College Sailing Team Spotlight: Stanford University
College Sailing Team Spotlight: Stanford University
Stanford University has a young team, but the Cardinals are ready to compete at the highest level.
Location/Enrollment: Stanford, Calif., 6,887 undergraduates, 8,779 graduates
Sailing Site: San Francisco Bay
Facilities/Boats: The Arrillaga Rowing and Sailing Center in Redwood City, Calif., is a two-story complex with boat bays, locker rooms, a conference room/banquet hall/training room area, laundry room, team history room, kitchen area, and coaches’ offices. Stanford’s fleet includes 12 420s, 18 FJs, four lasers, and four crash boats.
Coaching: John Vandemoer, head coach; Clinton Hayes, assistant coach; Molly Vandemoer, volunteer assistant coach
Team Status: Varsity
The only West Coast team to qualify for all three ICSA National Championships last spring, the Cardinals found success with a roster of young but adept sailors. Except for one sophomore skipper in the Women’s event, all of Stanford’s skippers at Nationals were freshmen. Coach John Vandemoer is looking to build his team with an influx of freshman talent this fall. “I really enjoy coaching the student athletes,” says Vandemoer. “They’re driven, smart, and exciting to work with.”
Vandemoer has been head coach at Stanford since 2008, having previously coached at the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “We have a really talented group,” he says. “The team learned from competing at such a high level at Nationals last spring that the fight for inches is furious. We had some great races, but we didn’t have perfect boat positioning yet. We will next year.”
A new addition to the team is assistant coach Clinton Hayes, who recently helped the University of Rhode Island win the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Championship.
Did You Know:
The Stanford sailing team hosts its Big Sail event at St. Francis YC on the Tuesday before the school’s football team faces the University of California, Berkeley, in the Big Game. The regatta features alumni divisions and a battle of the schools’ marching bands.
Access our College Sailing Team Spotlight archives, and visit the Stanford sailing team website.
