Audrey Coon, who won three NCAA Division II National Championships as a rower at Western Washington University, has been added to the Portland Pilots women’s rowing staff as an assistant coach, announced head coach Bill Zack. Coon was most recently the Novice Rowing Coach at Lewis & Clark College.
“We are thrilled to have Audrey join the University of Portland staff,” Zack said. “Her accomplishments as a student-athlete will serve as a great example for the members of the UP rowing team. She is also an excellent coach with a particular knack for teaching new rowers and generating excitement for the sport of rowing.”
“I am really excited to be working at UP and with coach Zack,” said Coon. “This is just an amazing opportunity to be working with a start-up program, and I’m looking forward to a successful first year.”
A native of Kenai, Alaska, Coon was also the women’s third varsity assistant coach for the Rose City Rowing Club this spring. In her three years on the varsity rowing team at Western Washington, Coon earned numerous athletic and academic honors, while helping the Vikings claim three straight DII national titles (2007, 2008, 2009). She was also named WWU’s Co-Female Athlete of the Decade and was tabbed as a Top 30 NCAA Women of the Year nominee in 2010.
A three-time selection as WWU’s Female Scholar Athlete of the Year, Coon earned Academic All-American First Team honors as a senior and landed on the Academic All-American Second Team as a junior. She was also named WWU’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2009 and garnered all-conference recognition all three years on varsity.
Coon maintained a 3.96 GPA, earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education (Spanish major) and graduated Magna Cum Laude from WWU in December of 2009.