came on the scene, and she made quite an impression on him.

“I don’t know if I ever saw one of her boats lose a race in her time as a women’s novice coach,” says Hughes. “She was an impressive coach for sure, but also an impressive leader and role model.”

In 1997, Dauphiny was promoted to the head coach of the Princeton women’s open program.

“I did feel ready, but I didn’t have a lot of confidence,” she says. “Dan Roock was the one who told me I was ready. Dan was going to Cornell to be the men’s coach. He said, ‘Lori, this job is opening, and I think you should get it. You are ready for it.’ I said, ‘Dan, I don’t know if I am ready and he said, ‘Oh no, you are ready.’”

Having already coached most of the rowers in the program, Dauphiny had a comfort level as she took the helm of the program.

“When I came in as the varsity coach, the team had all of the women that I had developed over the years,” says Dauphiny. “I knew them and I knew the program well. It was really fun. It took time to develop as a coach.”

After coaching novice rowers for years, Dauphiny did have to refine her coaching approach with the varsity crew.

Dauphiny, far left, and her rowers enjoying the moment after Princeton won the 2023 Ivy League Women’s Rowing Championships.

“As a novice and you are starting fresh with them, everything you say is entertaining and fun,” says Dauphiny. “You can use the same jokes over and over again; you can pretty much do the same things every year because it is a new group. But once you are a varsity coach, you have to have some tricks up your sleeve. You have to have some newness to the things that you do. The dynamics change and you have to be able to adjust. You handle more problems when you are a head coach, things fall into your lap like administrative and individual issues. You are the one who is handing out the bad news sometimes, like, ‘You are not going make the boat.’ Recruiting is trickier, selection is harder.”

The start of the NCAA Championships for women’s open rowing in 1997 helped focus the Tigers.

“We have been to every NCAA championship since the inception — we are one of three schools that can say that (along with Brown and Washington), which I am very proud of because we are a school of 5,000,” says Dauphiny. “I am proud of the fact that we are a mid-size school and that we are always competitive. I think the NCAA has been great in terms of the growth of our sport and the competitive balance.”

Hughes, for his part, marvels at that achievement and Dauphiny’s impact on the sport.

“The stats are there — that is really remarkable in the sport of rowing,” says Hughes. “But I think more importantly to me, I cannot think of another woman in collegiate rowing that has been as successful as Lori. What is so powerful to me is that she is a trailblazer and a has done it through the evolution of the sport. She has qualified for every single championship — that is mind-blowing.”

Former Princeton women’s open crew standout Kelsey Reelick ’14, an All-American and member of the U.S. senior national program, credits Dauphiny with getting the most out of her rowers in an underdog role.

“She can really get the absolute best out of people and push people in a way that you walk away with a result that you deserve and that you are happy that you can perform well,” says Reelick. “Having a lot of exposure to other coaches and other programs, you realize what she is up against — it is incredible with the money and the scholarships. It is a very tilted foundation, and to do so well is a testament to how awesome she is and how much she loves the sport.”

Coaching alongside Dauphiny for more than 25 years, Hughes has learned some valuable lessons from Dauphiny’s unique blend of competitiveness and nurturing.

“She is fierce, demanding, and competitive as a coach but in a very positive and inspiring way,” explains Hughes. “That is a real talent for a coach. She knows how to motivate, inspire, and challenge her athletes to be their best and also step up to support their teammates. She earns her athletes’ trust. They trust that when she is asking them to dig deeper — she believes it is possible.”
Over the years, Dauphiny’s motivation had inspired several of her rowers to compete in the Olympics.

“I just think that it means that I am really old,” says Dauphiny, who had five rowers compete in the 2012 London Games with three earning medals as Caroline Lind ’06 held the U.S. women’s 8 to gold while Andreanne Morin ’06 and Lauren Wilkinson ’11 helped the Canada 8 take silver. “I do cherish the fact that I have been around this long to watch the development of people to the highest level.”

While Dauphiny deflects credit for the success of her Olympians, she revels in their accomplishments.

“After Gevvie Stone won her silver medal (in the single sculls at the 2016 Rio Olympics) she was holding a flag and taking pictures and she saw me and she hugged me,” says Dauphiny. “I felt overwhelmed because I got to be part of the journey. It is not even that I feel like I got them there, I didn’t. They got themselves there. They took me along in this journey in which I could help inspire. I could help them love the sport. I feel a lot of pride that a number of Princeton women go on to do senior team and Olympic team. You have got to love the sport. Sometimes people get out of college and say, ‘I am burned out.’”

