Eric Kratochvil - Staff Directory - Dartmouth College Athletics

Staff Directory

Eric Kratochvil

Title:
Freshman Coach
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Eric Kratochvil is in his second year coaching the Dartmouth freshmen heavyweights. Before coaching at Dartmouth, he spent five years coaching the freshmen lightweights at Cornell University.

During his tenure in Ithaca, Kratochvil guided the freshman eight to the 2002 Eastern Sprints bronze medal and wins over Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. His rowers enjoyed two Belly of the Carnegie titles, as well at two IRA Championships in varsity pair. Kratochvil was instrumental in Cornell’s rise to prominence in the EARC lightweight league. He was an assistant coach for Cornell at the Royal Henley Regatta in England two times. In 2005 the Big Red advanced to the quarter finals of the Temple

Challenge Cup made it to the finals in 2006, beating the National Champion Cal freshmen heavyweights along the way. With his help, the Cornell varsity lightweights won both the Eastern Sprints and the IRA National Championship in 2006 and finished third and second, respectively, at those regattas in 2005.

A 2001 graduate of Princeton University (BA, Philosophy), Kratochvil has the distinction of having won Eastern Sprints gold medals as a member of both the varsity lightweight (1999) and varsity heavyweight (2001) crews. Also, he received a silver and bronze at the IRA while rowing varsity heavyweight. Following his graduation from Princeton, Eric stroked the United States National Team lightweight eight to a bronze medal at the 2001 World Rowing Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland.

When recently asked, “You won many championships as a rower, how is it to win as a coach?” Kratochvil responds. “As a rower, you are in it for the NOW, pulling hard on the piece or workout because that is what you are supposed to do. When you win a race, it is easy to just attribute it to that race’s effort. As a coach you are always looking at the bigger picture. When you win as a coach, you see all the planning, training, and development pay off. Also, you can look at the athletes and say, ?I showed him what an oar is, now he is the best in the country!’”