On January 2, 2023, Coach Bill Zack will join AYRA as a coach. Coach Zack has a long and extremely impressive career. He rowed in college for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and went on to earn a Master’s in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management.
Coach Zack was an assistant team leader for the 1996 Olympic rowing team as well as for the Pan-American Games, two World Rowing Championships and the Junior World Rowing Championships. He coached the U.S. Women’s Lightweight Quad to a sixth place finish at the 1997 World Rowing Championships and the U.S. Junior Women’s Quad to a thirteenth place finish at the 2008 Junior World Rowing Champtionships.
Coach Zack coached at the Coast Guard Academy for six years before heading to Sacramento State where he was the head coach for six years. He also coached the UCLA women’s crew and was the head coach for the University of Portland.
Coach Zack was the head coach for the women’s Division I crew at San Diego State for eight years. On three occasions, he was named WIRA Coach of the Year. When San Diego State terminated its women’s crew during covid, Coach Zack moved on to coaching juniors and we are delighted and lucky to add him to our roster of coaches.
Kate Tapscott will also join AYRA in January 2023. Kate rowed in high school at St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. She was a recruited rower at Bowdoin College in Maine and was Crew Captain for two years. Her impressive resume includes successes as a rower as well as an educator. Kate is fluent in Spanish and German and is currently under consideration for a Fulbright Scholarship