Olympic Silver medallist and Oxford Blue, Scott Fransden is the University of California, Berkeley Men’s Rowing team Head Coach and has just been awarded the prestigious Pac 12 Conference Coach of the Year.
US College sport is divided into conferences and each offers a series of awards to mark the end of the academic year to both student athletes and Coaches. The Pac-12 Conference operates in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division 1 Level. Other conferences include Ivy League, Big 12, Western Athletic.
Scott was part of Boat Race history when he raced for Oxford in 2003, where he attended St Edmund’s Hall studying Psychology. While it’s true that every boat race has a special place in history, the 2003 race certainly has more than it’s fair share of special. The closest race ever (1 foot) and overturning the biggest weight deficit in history, the Oxford crew containing Canadian rower Scott Fransden certainly made it’s mark.
In just 5 years as Head Coach at Cal, Berkeley, he’s already led the athletes to their first back to back Pac-12 Championships since 2005-2006 and by winning back to back “Pac-12 Men’s Rowing Coach of the Year” awards he’s also matched the legendary Steve Gladstone in being the only Cal coaches to ever do so.
But this seems to be a theme for Scott who joined OUBC in 2003 off the back of an exceptional couple of seasons as an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, where they went unbeaten for multiple seasons and are regarded by many as one of the fastest varsity crews of all time.
So perhaps it should be no surprise to anyone that in returning to Cal as a coach, a few more pages in the rowing history books need to be set aside for Scott!
Ranked #1 squad in the country, Scott and his team will now be looking forward to the IRA Championships in New Jersey, 2-4 June and we can’t wait to see more history being made.