LA JOLLA, Calif. — Former Triton Jeff Collett will return to La Jolla as the new head coach of the UC San Diego men's rowing team, Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards announced Wednesday. Collett brings with him a decade of coaching experience, six years of which were spent as an assistant coach at UC San Diego.
 
"We are excited to welcome Jeff Collett back to campus as our men's rowing head coach," Edwards said. "Jeff's time as a scholar-athlete here and his coaching experience will lead our program forward and we trust that, under his leadership, our current scholar-athletes will have a positive experience as he did when he was a member of our rowing program."
 
Collett first joined the Tritons as a scholar-athlete in 2007. A transfer from Orange Coast College, he rowed for two seasons before graduating with a degree in communications in 2009. After a stint as the head youth rowing coach at Newport Aquatic Center, he returned to La Jolla in 2013 as the Tritons' recruiting coordinator and assistant coach.
 
"It is an honor to be named head coach at the university where I rowed, coached, and had the ability to work with an incredible support team through the athletic department," Collett said. "I thoroughly enjoyed my time as this program's assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, which has given me unique insight into its development over the past decade. I know the efforts that the coaching staff has put into building this team's legacy which served as the catalyst for its long-term success."
 
Collett takes the reigns from interim head coach Sean McCrea, who led the Tritons through the spring 2022 season, which concluded with the Varsity 8 boat claiming a fourth straight Western Sprints Championship. This is a return to coaching for Collett, who spent the past year and a half working in the world of e-sports as Director of Operations at Cloud9 Training Grounds.
 
"I believe coaching allows us to guide young scholar-athletes through challenging times and adversity," Collett said. "Through this period, they build resilience that will carry them to future successes beyond the boathouse. I look forward to working with the athletes to help them prepare academically, and athletically, and develop their skillsets outside of just putting their blades in the water."
 
In his time as UC San Diego's assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Collet helped lay the groundwork for the team's current success. The Tritons' Varsity 8 boat has won the last four Western Sprints Championships, and Collett recruited every member of the boats which began that run in 2018 and 2019 (the event was cancelled in 2020). He also coached the Third Varsity 8 boat to five consecutive wins at the Western Sprints from 2015-2019.
 
Collett was a decorated rower himself, helping Orange Coast College win a pair of championships in 2007, and being named to the All-Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) First Team after helping UC San Diego qualify for the national championship in 2009.

He also has four years of head coaching experience at the youth level, split between Newport Aquatic Center in Orange County and Northampton Community Rowing in Massachusetts. This is his first collegiate head coaching role.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.