FOCS Coaching Blog

FOCS hires Head Coach Brian Clancy

2010-08-21T15:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Alumni, Parents, Friends and Team Members,

It is my great pleasure to announce that Friends of Cornell Sailing has hired Brian Clancy to coach the Cornell Sailing Team.

Brian is native of Scituate, Massachusetts where he grew up sailing. Brian attended Boston College High School in Dorchester, Massachusetts and graduated in 2003. Upon graduating he spent four years on the Hobart and William Smith Colleges sailing team from 2003-2007, his senior year serving as the team captain. During that time period HWS recorded two first place finishes, a second place finish, and three third place finishes at dinghy national championships. Brian was named to the Intercollegiate All-American team for his performance in 2006 coed dinghy racing.

After graduating from Hobart College in 2007 with a degree in International Relations, Brian coached Youth Optimist Sailors with the organization LISOT leading up to the 2008 USODA Team Trials. After spending the summer coaching at Wianno Yacht Club in Osterville, MA, Brian moved to Annapolis, MD to serve as the Assistant Coach for the US Naval Academy Midshipmen and has remained there through the Spring of 2010. In that time period Brian coached teams to six National Championships with one top three finish, and two top seven finishes, as well as naming five All-American Skippers and Crews. During Brian's two years at Navy the team never fell below 13th in the Sailing World Collegiate Sailing Rankings.

Most recently Brian spent the summer of 2010 coaching some of the top Youth Sailors in the country traveling to Greece for two weeks of I420 training, Germany for the Warnemunde Woche International Regatta; Haifa, Israel for the I420 Israeli Nationals Regatta as well as the I420 Worlds, Cabrillo Beach, California for the US Sailing Youth Championships; and La Rochelle, France for the I420 Junior European Championships. Brian competes on his own sailing on the V15 Team Race circuit competing last year in the US Team Racing Championship for the Hinman Trophy and has been accepted once again to compete for the Hinman Trophy in 2010. Brian comes to Ithaca, NY with his fiancé Caitlin Minogue and their dog Micky.

Over the next few weeks Brian and I will be working with the student officers on the team to transition Cornell Sailing from one of the strongest student run un-coached teams, to a coached club team, while retaining the team’s high level of student leadership. Brian may be reached at brian.clancy@cornellsailing.org and he will be based out of the brand new the Merrill Family Sailing Center at Cornell University.

I want to extend our appreciation to all of you that have supported the Friends of Cornell Sailing during this 10 year journey.

See you on the water,

Andrew E. Davis

aed13@cornell.edu

President

Friends of Cornell Sailing

www.cornellsailing.org

2010-08-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends of Cornell Sailing,

Monday May 10^th will be a historical day for the Cornell Sailing Team that we have not seen in over 25 years.

Tomorrow Friends of Cornell Sailing (FOCS) will be posting a job description for hiring a Head Sailing Coach for the Cornell Sailing Team.

Since the founding of the organization almost exactly 10 years ago, hiring a full time coach to provide continuity has been the primary goal of the organization. Along the way we have been fortunate to have the generous support of the Merrill Family in building the Merrill Family Sailing Center. Today we have one of the best facilities in college sailing and soon we hope to attract a top notch coach with experience in both national level intercollegiate coaching and in program development.

The Board of Directors of FOCS and the Coach Campaign Committee have been meeting/teleconferencing bi-weekly for almost 3 years to get the necessary funding in place, and have reached agreement with Cornell University on the terms for hiring a coach. The Head Sailing Coach will be an employee of Friends of Cornell Sailing. The Cornell Sailing team will remain a coached club sport and independent organization.

Let me share with you the process and how you as alumni may get involved. We have appointed a Coach Search Committee made up of the following individuals:

Doug Merrill ’89, Chairman
Ted Moore ‘71
Prof. Charles Williamson, Team Advisor
Andrew Davis ‘02
Scott Grandt ‘08

We have a combination of dedicated alumni, who have dedicated not only their resources, but most importantly their time to directly support the team. Each member’s support is unwavering from hours of conf calls to helping run regattas at Cornell. Doug Merrill ’89 is an avid Laser and big boat sailor, and has spent countless hours through both the sailing center project and now for three years on the coach campaign. Ted Moore ’71 is an avid team racer representing New York Yacht Club, one of the founders of our coach campaign, and a regular face judging at Cornell. Prof Charles Williamson, the team’s advisor needs no introduction, as his involvement has been steadfast for 11 years now. Andrew Davis ‘02 is the President of Friends of Cornell Sailing and has been a fixture of the organization since its founding. Recent graduate Scott Grandt ’08 was selected to represent the team members and young alumni. Scott was President of both MAISA and ICSA, and the primary organizer of this year’s alumni regatta, where he facilitated a constructive discussion with the team on what makes a good coach.

The first phase of the search process starts on Monday, May 10th with a posting of a job description and ends with applications due June 7^th. During this time period, I encourage alumni, parents, friends and team members who have ideas on candidates, recommendations on characteristics of a good coach to share their input with the committee by emailing coach-input@cornellsailing.org.

Following June 7^th we will be interviewing candidates, ideally bringing someone on board between July 15^th and August 15^th for the Fall 2010 season.