While Dauphiny minimizes her role, Hughes believes she has been a driving force in her rowers’ rise to the highest level of the sport.

“So many of those rowers were in that position because of the opportunities they gained through Lori,” asserts Hughes. “You see it in those photos when they are in the Olympics. They have just won their gold medal, and they run over and hug her. She cares about her athletes in a way that I think is very special. It is impactful on the people that get to row for her. It is not just a job, and I think that is how the athletes feel. They know that she cares about them as a whole person. She wants to see them succeed and she has their backs.”

Dauphiny has also been on the U.S. coaching staff for the Olympics in 2004 and 2024.

“It was a different experience for me this time because I was brought in towards the end, before I was more of the development to the Olympics,” says Dauphiny, reflecting on her Olympic involvement. “In 2024, they invited me to be a part of it and I was honored to do that. I hope that I helped them. It was a different system because I got to coach a lot of different boats. I wasn’t assigned to a boat. We all coached the pair, we all coached the 4. I also got to go out with the 8.”

Reelick, who was on the U.S. Olympic 4 for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics along with fellow Princeton alum Emily Kallfelz ’19, was thrilled to be working again with Dauphiny.

“I remember our head coach telling us that Lori was coming in to help coach us and it was like, ‘Oh thank God,’” recalls Reelick. “I know her intensity. I know that she has got a tool box with drills and ideas. She is a Rolodex of tips and tricks to get fast and how to mesh personalities. She is just an absolute master of her craft.”

For Dauphiny, focusing on the basics is the key to her coaching philosophy.

“Being a novice coach is one of the staples that I fall back on all the time. That sounds silly, but it is such a fundamental part of being a coach and learning how to develop athletes at any level,” says Dauphiny. “What I discovered last year at the Olympic level is that it wasn’t that much different than coaching novices in the sense of keeping it simple and focusing on what counts. It is not getting lost in the meaningless things, things that can lead you down a trap of distraction. It is recognizing that you still have things to work on, even when you are at the elite level. It can be as simple as length or connection, something you are working on with freshmen. I always go back to any freshman coaching and recognize that the lessons that I learned there apply to collegiate head coaching and to Olympic coaching.”

Dauphiny’s coaching acumen has influenced other women looking to follow in her footsteps.

“She is a role model for so many women that are looking at rowing coaching — it is a really powerful thing,” says Hughes. “We need more women coaching for sure. You can look to her as somebody who has had a big impact on women choosing it as a career. The women that are in the career are seeking her out for advice or help so that they can continue to develop in the role.”

In addition, Dauphiny has impacted young rowers in the area through Princeton’s involvement in the STEM to Stern, which helps athletes from underserved communities get exposed to rowing along with some high-quality STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.

“What is amazing, you can see when Lori walks into that group and the kids light up,” says Hughes. “You can just see it, that same connection is there. I am sure that you will see some of these kids continue as high school rowers and into college because of the connection they made with her.”

In Reelick’s view, Dauphiny has made a special impact on the sport as a whole.

“I just want to say how absolutely awesome she is and how much better the whole rowing community is with her,” said Reelick. “She is a standout coach and human. I think the sport of rowing is so much better because of her.”

Dauphiny, for her part, has relished being part of the Princeton rowing community.

“I think it is the people that we get,” says Dauphiny. “It is the student athletes — they are really driven and committed, they are hardworking, and they are multidimensional. I also think the setting here helps, the tradition and the administration here that supports us.”

As Dauphiny heads into her 28th season at the helm of the Tiger open program which starts when Princeton hosts Brown on March 29, her competitive fire remains undiminished.

“I love coaching, it keeps me energetic and alive,” says Dauphiny, who has guided the Tigers to 13 Ivy League crowns and has compiled an overall record of 262-30 in regular season dual meet competition.

“I feel so blessed with the people around me and the kids I work with. I couldn’t ask for more”

And the sport of rowing is blessed that Dauphiny had the guts to take a shot at making Washington crew program some four decades ago.

Dauphiny takes a celebratory plunge after another Princeton triumph. (Photo by Ivy League/Sideline Photos, courtesy of Princeton Athletics)