Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Carol Bower
Carol Bower changed the face of Bryn Mawr College rowing when she became the head coach in 2002. With her arrival as a full-time coach, Bower established a varsity rowing program that, in the past four years, has become a competitive force in Division III crew. In addition to her coaching duties, Carol also serves as the Senior Women's Administrator and Senior Lecuturer for the Department of Athletics and Physical Education.
Bower's successes are not limited to her time at Bryn Mawr. An accomplished athlete, she graduated from the University of California , Los Angeles in 1979, and in the same year, received a bronze medal in the World Championships. The following year, she was a member the United States Olympic Team, but was unable to participate in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow due to the national boycott. Such an obstacle did not stop Bower. For the next three years, she was a silver medalist in the World Championships. In 1982, Carol was given the honor of "Female Athlete of the Year" by the US Olympic Rowing Commette. Bower caped her successful international rowing career at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where she won the gold medal in the Women's Eight. In the 1988 Summer Olympics, she coached the Women's Four. Bower was named to the Rowing Hall of Fame in 1984 and again in 1991.
Bower started her collegiate coaching career in 1980 at Yale University as the Women's Novice Coach. She then went on to become the Head Coach of the University of Pennsylvania's Women's Rowing program in 1987. In addition to her collegiate coaching experience, she worked with a group of fellow Olympians in a team-building and leadership-training company Team Concepts, Inc.,. Bower has been able to apply those concepts to her work at Bryn Mawr. As the rowing coach, she is in charge of scholar-athlete development, recruitment, and the general management and promotion of the rowing program. As Senior Lecture, Bower designes and teaches the leadership course ciriculum as well as set up programs for team building and leadership development for the college community.
Assistant Coach: Gabrielle Cipollone
Entering her seventh season with the Bryn Mawr rowing team, Gaby Cipollone also works as a private rowing coach and fitness trainer. She received her education in Civil Engineering at Technische Universitat in Dresden, Germany.
Cipollone was a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (Montreal 4+ and Moscow 8+) for East Germany. Her stepson, Pete Cipollone, was the coxswain of the Men's Olympic Gold Medal 8 in Athens, Greece.
