Rowing Welcomes New Assistant Coaches

Head coach Kim Chavers has announced the addition of Egan Berne and Katie Coons to the Spartan rowing staff. Chavers also announced that assistant coach Maddie Shellgren has accepted a full-time position outside of coaching but will continue with the program as the volunteer assistant coach.

"We are excited to have Egan and Katie joining our staff," noted Chavers. "They both bring considerable Division I coaching experience that will help support our student athletes on and off the water. We are thrilled to welcome them to East Lansing and to have Maddie returning as a volunteer coach."

Berne comes to East Lansing after a season at Gonzaga University (2019-20). While the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow for spring competition, the Zags had 15 student-athletes earn Academic All-WAC honors as the squad boasted a 3.52 spring GPA. The rowing program boasted 12 President's List honorees and 18 named to the Dean's List.

Berne's first post-collegiate position was in her hometown of Chicago, as the novice rowing coach and freshman girl's basketball coach at Loyola Academy. She then accepted an assistant position in the collegiate ranks at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY (2018-19), where she was involved in all aspects of the program. She focused on the fours and was greatly involved in all aspects of team travel and also ran the Red Raiders social media accounts. The Red Raiders won the petite final in both the varsity eight and varsity four at the Patriot League Championships. She stepped in to serve as the program's interim head coach from March to July 2019 until accepting the position at Gonzaga.

Berne graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2017, earning her degree in psychology a minor in history. Berne was a recruited rower and four-year letterwinner for the Tar Heels and the 2016-17 team captain. In 2014, she was rowing's nominee for "Newcomer of the Year" across the entire athletics department. While at UNC, Berne also was a member of the university's Richard D. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy and spent the summer of 2015 with the International Summer School Program at the University of Oslo in Norway.

Coons joins Chavers' staff in East Lansing after three seasons on staff at the University of Dayton. She primarily worked with the novices and fours, but also was involved in all the day-to-day operational duties for the program, including nutrition and training plans. Coons helped improve Dayton's finish in the Atlantic 10 Championships by two spots from 2018-19, and the Varsity Four earned a gold medal at the 2019 event. In 2020 alone, 30 Dayton rowers (of 34 on the squad) who were named to the 2019-20 A-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll. In addition, senior Anna Benton was named an Academic All-American, by CoSIDA.

In the summer of 2019, she was an assistant coach with the Midwest/Central Girls Olympic Development Program in Pittsburgh, and engaged twice weekly with US Olympian coxswain Mary Whipple with the ODP coxswains.

Before her three seasons at Dayton, Coons spent a year as an assistant coach at Big Ten rival Rutgers (2016-17). She assisted with coaching the novices in the fall, and then with the fours in the spring.

The newest Spartan assistant was the novice coach and then the head coach for the Upper Arlington Crew in Upper Arlington, Ohio (2012-13, 2014-15) and was the head coach of the summer programs in 2015 and 2016. Her Freshman 8+ finished fourth in 2013 and fifth in 2015 at the SRAA Nationals Championships Regatta. She also coordinated and coached middle school Learn to Row camps in the summers as well.

Coons raced collegiately at Ohio State, and then returned as a volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater. A four-year letterwinner (2009-12), Coons primarily raced in the 2V4 during her career and won the "Spare Pair" race at the 2012 NCAA Championships, where the Buckeyes took fifth. In her four-year career, Ohio State compiled four top-four team finishes at the Big Ten Championships, including a Big Ten title in 2011 and a second-place finish in her senior season (2012).

After her first stint at Upper Arlington, she returned to the Buckeyes and served as the team's volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater (2013-14). She helped guide the second novice eight to a bronze-medal finish at the Big Ten Championships, and the Buckeyes won their second of three straight NCAA Championships.

Coons graduated from Ohio State in December 2012 with a degree in human development and family science. She earned a certificate in adult and graduate education (with dual licensures in early childhood education and intervention specialist) from Capital University in 2016. She holds her US Rowing Level I and Level II Coaching Certifications, and in most recently completed the US Rowing Level III High Performance Coach Certification Course in May.

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