Libby Peters was hired in August 2015, and spent two years as an assistant coach with the women's rowing program before being promoted to Associate Head Coach in August 2017.
During her first two years on staff, Penn has enjoyed some significant steps forward:
*In 2016, Penn claimed the Orange Challenge Cup for the first time since 2012 and just the third time since 1995 with wins over Syracuse and Northeastern at the Doc Hosea Challenge in Saratoga, N.Y.
*Penn has won the Class of '89 Plaque from Cornell each of the last two years, just the third and fourth times in history the Quakers have held it. Penn earned the Plaque for the first time since 2007; the only other time they won it was 1994.
*Penn's NCAA boats (1V8, 2V8, V4A) all finished fourth at the 2017 Ivy League Championships, matching or bettering their previous best finishes at the event. The Red and Blue racked up 46 points overall at the 2016 Championship and then 50 at the 2017 Championship, continuing a trend that has seen the Quakers improve their overall points total every year at this event.
An Ivy League graduate, Peters joined the Penn coaching staff with experience as both an Ivy League coach and in Philadelphia. After three years as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Columbia University, Peters spent 2014-15 as the Director of Rowing at Germantown Academy as well as an assistant coach with the prestigious Vesper Boat Club on Boathouse Row.
As the assistant coach for the High Performance program at Vesper Boat Club, Peters helped the United States to silver medals in three separate events at the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto (July). In September 2015, Peters coached the United States Lightweight Men’s Quad at the World Championships in Aiguebelette, France. In August 2014, Peters coached the Senior Women's Single and Champ Women's Single to gold medals at Canadian Henley.
At Germantown Academy, Peters coached a Scholastic National Champion and Philadelphia City Champion in the Girls’ Varsity Single. GA also took second at the City Championships in the Girls’ Novice Four, and third in the Junior Girls’ Quad.
During her three-year tenure as an assistant coach at Columbia, from 2012-14, Peters helped the Lions win gold at the Eastern Women’s Sprints in the Second Varsity 8 and was recognized by the College Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) as the Mid-Atlantic Assistant Coach of the Year in 2013. Columbia achieved its highest CRCA national ranking in 2012, at No. 17, then bettered that a year later by topping out at No. 15. Peters was an assistant with the Varsity 8 boat that defeated Harvard, Yale and Brown for the first times in program history, won the Eastern Women’s Sprints, and achieved a boat ranking of No. 10 nationally in 2013.
A standout rower in her own right, Peters was the stroke for the United States Lightweight Women’s quad sculls and won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Championships in Linz, Austria. As a member of the Vesper Boat Club, she took second place in the 2008 Olympic Trials in the Lightweight Women’s double sculls, and later won the U.S. Elite Nationals in both the double and quad sculls. That December, Peters and the rest of that quad sculls crew were named Vesper’s Female Athletes of the Year. As a member of the New York Athletic Club in 2007, Peters won the Canadian Henley in the Open Women’s double sculls and won the U.S. Nationals in the Senior Women’s quad sculls. In 2006 she rowed for the Pocock Rowing Center, taking third place in the World Championship Trials in the Lightweight Women’s quad sculls and winning U.S. Nationals in the Elite Lightweight Women’s double sculls.
At Columbia, Peters was co-captain as a senior and a finalist for the prestigious Manniaty Award, given each year to the top Columbia Senior Athlete. She was a Pocock All-America as a senior, and first-team Mid-Atlantic as a junior and senior. In addition, Peters was a two-time CRASH-b College Lightweight champion.
Peters founded Philadelphia City Rowing in November 2009, and served as executive director and head coach until August 2011. PCR is the first free competitive rowing program for underserved youth in Philadelphia. In her positions, Peters formed a Board of Directors and Advisors; hired and managed a coaching staff of more than 20 volunteer mentors and tutors; secured a land-use agreement and oversaw construction of a PCR boatyard on Boathouse Row; and forged relationships for the program with the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia School District, and the Schuylkill Navy.
Peters was an assistant coach with Vesper’s Junior Competitive Program in the summer of 2011; head coach of girls’ rowing at the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr in the spring of 2009; and spent the 2006-07 academic year as a history teacher and girls’ head coach at her high school alma mater, The Gunnery School in Washington, Conn.
Peters graduated from Columbia in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in United States 20th Century History, minoring in Middle Eastern Studies. She was an Academic All-Ivy selection during her rowing career with the Lions. Peters also completed the 18-month Business Essentials Certificate Program at Penn’s Wharton School of Business in December 2010, and is currently completing another Master’s Certificate in Organizational Dynamics.
