Bergman resigns as head crew coach

Penn men's heavyweight crew coach Stan Bergman resigned from his position but will continue to work for the school as the Director of Rowing Affairs, Penn Athletics officials said yesterday.

Bergman will step down as coach at the end of the season and will then assume his new post.

Bergman's future as Penn head coach had been in question since a Jan. 12 story in The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that his contract would not be renewed after expiring this year.

After that, a petition was delivered to the Penn athletic department, signed by more than 200 people and calling for Bergman's contract extension not to be ignored.

Bergman would not speak to the media, but said in a statement that he is "pleased to be continuing [his] association with the University.

"It is my hope to continue to contribute and be a positive impact on the strong tradition of Pennsylvania rowing," he wrote in the statement.

His new position involves representing Penn at rowing conferences and working with the Development office in alumni relations, according to the press release.

While no reason was given for his resignation, the Quakers' results on the water in recent years -- which have been far from stellar -- may have played a factor.

In the last three seasons, Penn has finished in the bottom half of the standings at both the Eastern Sprints and the IRA Championships and has finished last or next-to-last among Ivy League schools at both regattas.

Penn has also lost all head-to-head races against Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Cornell in that span.

Nonetheless, Nathaniel Allen, the team's captain, stood up for Bergman.

"We don't want this to be what coach Bergman is remembered for," Allen said. "We want him to be remembered for what he is -- the greatest coach in Pennsylvania [rowing] history."

Allen also said that he is not sure Penn's record in recent seasons is entirely sufficient grounds for what has happened.

"I do not agree with the reasoning for having him move on to this [new] position," he said. "The biggest factor in this definitely has a lot to do with the record over the last few seasons -- however, many suspect that there is more to it than that."

Allen said he sent letters to University Provost Ronald Daniels and President Amy Gutmann, as well as Athletic Director Steve Bilsky, earlier in the semester in an attempt to discuss Bergman's future.

In his letter to Bilsky, Allen wrote that if he "did not think that Stan Bergman was the best possible person for the job of ... Head Coach, and my team did not agree with me, I would be the first to tell the Athletic Department, as well as Coach Bergman, that it was time for a new coach."

But Allen said yesterday that he would do nothing but support Bergman.

One of Bergman's former assistants, Mark Redding, said that Bergman's record over the last few years is not the result of his coaching but of more restrictive recruiting rules imposed by the University.

"The number of recruits that they were given was literally cut in half -- even more so than half," Redding said. "The amount of spots that we used to get when we had sprints-winning teams, we had 21 to 24 recruits on the team -- last year's freshman boat had seven."

Redding, who was a coxswain for Penn from 1997 to 2000 before coaching from 2003 to 2005, added that "Princeton and Harvard are still fielding two eights-worth of freshman recruits, and there's no way [for Penn] to recruit with that."

Redding insisted, though, that current assistant coach Seth Brennan "has done a great job with the recruiting restrictions he has been given," and stated his support for Bergman.

"It's a shame that he had to go out this way," he said.

Bergman, who spent 22 years as head coach, noted his appreciation for his role at Penn.

"My job has always been about revealing the best in those student-athletes who compete as Pennsylvania rowers, both on and off the water," he wrote in a statement.

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