In 1992, the team moved from its longtime home at the Ky Ebright boathouse on the Oakland Estuary to Cal’s other boathouse on Lake Briones in Orinda. 1992 also saw the addition of John Crutcher to the coaching staff; Kommer, coaching jointly with Crutcher until 1995, gradually removed himself from the program as Crutcher became increasingly involved with the lightweight team. Both men’s coaching efforts as well as their rowers’ hard work were well rewarded in 1995 when the Cal Lightweights once again took the Pacific Coast Rowing Championship title, rowing in the One Vision, a Dirigo 8+ boat purchased in January of 1995.

Crutcher stepped forward to take full control of the program in the fall of 1995. Not soon after, in 1996, the team moved once again, this time returning to the Oakland Estuary to establish their home at the Oakland Strokes’ Edward Lickiss boathouse. 1997 also proved to be a time of change as the coaching reins were passed on to Matthew White and Miles Cooper; Sharon Sha, Crutcher’s assistant and former Cal women’s heavyweight coxswain, remained with the program, taking on the role of novice coach. That year proved to be an exciting one as the novice men won the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships and the program was expanded to offer a women’s lightweight team. In 1997 and 1998 the Briones and the Yosemite, both of them used 8+ twin Carbocraft shells, were purchased from the Cal Women’s Heavyweight team to help provide for the expanding lightweight rowing family; two used 4+s were also bought in 1998.

Soon after, White took the position of women’s varsity coach while Cooper remained with the men’s team, only staying on until the end of the spring 1999 season. Sharon Sha, Paul Berger (Penn) and Sung Won Kim then took control of the men’s program for the 1999-2000 season while Ali Nachman (UCLA) was added to the lightweight team as coach of the women’s novice program. During the 2001-2002 season, White coached both the varsity and novice women assisted by former heavyweight rower Alison Skelley while the varsity men were put in the hands of Richard Lapachet (SDSU) and the novice men were coached by Francisco Perez and Igor Pesenson.

The program again moved in November of 2001, remaining on the Oakland Estuary but relocating to the newly completed Jack London Aquatic Center. The Cal Lightweight Women are currently coached by Rich Wendling (St. Mary’s) with assistants Alison Skelley and Sabrina Linden while the men’s team continues to enjoy the coaching expertise of Lapachet on the varsity squad and Pesenson on the the novice squad.

special thanks to Kristine Romano for editing/updating the history

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