Douglas and Golding Named Assistant Men's Rowing Coaches
9/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Heavyweight Rowing, Lightweight Rowing
Douglas comes to Columbia from the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who saw their venerable rowing program dropped from varsity to club status, effective this fall. He had served as freshman heavyweight coach there since 2004, leading the Rutgers freshmen to impressive regular-season and Eastern Sprints showings, and heading a productive recruiting effort.
Previously, he had been assistant coach of the varsity heavyweights at Cornell, from 2003 to 2004. He led the Big Red varsity four with coxswain to second place in the EARC and 10th at the IRA.
Douglas also was head coach at Brookline (Mass.) High, leading the Warriors to the 2002 and 2003 Massachusetts Public School Championship title. He coached Brookline qualifying for the US Rowing Youth Invitational, a first for the school.
During the summers of 2003 and 2004, he gained valuable experience as an assistant coach for the U.S. Junior National Rowing Team. He led the Junior Men's Four+ to fourth in the Junior World Championships, and three sweep teams, the eight, four, and pair to CanAmMex gold medals.
A varsity heavyweight letterman at Cornell, Douglas went on to row for the U.S. National Team during the summer of 2002. Coached by present Columbia heavyweight head coach Mike Zimmer, Douglas earned a bronze medal with the U.S. Lightweight Eight at the 2002 World Championships. He also placed sixth in the International Lightweight Final at the CRASH-B Championships.
“I'm very excited to have Jon Douglas's assistance this year,” Zimmer said. “Jon and I worked well together when he rowed on the 2002 National Team; he and I share philosophies on the efficacy of hard work and preparation.
“Jon was an excellent coach and a tenacious recruiter at Rutgers. His experience and work ethic will be tremendous assets to the Columbia program.”
Douglas actually joined the business world after his 2000 graduation from Cornell. He received a B.S. in environmental engineering and joined The Exeter Group in Cambridge, Mass., as an IT consultant.
Ed Golding joins a brand-new men's lightweight staff at Columbia. In replacing Vaclav Kacir, now an assistant women's coach at Stanford, he follows Scott Alwin, who became the Lions' head men's lightweight coach this summer.
Like Alwin, Golding is a former Wisconsin resident who rowed for the University of Wisconsin, and most recently was coaching at Princeton. He spent the past year as Intern Coach for the Tigers, assisting both the heavyweight and lightweight freshman coaches, and working directly with the heavyweight and lightweight third varsity fours.
From 2003 to 2006, Golding was an assistant varsity coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He coached the Badgers' third varsity eight to first place at the 2006 Eastern Sprints, and a number of small boats at the 2006 IRA. He also worked as a coach/organizer for the Junior Boys Rowing Camp at Wisconsin during the summers.
He served as a coach at US Rowing's Midwest Development Camp, located in Madison, during the summer of 2005 and 2006. The camp's summer rowing teams earned 11 medals at the 2005 US Rowing National Championship Regatta.
Scott Alwin is very pleased that Golding agreed to join him at Columbia.
“Ed's attitude toward rowing and coaching stems from our shared experience at Wisconsin,” Alwin said. “His competitive drive and willingness to work hard are two of his great strengths. These are two crucial traits for success in college rowing, which makes Ed the perfect person to guide the freshmen and recruit future athletes.”
A native of Cedarburg, Wisc., Golding competed in cross country, basketball and golf in high school, and took up rowing as a Wisconsin first-year. He earned two varsity letters, including a gold medal with his freshman four at the 1998 IRA Regatta, and both silver and bronze medals with eights at the Eastern Sprints. He twice medaled at the Head of the Charles, and earned a bronze medal in the men's eight at the 2000 Nations Cup, the world Under-20 championships.
Golding graduated from Wisconsin - Madison in 2001 with a B.A. in economics.
