Oklahoma head coach Leeanne Crain knows how to build winning teams from the ground up. In 2003, she was hired away from the University of San Diego to lead the fledgling program at the University of Central Florida. By 2006, she led the Knights to their first-ever top 20 ranking. 2007 saw them climb as high as #9, and make their first and only appearance at NCAAs.
It was at UCF that Coach Crain first came in contact with Pocock Racing Shells. Following a tropical storm that caused serious damage to her fleet (of non-Pococks) heading into what would be a history making 2007 season, she and her team were in a desperate situation.
Bill and John Tytus, the owners of Pocock Racing Shells, were in Florida for that year’s USRowing Convention, and they got word of UCF’s predicament. “We had a boat in Florida for the convention, and when we heard of UCF’s situation, we offered them the use of the boat for their spring season”, recalls John Tytus.
The following season, the University of Oklahoma added women’s rowing as a varsity sport. When it came to finding a head coach who could start a program from scratch and bring it to national prominence, Coach Crain was a perfect fit.
The move to Oklahoma offered Coach Crain and her staff the unique chance to build the infrastructure, belief system, and team culture from the ground up. And at a school like Oklahoma, where winning conference championships and contending for national championships is the rule, not the exception, she did not have to look far for inspiration.
As the youngest team in Conference USA, Crain and her Sooners have translated this institutional culture into action. Since 2008, they have marched through their more established competition to rise to the top of the C-USA podium in 2013 and earn their first NCAA Championship bid.
The University of Oklahoma has committed to providing the resources necessary to build a championship-winning program, and the Sooner’s fleet now boasts over 30 shells. The Exchange Boathouse houses two singles and 12 pairs that facilitate the development and selection of the NCAA racing squad through the fall. In the spring, the team moves into their K4+s, Hypercarbon 8+s and Comp 8+s for sprint season.
Having brought her second Division I program to their first-ever NCAAs, the goal for Coach Crain and her team is to make it back to Indianapolis in 2014. Their inaugural appearance provided the Sooners with invaluable experience and a healthy dose of respect for the perennial powerhouses of the sport. Now the objective remains to keep moving forward to reach that same level of achievement.