We have many challenges ahead in this process, but with the continued support of our alumni base, and the team of volunteers we have assembled, I believe we will be successful. One last word, If you have made a pledge or are considering a gift to support our coach campaign, please follow through using the instructions here www.cornellsailing.org/makeagift

See you all on the water,

Andrew E. Davis ‘02
President
Friends of Cornell Sailing

On behalf of the Board of Directors of FOCS and Coach Campaign Committee:

Robert Swanson ‘74, Chairman
Doug Merrill ‘89
Ted Moore ‘71
Prof. Charles Williamson
Andrew Davis ‘02

2010-04-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful weekend to coach sailing for the Big Red at Cornell’s new sailing center. In A-division was Allie Gardiner crewing for Vince Andrews and sailing B division was Colleen Cozzans with her skipper Philip Alley. Boat handling was the biggest concern so a lot of focus was put on jib trim in maneuvers. For example on the starting line making sure the Colleen and Allie timed their jib trim with their respective skippers was key to acceleration and a good start. After watching the first couple of starts I knew this was an issue. As the crews got in synch with their skippers the starts improved over time. As the breeze built I learned that the team was missing something: heavy air crews. The wind started picking up to the high teens/low twenties and there was no way to sail heavier. Colleen and Allie did a fantastic job sticking it through and we went over different ways to depower a collegiate 420. By the end of the day both Vince and Phil were winning races by almost ½ of a leg!

At a qualifier the goal is to qualify by at least 1 DSQ. By the end of the first day Cornell was easily qualifying by almost 4 DSQs! Not too bad. After sailing 20 races on Saturday the Cornell sailors went home happy and tired, eager to get back on the water on Sunday. Sunday morning came and a light Northerly had just filled in with the right side of the course favored. We spent the morning talking fleet management. A well sailed regatta by all. We were done racing by 11 so the team got dressed and we took 6 boats out for a quick practice session where I learned that Phil has never been coached on how to sail a 420 properly. A couple of quick tips and Phil’s acceleration out of his maneuvers improved dramatically. It was a pleasure to coach the team who has a lot of potential and a great attitude. I will see the team again in 2 weeks for the Americas Trophy at Cornell.

-Jeff Sullivan

Background on Jeff Sullivan:

Coaching:
IFDS Worlds US Sailing Coach
US Paralympic Trials
Roger Williams Interim Coach
PRO College MAISA Fall Conference Championships (HWS)
PRO College MAISA Spring Conference Championship (HWS)
PRO College Semi-Finals (HWS)

Navy Spring Womens - Coach Report

2010-03-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

It was my pleasure to coach the Cornell Womens' Team at the Womens Navy Spring last weekend. It was also quite a challenge from more than one aspect. First, I had never met any of the girls prior to the report time of the first day. The team of 4 sailors was Hillary Paulsen and Anisha Chopra in A-Division and Emily Bick and Isa Betancourt in B-Division. One interesting fact that was brought to my attention right up front was that Anisha was attending her first regatta and the weather, rain and lots of wind, was surely going to test her right away. The rest of the girls had varying levels of experience, but overall they were somewhat over their heads as a team in the setting of a major womens' intersectional.

Needles to say, if you happened to see the results, the team struggled significantly the entire first day. We did have a good sit down discussion at the lunch break and another at the end of the day which seemed to help settle the down the anxiety of the day's events. While we discussed many things, the theme I tried to get across to the girls was to use the experience to be better the next time. It would be very easy, and understandable, to just forget that day altogether and try to block it out of your mind. We tried to look at it from the point of view that the conditions and the situation was foreign to all of them and to try to take away all we could from the experience. That would hopefully allow the sailors to have a foot forward the next time a similar situation, or similar conditions, presented themselves.

Day two was better for three of the four girls. Anisha had become ill overnight and was unable to sail the second day and with only four sailors at the event, the team was forced to borrow a sailor from another team (which is allowed in this type of circumstance). Overall the girls sailed much better the second day, dramatically improving on their performance from Saturday. Hillary became so much more comfortable on Sunday, we got her pushing the starting line much more aggressively and trying new techniques with starts and tactics.

Overall I was impressed with the girls in both their character and determination. The ability to take a completely dreadful situation and not only make the best of it, but to work toward improvement was fun to be a part of and watch.

Thanks,
Geoff

Geoff Becker Coach Bio - Coed and Clinic Coach Spring 2010

2010-03-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Geoff grew up in Southern California sailing almost every type of boat imaginable. Like all sailors from that area he grew up sailing the Naples Sabot before moving the the junior double-handed boat, which at that time was the Laser II. Geoff attended the University of California at Irvine earning a bachelor's degree in Psychology and competing on the varsity sailing team. He was selected to the ICYRA All-American Team three times as a skipper and once as a crew (1990-1993) and was a member of UCI's National Dinghy Championship Team in the spring of 1990. Since college he coached sailing at the collegiate level for more than 16 years for several schools including UC Santa Barbara, the University of Southern California, St. Mary's College of Maryland, The U.S. Naval Academy and most recently Washington College. In addition to collegiate coaching, Geoff has participated as part of the US SAILING Team, coaching the US Team at the 2003 and the 2007 Pan American Games.

Geoff also competes extensively in national and international events in several classes. Most recently he is ranked inside the top 100 of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings and campaigns a match race team during the summer and fall months. Geoff is also, and accomplished International Lightning skipper winning, with his team, the North American Championship in 2007. In 2009 he and his team placed 2nd at the NAs and weeks later competed at the 2009 International Lightning World Championship placing 6th.

We are pleased to have Geoff join our coaching team this spring.

--Andrew Davis

President Friends of Cornell Sailing