Dan Roock joins the Big Green for the fall of 2009 as the head coach, replacing Steve Perry.

Roock comes to Hanover after a long career as the men’s heavyweight rowing head coach at Cornell University, where he spent 12 years with the Big Red.

Prior to his stint at Cornell, Roock was the head coach of women’s rowing at Princeton from 1990-96. He was one of the most successful coaches during his time at Princeton as his teams won three consecutive national titles in 1993, ’94 and ’95. His women’s varsity eight also earned five consecutive Ivy titles, five Eastern Sprint all-points trophies and four Sprague Trophies for all-around performance at the national championships. Roock posted an unbelievable record of 59-2 while the head coach at Princeton.

“We are thrilled to have Dan Roock join our coaching staff,” Ceplikas stated. “He is recognized as one of the finest rowing coaches in the country, and his successful experience working with Ivy League student-athletes for over two decades make him an ideal fit for Dartmouth.”

Roock had a wealth of experience as an assistant coach dating back to 1984 at Florida Institute of Technology. He spent one year at FIT before moving on to Princeton in 1985. He began his career with the Tigers as a women’s crew assistant for a season and then moved on to the men’s assistant position the following year, spending three years on Princeton’s men’s staff. As the freshman coach at Princeton, Roock won both EARC and IRA Championships. He then joined the staff at Syracuse as a graduate assistant for a year.

In addition to his collegiate rowing expereince, he has made his presence felt around the world. Most recently he led the 2009 US U-23 Men’s Four to a fifth-place finish at the U-23 World Championships. He coached the US Men’s Eight crew to a gold medal at the Nation’s Cup in 1999, and in 1992 led the US Junior Men’s Eight to a gold medal at the FISA World Championships. In another stint with the US Junior Men’s Eight, he took home the silver medal at World’s in 1997 and followed that up with a bronze medal in 2000 at the Nation’s Cup.

A 1981 graduate of Princeton, Roock is a two-time EAWRC Coach of the Year and a four-time award winner of the Jim Joy Conference Coaches Award. In 1999, he was named the USOC Development Coaching of the Year in Rowing after his men’s eight won the gold at the Nation’s Cup following second-place finishes the previous two years.

While earning his civil engineering degree at Princeton, Roock was an outstanding rower for the Tigers and was a member of two IRA championship crews. As a senior, Roock was awarded the Lyman W. Biddle Medal as the oarsman who had shown the best sportsmanship and contributed the most to rowing at Princeton. He also earned a master of science degree in environmental engineering at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse in 1990.