Bebe (pronounced BEE-bee) Bryans is in her 19th season leading the women's openweight and lightweight rowing programs at the University of Wisconsin.
One of the sport's great coaches, Bryans and the Badgers have been a successful marriage, with the Bryans-led openweights reaching the NCAA championships for 13Â consecutive seasons a championship was held (2008-21) and in 15Â of the last 17 NCAA championships. Her tenure is highlighted by a program-best seventh-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Championships. The result went one better than the program's eighth-place finish at the 2006 NCAA Championships under Bryans.
Most recently, the team rowed to a 14th-place finish, using its 12th-place second varsity eight to power the 2021 team result.
In 2017, the Badgers posted their second consecutive ninth-place finish, which was led by the second varsity eight that raced to a sixth-place finish in the grand final and the varsity four that went on to win the petite final to place seventh.Â
UW's NCAA result in 2010 makes up part of the program's unprecedented success as the UW's first Big Ten rowing championship also came during the season. UW went on to win the 2010 Central Sprints for the first time as Bryans captured her third and the UW's first Big Ten Coach of the Year award in rowing. That went along with Bryans' Central Region coach of the year honor.
Under Bryans, the varsity openweights have succeeded and the novices have blossomed, with the varsity four placing second at the 2009 NCAA Championships, the highest NCAA finish for a UW boat in school history. The boat returned to the podium with a third-place result in 2010. It has also captured Big Ten titles in both 2010 and 2011. The second varsity eight took bronze in 2006 for the school's first NCAA podium result, won Big Ten titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and has been among the top three Big Ten finishers in nine of the last 12 seasons. The novice eight's success includes perfect seasons in 2006 and 2008, winning Big Ten Conference and NCAA Central/South regional titles. The 2009 and 2010 novice eight also won Big Ten and NCAA Central regional titles.
As a team, the Badgers went 10 consecutive years with top-three finishes at the Big Ten championships and in 12 of the 17 championships held during the Bryans era.
A growing number of rowers who have competed under Bryans at UW gained international experience as members of the U.S. senior and under-23 national teams, as well as national teams around the world. Those include 2016 Olympians Grace Latz and Vicky Opitz, UW's first women's openweight U.S. Olympians since 2000. Opitz returned to the Olympics for 2020, along with Maddie Wanamaker.Â
In all, 15 women's openweight rowers and eight lightweight rowers have made national teams during Bryans' tenure.
While the openweights ascend the collegiate rowing ranks, the UW lightweights have been dominant, winning five national titles under Bryans' watchful eye.
Bryans, the first women's rowing head coach in Michigan State history, spent seven years in East Lansing, leading the Spartans to five NCAA championship appearances as a team. Michigan State was represented at the NCAA championships by at least one boat in every year of the program's existence. In 2002, her second varsity eight placed fourth and the varsity four placed fifth. She was recognized for her team's success as 1999 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Central Regional Coach of the Year when her crew placed eighth at the NCAA Championships.
Bryans was named Big Ten Rowing Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2003. Her teams earned Big Ten championships in the varsity four (2002), second varsity eight (2003) and the second varsity four (2004). She also coached two Big Ten Freshmen of the Year (2001, 2003), one Big Ten Athlete of the Year (2002) and one MSU Medal of Honor winner (2002).
Prior to Michigan State, Bryans served as the varsity women's rowing coach at Georgetown from 1992-97. She was a member of the NCAA Women's Rowing Committee while at Georgetown and led the Hoyas' varsity eight boat to a berth in the inaugural NCAA women's rowing championships in 1997.
In addition to her head coaching experience, Bryans has been active in the coaching ranks of the USA Women's National Rowing Team since 1985. As the head coach at the Junior World Championships in 1992 and 1993, Bryans led the 1992 women's eight to a bronze medal, which marked the first medal won for the U.S. in a Junior World contest.
Bryans went on to serve as the women's elite sculling coach at the 1995 World Championship. She was a member of the Women's Olympic Rowing committee from 1992-94 and she took on the role as the chair of the committee in 1993-94. Most recently, Bryans led the U.S. women's four and the lightweight single at the 2000 World Rowing Championships.
Before joining the coaching staff at Georgetown, Bryans was the head rowing coach at Mills College from 1988-92. Prior to her stint as crew coach at Mills, Bryans was the assistant swimming coach at San Francisco State University from 1986-88. She also served as founder, executive director and head coach of the Pacific Rowing Club from 1980-92.
A 1986 graduate of San Francisco State University, Bryans was a 10-time Division II All-American in swimming. In 1986, she was named the SFSU Woman Athlete of the Year. Bryans was dubbed the Northern California Athletic Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1986 as well. A 1991 FISA Masters world champion in the eight and the quad events, Bryans received her master's degree in physical education from San Francisco State in 1989.
Bryans Q&A
Why did you choose to become a coach?
My club coach asked me to take out his high school boys' team. I did, and he never took them back.
Why the University of Wisconsin?
It is a program with loads of potential and challenges, set in an iconic city. The combo of elite-level academics and athletics is awesome.
What is your favorite part about coaching?
Being part of a team, enabling women to find resilience, self-confidence, competitiveness - together. Helping them become their best self in an environment that is bigger than just themselves.
What is special about coaching at Wisconsin?
There is a coaching family at Wisconsin. You can feel it from the beginning and it helps me bring together a fantastic rowing staff. Unity and a shared sense of purpose, along with skill, is everything and we have that here.
Speak on one of your favorite memories from coaching at Wisconsin.
I can’t do just one…here’s three: watching the orange-red sunrise behind the Capitol light it up like crystal, seeing the team come together to support and celebrate each other after a really hard indoor workout, and watching our V8’s bow ball cross the line to help us win our Big Ten Championship.
What do you do outside of coaching?
[I like to] walk with my dog Bella, scuba dive in warm places (although I have gone ice diving below Mendota), and play the piano.
What do you look for in recruits?
Potential. That includes positiveness, athleticism, eagerness to learn, willingness to improve, desire to be part of something bigger than themselves.
