Browning Resigns as Women's Openweight Coach
May 14, 2002 | Women's Rowing
Head women's openweight rowing coach Mary Browning has resigned her post with the University of Wisconsin, effective June 30, after five years at the reigns of the program and nine years total.
'I'm moving onto a new phase in my life,' Browning said. 'I had a baby girl this year. I've been looking critically at my life and what I have to do as a mother, and what needs to be done as a coach, and I would have to make too many sacrifices to coach well. I really didn't want to have to make that sacrifice. It's a purely personal decision.'
Browning has led the Badgers into a time of incredible growth in women's collegiate rowing. Big Ten and NCAA Championships have begun within the last six years, with Wisconsin playing host to the inaugural Big Ten Championship in 2000. Under Browning's tutelage, the Badgers took 10th at the 1999 NCAA Championships and have finished fourth in the Big Ten Championship three times. The team's varsity eight has won three Midwest Rowing Championships, has had five Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association All-Region rowers, nine CRCA National Scholar-Athletes, six All-Big Ten athletes and one Academic All-District Rower.
'I've thought long and hard about this and it 's a very difficult decision to make because I really love this program, the student-athletes involved and the athletic department,' added Browning. 'I've been so honored and felt really lucky to be here. I know in the long run this is the right thing to do, despite the sadness I may be feeling for leaving the athletes and the people I work with. They have been my family the last five years. I 'll be in Madison so I will be their biggest fan. I'm only 33 and I think there are other things I can do that won't require the sacrifice coaching requires of you.'
'We would like to thank Mary for her time with the program, ' said Assistant Athletic Director John Jentz. 'We wish her well in her new career as a mother and whatever her future brings.'
Browning and the Badgers compete again this Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19, on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., at the 2002 Lexus South-Central Sprints.
