Women's Rowing
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Heather Cartwright is in her fifth season as the varsity assistant coach at Boston U. She is primarily responsible for coaching the JV eight, along with all the varsity athletes, and coordinating recruiting efforts.
In the 2006 season, she coached both the novice team and led the varsity "A" four to a silver medal at the Eastern Sprints. Cartwright brought fifteen of years coaching experience to BU. Previously, she spent the 2003-2004 season as an assistant coach at Princeton University, guiding the second varsity eight to a bronze medal at the Eastern Sprints and the third varsity four to a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Cartwright, a Canadian, began rowing at Branksome Hall, Toronto, in 1985. She continued at the University of Western Ontario under coach Al Morrow, the women's coach of the Canadian National Rowing Team. As a rower, she won gold medals at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, the Canadian National Championships, the Ontario University Championships and the Dad Vail Regatta.
An aspiring elite athlete, her rowing career was ended abruptly in her junior year due to a rare genetic heart condition. At the encouragement of her coach, Cartwright became coach of the varsity lightweight women's program while still at university. She led them in her senior year to gold medals at the Ontario University Championships and the Dad Vail Regatta.
Upon graduation from Western in 1993 with a degree in English literature, she attended film school and began a 10-year career in the internet and communications industries, co-owning a company prior to its sale in 2002.
In addition to college level coaching, Cartwright has volunteer-coached at the high school, club and provincial levels since 1991. She coached women's crews to gold medal finishes at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, the US Nationals, the Ontario Championships, the Head of the Charles and Canada Cup. In 1992 she was the manager for the Canadian team at the World Rowing Championships, and in 1998 she served as an apprentice coach to the Canadian National Team.
Cartwright, a NCCP Certified Level 4 coach, graduated from the National Coaching Institute, Ontario in 2004 with a diploma in High Performance Coaching. She is a past chair of the Women in Rowing Committee for Rowing Canada. The summer of 2006, she was part of the coaching team for the USRowing U-23 Boston Development Camp. In the summer of 2007, Heather was the assistant coach to the U23 Canadian Women's National Rowing Team.
Coach Cartwright may be contacted via email at hcart@bu.edu.
