Rowing – Coach O’Neil 2014 to Present

UNLIKE TEXAS BASKETBALL, FOOTBALL, TRACK, AND BASEBALL, THERE ARE VERY FEW BOOKS DEDICATED TO  LONGHORN Rowing.  I HOPE, WITH TIME, THIS SITE CAN ADD SOME HISTORICAL INSIGHT AND TELL THE COMPELLING STORY OF LONGHORN Rowing.  

A condensed bullet point history of Texas Longhorn rowing follows. Please go to the “credit” section of this website to view books you can purchase and links you can visit to learn more about Longhorn Sports history.   

In 1993, the NCAA identified rowing as one of nine emerging sports for women. There were 67 varsity-status rowing teams. In 1997, rowing graduated emerging to an NCAA sport.

• “For the rest of your life, you will always be able to say I was a member of a very special team whose whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

At Cal Coach O’Neill won two NCAA championships and 12 NCAA top four finishes. 

The article for Rowing was written by Ed Moran, ed@usrowing.org | Jul 24, 2014

He was already signed up to coach the United States Under 23 women’s sweep team at the 2014 World Under 23 Championships July 23-27 in Varese, Italy. And then he had his normal job of recruiting and preparing for another season as the women’s head rowing coach at the University of California.

But when a big opportunity came his way, he made his summer even busier by accepting the position as the new head women’s rowing coach at the University of Texas, taking over for three-time Olympian Carrie Graves, who led Texas women’s rowing for 16 seasons.

So now, along with traveling to Italy, coaching an eight, a four and a pair at a world championships, O’Neill added in a move from California to Texas for himself and his family and has taken on a whole new challenge of trying to vault Texas to the top of NCAA women’s rowing.

“It’s certainly a busy summer for me,” O’Neill said while getting equipment and athletes sorted out for the trip to the world championships. “People keep asking, ‘Why would I leave Cal?’ I was certainly very happy at Cal. We had some great success, and I was working with wonderful athletes and terrific people.

“But I guess I was thinking, is this my job and my life forever?”

So when the news broke that Graves had announced she was leaving, O’Neill let it be known that he would be interested. And it wasn’t long before Texas let O’Neill know that they were interested in him as well.

Graves, who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games in the eight, built the Texas program from scratch and led her squads to four Big 12 titles and two trips to the NCAA Championships.

This spring,  Graves decided it was time to retire. “I wanted to start a rowing program at a big university, and it was fun to take this on,” Graves said at the time.

“I wanted to make a difference and see if we could make something here at Texas because I knew UT had a big student body. Starting a program here reminded me of my own experience as a collegiate rower. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, but it was gratifying for all of us. I feel a little young going into retirement,” she said. “But I’m ready to do other things.”

Apparently, so is the Texas athletic department.

When they interviewed O’Neill, they told him they wanted his experience and leadership and that they wanted the program to excel. For O’Neill, who had led Cal to two NCAA team titles and four NCAA individual event titles in 16 seasons, this was too enticing to pass on.

“Cal finished second or third for seven years in a row, and I really felt I had taken the program as far as I was going to be able to take it,” he said.

According to O’Neill, Texas athletic director Chris Plonsky told him the university wanted to elevate the rowing program.

Texas is investing time and assets isin taking rowing to the Next Level

“Rowers do more before 8 am than most people do all day.”

“They made it clear. They said, ‘We want to be really good at this sport, and we are prepared to do what we must to get there.’ For a rowing coach, when we’re always fighting and scraping to get things, to hear we want to be really good and we have to invest in the program, that’s awesome.

“Maybe sometimes, you just want something different,” O’Neill said. “Yes, it’s the same job at a different place, but when I think of the potential of the Texas program and having the backing and support of a big-time athletic department like Texas, I think the potential of doing something really amazing is there.” 

2014

Most people expected the Longhorns to evolve into a competitor over the coming seasons, with the arrival of one of the best coaches in the country, Dave O’Neill, from California just before the 2014-2015 campaign. But the Longhorns were ahead of schedule. O’Neill and his staff took a crew that had never been invited to the NCAA Championships before and not only performed brilliantly but also made the final in the varsity eight. Looking forward, the message is clear: Don’t mess with Texas. Congrats, Longhorns!

• Jessica Glennie, 2014 Rhodes Scholarship recipient

• Recipient of the Big 12’s 2014 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award

• 2014 Academic All-Big 12 First Team

• 2013 CRCA National Scholar-Athlete

• 2013 Academic All-Big 12 First Team

• 2012 Academic All-Big 12 First Team

• C-USA All-Academic Team in 2012 and 2013.

2015  8th at the NCAA National meet

 Texas Rowing’s Dave O’Neill on Coaching, Culture, and Development

Thanks very much to Dave O’Neill for taking the time to connect! You can follow the Longhorns on Instagram and Twitter, and catch up on the Best Rowing Drills series by clicking the links.

Longhorns launching in San Diego

Since coach Dave O’Neill arrived in Austin in 2015, he has led Texas to its first-ever NCAA Championships appearance , and, most recently, the Longhorns came within roughly one second of sweeping San Diego Crew Classic, winning the novice eight, second varsity eight, and varsity eight events, only to fall just short in the varsity four.

Here, we catch up with Dave on his approach to coaching, changing team culture, and program development.

Coach O’Neill sees himself as the CEO of a multi-million dollar organization—who gets a scholarship; who doesn’t get a scholarship; what’s the schedule going to look like; what’s our uniform going to look like; who’s going to be on staff; what does the equipment look like. It’s not just technique and training, it’s also marketing and branding. It’s about building the culture, but in many respects, we’re building the brand with what we’re doing here. So, it’s not just the technique and the training, and using sports science—it’s also about how we are going to represent and market ourselves and build a culture and brand around Texas Rowing. And those are real discussions that we have with our staff—about what direction we should go, and what image we want to project.

Asked about issues of funding and structure of Texas rowing Dave said “Sometimes, there’s a cultural thing that you have to get right, and that doesn’t cost any money.” There are some kids who say hey, I can’t do this, I need to focus on this, that, or the other. And I have to say, okay, well, I’m sorry, but there are other kids who are able to be All-Americans, Olympians, or Olympic medalists, and still go on to medical school and be really good. So, if you’re saying you’re not that person, okay. But it is possible to do everything. So, part of it is getting people to understand that it’s about being the best person you can be.

Dave O’Neill has a great point when he says that “rowing can change the world” He says in rowing the participant must establish personal goals collaborate, expect delayed gratification, deal with failure, deal with pain, and compromise. All of those things are needed in a team environment in the pursuit of being really good.

 2016   rowing #9 in the nation

The Longhorns are coming off a historically good season, but that was just the first go around for new head coach Dave O’Neill.

Coach O’Neill

• Has led Texas to five consecutive top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships. 
• Directed the Longhorns to a program-best second-place team finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
• Led Texas to five Big 12 Conference Championships (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). 
•  His teams have advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of his last 21 years as a head coach (16 seasons at California and five seasons at Texas).

TEXAS UNDER DAVE O’NEILL

   NCAA Championship rankings

2019 2nd

2018 3rd

2017 4th

2016 8th

2015 7th