Kelly Harris - Women's Rowing Coach - Dartmouth College Athletics

Kelly Harris

Title:
Assistant Coach
Alma Mater:
New Hampshire ’01
Email:
kelly.a.harris@dartmouth.edu
Phone (603):
646-2847
At Dartmouth:
3rd Season (2020)

May 2020

Kelly Harris was named an assistant coach with the Dartmouth women's rowing team in August of 2017 and completed her first year as interim head coach in 2019-20 during a season shortened by COVID-19.

2019-20: In the fall, Dartmouth completed at the Head of the Charles, finishing in ninth place in the Championship 4+ and 29th in the Championship 8+. Less than a month later in the Foot of the Charles, the Big Green entered five boats and the event was highlighted by a first-place finish by the Novice 8+ boat. At the end of the season, Katie Erdos was named Academic All-Ivy.

Harris came to Hanover from Bucknell, where she served as an assistant rowing coach from 2013-16 before spending a year as the student-athlete development assistant (2016-17). While working with the Bison, Harris led the 2016 second varsity eight to the program’s first Patriot League Championship gold medal since 2011.

Prior to her initial arrival at Bucknell, Harris served as the head women’s rowing coach at Marietta College for six years. Under Harris’ leadership, the Pioneer varsity eight won back-to-back Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC) Championships. The varsity eight win in 2011 afforded the crew its first at-large bid in 12 years to the NCAA DIII National Rowing Championships held in Sacramento, Calif. In 2012, the team won its first championship at the MARC, and a first-ever team bid to the NCAA Championships. Eighteen CRCA National Scholar-Athlete titles were awarded from 2007-2013 while Harris led the Pioneers, and two of her rowers were named to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Pocock All-America team, one of whom was a two-time first team selection. Named three-time Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Coach of the Year, Harris developed the Pioneers’ team motto of O.A.R.S. (Ownership, Accountability, Responsibility and Self-integrity), the qualities the women strived to demonstrate in their daily lives, on the water, and in the classroom.

Prior to Marietta, she spent two years at Marist College as one of the youngest Division I female head coaches in the country at the age of 26. The two-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Coach of the Year led the Red Foxes to back-to-back MAAC championships in 2006 and 2007, while the lightweight eight and varsity four finished runners-up at the 2006 ECAC Metro Regatta.

Harris began her full-time coaching career as the assistant men’s and women’s coach at Vassar College from 2002-2005, following a one-year assistantship at her alma mater. During that year in New Hampshire, Harris also coached two seasons of scholastic rowing at Phillips Exeter Academy. This opportunity afforded Harris the invitation to become the first Director of the Rowing Program for the Phillips Exeter Academy Summer School in its inaugural year in 2003, while also serving as an Associate Dean until 2013.

A 2001 graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a degree in wildlife management, Harris co-captained the Division I team in 2000 and 2001. Rowing to a gold in the varsity eight at the 1999 New England Championships, she helped the Wildcats win the Women's Points Trophy at the ECAC Regatta and a bid to the IRA Regatta that same year. Harris was also named an All-American Athlete in 2001 by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and was selected to participate in the 2001 East Coast LW Development Camp at Riverside Boat Club and the 2000 Mid-West LW Development Camp at the University of Wisconsin. Harris won the bronze medal in the collegiate lightweight category at the 2001 CRASH-B Indoor Rowing Championships.

In addition to her passion for the sport of rowing and growing female leaders, Harris is now an accomplished ultramarathon distance runner. Harris lives in Norwich, VT and recently finished first female and fifth overall at the 2017 Laurel Highlands 50K Ultra and first overall finisher at the 2017 Montour Endurance Runs, achieving 69.8 miles in the overnight 12-hour race from 7pm to 7am.