New Head Coach: Isaac Clark
The Penn Sailing team is excited to finally announce their new, full-time head coach, Isaac Clark! Isaac is a native of Weems, Virginia and an alum of the College of William & Mary, graduating in 2012.
Isaac is joining us from his most recent position in Chicago, where he had been working at Chicago Yacht Club as head coach for five Chicago high school teams from 2016 to 2018. Prior to working at Chicago, he worked as a science teacher and Sailing ProgramDirector at Christchurch School between 2012 and 2016. He coached this accomplished team to many high school national championship appearances and founded the Christchurch School Summer Race Team in 2014, which he is also currently coaching this summer. Many of his sailors from this time have since gone on to become dedicated and formidable athletes in college sailing, including a number of All-Americans these past 2 years.
With his impressive coaching resume, the team has been excited for Isaac to lead the next chapter of Penn Sailing…and after trying him out for a semester, we’ve decided to keep him around! In his first season with the team, our women went to National finals for the first time in over thirty years. In addition, our team racing squad improved dramatically over the course of the season and ended up making the final four at the team race challenge.
After this exciting season, Isaac’s goals for Penn Sailing involve bringing the level of discipline up to a varsity standard and building the team up as a cohesive group. With a relatively small team every single member is instrumental to the collective team effort, and everybody as an equally important role. As the team is entering a new chapter under new leadership, it is an critical time to come together as a fellowship of Penn student-athletes to support each other and celebrate each other as we tackle the new challenges ahead. We’re looking forward to seeing Penn Sailing continue to grow and flourish under this new leadership in the coming years.
