Roock Retires as Head Coach of Lightweight Rowing

HANOVER, N.H. — Dan Roock, the Dartmouth head coach of the lightweight rowing team, has announced his retirement effective at the end of June. Roock is completing his third stint at the helm of the Big Green team.

Originally hired in 2009, Roock spent three seasons in Hanover with great success, advancing to the IRA National Championship each year. After the Big Green placed sixth in his initial campaign, they improved to third the following year before finishing as the runner-up in 2012. Dartmouth also took second at the EARC Sprints in both 2011 and '12 with Roock guiding the team.

Roock returned to coach the Big Green lightweights in 2018, mentoring the 4- boat to a third-place finish at the 2019 IRAs. His 2020 crew had their season (along with every other team) cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lightweights were one of five teams that were eliminated that summer, ending his second tenure at Dartmouth. But when the program was reinstated in January of 2021, Roock returned and helped stabilize the program and garnering a national ranking as high as sixth in the coaches' poll.

One of Roock's rowers, Joshua Konieczny '13, went on to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio in the double sculls, finishing fifth overall.

In between his first and second terms at Dartmouth, Roock spent three years as the lead coach at the elite sculling center for the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (GRP) in Craftsbury, Vermont. He led GRP rowers to a number of appearances at World Championships and World Cups, highlighted by the men's quad earning a bronze medal at World Cup III 2014 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

A veteran rowing coach, Roock spent 12 years coaching the Cornell heavyweight team (1997-2009), and before that, the Princeton women for six years (1990-96). He was one of the most successful coaches during his time at Princeton as his teams won three consecutive national titles (1993-95). 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 a phenomenal record of 59-2 while the head coach at Princeton.

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 experience, Roock has made his presence felt around the world. 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 U-23 Eight crew to a gold medal at the Nation's Cup in 1999 and a bronze medal in 2000. He co-coached the US Junior Men's Eight to a gold medal at the FISA World Championships in 1992 and a silver medal in 1997.

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 Coach of the Year in Rowing.

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.

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