Colin Farrell completed his 11th season as head coach of the Penn lightweights in 2024-25, and his 13th year on Boathouse Row after he served as an assistant coach for the Quakers the previous two seasons. In February 2017, he became the first Fred W. Leonard Head Coach of Lightweight Rowing.
Farrell was named Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) and Ivy League Lightweight Coach of the Year after Penn's incredibly successful day at the 2019 EARC Sprints. The Varsity Eight won the Sprints championship for the first time since 1976 and just the second time since 1955, while the Second Varsity Eight also medaled with a third-place finish and the Third Varsity Eight beat its seed with a Grand Final appearance.
Farrell and his assistant coach, Taylor Brown, were one of two finalists for the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Lighweight Coaching Staff of the Year following the 2023-24 season. That came on the heels of the Quakers earning medals in all three boats at the IRA National Championships, the Second Varsity Eight taking second and the Varsity Eight and Third Varsity Eight finishing third. At the 2024 EARC Sprints, Penn won the Jope Cup for total team points for just the second time in program history (the other coming in 1967) as the 2V8 won gold and the 1V8 and 3V8 took silver.
Under Farrell, the Varsity Eight has medaled four times at Sprints including three straight years when they took third in 2017 and 2018 before winning in 2019. (The Sprints did not run in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) Prior to 2017, the last time the Quakers were medalists at Sprints was 1992 (second). The last time they won medals three straight years? Try 1950-52.
Farrell's crews have also had success at the IRA National Championship Regatta, the Varsity Eight earning medals in five of the last eight Championships after doing so just once from 1994-2016. In 2017, the Quakers were nipped by Cornell by less than a second in earning silver medals, in the process matching the program’s best finish at the event (also 1992). The Varsity Eight took third place to earn bronze medals in 2019, 2023 and 2024, while in 2021 Penn was second in a five-boat final. Overall, Penn’s Varsity Eight has made the Grand Final in ten of 11 opportunities at IRAs under Farrell, a first in program history since the lightweights started racing at the Championships in 1991.
Farrell brought an Eight and a Four to the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in July 2019, the Eight competing in the Temple Challenge Cup and the Four in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup. It marked the first time the Penn lightweights sent boats to Henley since 1991 and just the second time since 1976.
In Cup races, Penn has won the Callow Cup over Navy seven times in the nine races since Farrell has been head coach after winning it just once from 2001-14. In 2022, the Quakers wrested the Wood-Hammond Cup from Princeton for the first time since 2005, beating the Tigers on their Lake Carnegie home course for the first time since 1978, and the Red and Blue repeated the feat in 2024. In 2023 and 2025, Penn defeated Cornell for both the Matthews Trophy and Leonard Cup, a first for the program since 1990. Each of the last two years, Penn has defeated Yale and Columbia for the Dodge Cup after winning it just once from 1979 to 2023 (in 1992). The 2024 Varsity Eight brought the Dodge Cup, the Wood-Hammond Cup, and the Callow Cup to Boathouse Row in the same season for just the fifth time in program history and the first time since 1978, while the Matthews-Dodge-Callow troika in 2025 also was a first since 1978.
In addition to his duties at Penn, Farrell coached the U-23 U.S. lightweight national team for seven years. Most recently, he led the lightweight fours to the A Final and a sixth-place finish at the 2015 U-23 World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria, marking just the third time the U.S. has made the A Final since 2000.
As an assistant, Farrell coached the Penn freshmen and guided the Red and Blue to their first freshman medal in 23 years. The Quakers finished the 2012-13 regular season undefeated against the Ivy League and earned the bronze at EARC Sprints. In 2013-14, the freshmen bested that performance at Sprints and won gold for just the second time in program history -- and the first gold for any Penn boat at Sprints since the varsity in 1976.
Farrell came to Philadelphia after a successful three-year stint as freshmen coach at Yale, helping the Bulldogs' frosh eight to EARC Sprints championships in 2011 and 2012. In the regular season, Farrell's freshmen crews went undefeated each of his last two seasons on their way to EARC Sprints gold, with a Farrell-guided third varsity eight also posting an undefeated season in 2011. Also in 2011, Farrell was part of a coaching staff that put together a national championship - Yale's first since 2005 - with a win at the IRA Regatta in the varsity eight.
Prior to his tenure at Yale, Farrell served as the Heavyweight Men's Rowing Intern at his alma mater - Cornell - during the 2008-09 season. Primarily responsible for the third varsity eight, Farrell guided that boat to an undefeated regular season and a third-place finish at EARC Sprints.
Before entering the coaching ranks, Farrell was a three-time U.S. National team rower, winning a Gold Medal at the 2008 World Championships in the lightweight eight after trips to Worlds in 2006 and 2007 in lightweight fours.
In 2015, Farrell was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame after a standout collegiate career. Farrell was a three-time letterwinner and two-time captain for the Big Red which claimed a silver medal at the 2005 IRA Regatta following a bronze medal at Sprints that same season. In 2003, Farrell claimed bronze in the lightweight pair at IRAs after beginning his career with bronze medals in the freshman four at IRAs and freshman eights at Sprints in 2002. Farrell graduated from Cornell with a degree in Psychology in 2005.
A Philadelphia native, Farrell rowed in high school at Saint Joseph's Prep, winning four Stotesbury Cup Regattas, four Catholic League titles, three SRA Regattas and a pair of Philadelphia City championships.
Farrell and his wife, Ellie, reside in Moorestown, N.J., with their sons, Kellan and Benjamin.
