Former Bruin Coach Hired Following National Search
The Crew Steering Committee of USC Staff, crew alumni and the team captains
welcomed new head coach Gene Kininmonth into the Trojan
Navy in a board meeting held at the University’s Lyon Center in
July. Coach Kininmonth, a former UCLA men’s head coach who most
recently coached at George Washington University in Washington DC, brings
a wealth of experience to the ‘SC Crew. “Gene comes to us
with great credentials,” said Stu Neffeler ‘56.
“He is originally from Melbourne, Australia, rowed on the Australian
National team and is a former UCLA men’s coach. He has a strong
background in alumni relations and management and holds an MBA in finance.”
Since returning to Los Angeles, Kininmonth has begun working with the
returning members of the crew and he is optimistic of the varsity squad’s
immediate future. “The outlook for this year’s squad is
promising,” he said. “We have a number of big and athletic
returning oarsmen between 6’3” and 6’5” and
a number of promising walk-ons including an ex-footballer who is 6’8”.
I do not think that size is going to be an issue for us this year.”
With plenty of Trojan manpower at his disposal, Kininmonth says the
key to the long-term future of the program is developing a strong ideology
of what the organization stands for. “This program has got to
mean something more than just winning boat races to be sustainable.
Oarsmen and alumni should see the crew team as something that is theirs
to come back to 20, 30 or 60 years down the track and still feel they
are a part of the team.”
However, Coach Kininmonth says winning races, especially against PAC
10 rivals is his immediate priority. He is no stranger to producing
upsets on the collegiate rowing circuit. In 1992 he led a gutty UCLA
Bruin crew to a seventh place finish at the National Collegiate Rowing
Championships.
That was the year after the program had been cut as a varsity sport
at UCLA and today the result remains the highest finish ever by a club
team at a national rowing championship.
Coach Kininmonth says his first priority is to see his Trojan Navy sweep
UCLA in the varsity, JV and freshman events of the USC-UCLA Head Race
to be held in Marina Del Rey on November 23.
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