College Sailing Team Spotlight: St. Mary’s College of Maryland
College Sailing Team Spotlight: St. Mary’s College of Maryland
With a convenient, new facility, experienced coaching staff and large fleet of boats, the St. Mary's Seahawks are a powerhouse in college sailing.
Location/Enrollment: St. Mary’s City, Md., 2,000 undergraduates
Sailing Site: St. Mary’s River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay
Facilities/Boats: Completed in 2009, the James P. Muldoon River Center at the Teddy Turner Waterfront is a 13,000-square-foot, eco-friendly facility with certified cedar roof, bamboo floors,
and geothermal heating/cooling. Two piers with 20 docks hold the team’s boats: 18 FJs, 18 420s, 18 recreational FJs, two Lasers, and 11 motorboats (Ed. note: The team has added two new Sonars to its fleet for the 2011-12 season).
Coaching: Adam Werblow, head coach/waterfront director; Bill Ward, director of sailing (Ed. note: Mike Kuschner ('10) joins the coaching staff for the 2011-12 season as the facility manager of the River Center)
Team: Varsity
When Adam Werblow came to the sailing team 24 years ago, he came with a vision—he wanted to produce the best team in the nation. Together with past director Mike Ironmonger, who worked on the waterfront for 30 years, they built an awesome riverfront and a powerhouse sailing team. St. Mary’s has consistently ranked among the top programs, winning 15 national titles and producing 135 All-Americans. The waterfront campus provides an incredible atmosphere for the entire student body, and the stunning new facility encourages Honors College students to take a break from their studies and come down to play by the water. The Princeton Review deemed St. Mary’s as having one of the Top 10 Happiest Student Bodies, and the Washington Post calls it “an Ivy League education at a public school price.” Werblow and Ward—who has been at St. Mary’s for five years— continue to develop the program. The next upgrade, says Werblow, will be the addition of two Sonars. “So we can practice our match racing,” he says.
Did you know:
St. Mary’s has won five of the last 11 Team Race National Championship titles.
Access our College Sailing Team Spotlight archive, and visit the St. Mary's sailing team website.
