Bryn Mawr College

2025 Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference Coach of the Year, Katie Ely beings her fourth year at Bryn Mawr, leading the rowing program into the Spring 2026 season.

As head coach, the Owls have earned second place in team points at the Mid Atlantic Rowing Championship three years in a row, and scored the highest points in team history at the 2025 Mid Atlantic Rowing Conference this past May. In 2023 at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta, the team won the Head of the Schuylkill Women’s Team Points Trophy across all Divisions which was the first time in team history. 

This past May, the rowing team earned their highest spring national ranking in team history, placing 15th in the Pocock Collegiate Coaching Rowing Association Poll for week 9. 
Under Ely’s leadership, the team has been awarded the most MARC All Academic, and All Conference 1st and 2nd team members 3 years in a row.

Ely also holds a Level II Coaching Certification from US Rowing, and is a graduate of the #57 NCAA WeCoach Academy class. She also coaches for the Cooper River Rowing Club Competitive and Intermediate Masters Program  in Pennsuaken, NJ.
Prior to Bryn Mawr, Ely had served as the assistant women's rowing coach at Marietta College for the previous four years, and she became the second head coach in Bryn Mawr rowing history after the retirement of Bryn Mawr's program-founding head coach Carol Bower.

Ely was instrumental in the revitalization of the Marietta rowing program over her four years at the institution. At her arrival to Marietta, the program featured just one returning athlete and six first-year student-athletes. During her four seasons, Ely helped steer the Pioneers through the pandemic and to top-three finishes at the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference in each of her final two years. Ely also was responsible for organizing and coaching the 2021 Pioneer Sculling Camp for junior rowing development and she assisted in coaching at the U23 2021 Summer Camp.

Prior to her arrival at Marietta, Ely got her coaching start with stints as an assistant rowing coach at both the Cooper River Rowing Club and at Haddon Township High School, her scholastic alma mater.
A New Jersey native, Ely received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Ithaca in 2016. A four-year letterwinner, she served as sculling captain for the Bombers rowing team in her senior season, a year in which Ithaca finished 1-2 in the Division III Grand Final at the Dad Vail Regatta and earned an at-large bid into the 2016 NCAA Rowing Championships.