Yaz Farooq has found her dream job with the Huskies as she and her team aim for a return to greatness
It wasn’t one thing that enticed Yaz Farooq to Washington from Stanford. It was everything.
“We have year-round water, a boathouse on campus, training table meals for all the UW student-athletes right here in our boathouse — plus academic resources, training, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, all within a 2-minute walk,” the Women’s Rowing Head Coach extolls. “It’s a dream job to coach at a university and in a community that celebrate and support rowing at such incredible levels.”
The two-time Olympian and National Rowing Association Hall of Famer was happy at Stanford, where she led her team to a 2009 NCAA championship and multiple PAC-12 titles. But in 2016, the UW came calling.
“I always knew the only place I’d leave Stanford for would be Washington,” says Yaz, who first visited the UW campus as a student-athlete at Wisconsin. “In so many ways, this is the birthplace of modern-day women’s rowing, a truly pioneering program.”
She flew to Seattle for an interview and quickly learned that the Athletic Department, the Rowing Stewards and other donors, and the entire community believed that her sport “is not only worthwhile, but special.” A meeting with the student-athletes sealed the deal.
“They told me they weren’t afraid to work hard and do what I asked them to do,” Yaz recalls. “And they desperately wanted to win. They were hungry.”
With her first season as a Husky now under way, the coach still finds her job awe-inspiring.
“It’s not just the setting on Lake Washington. It’s our donors who make Washington Rowing unique,” Yaz concludes. “It’s no coincidence that so many UW rowers go on to become Olympians. That’s because we have the kind of support and facilities that enable them to train and compete at the highest levels, and we have that because of our donors. We know we can always count on you.”
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