Matthew Borghard - Women's Rowing Coach - Rutgers University Athletics

Matthew Borghard

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
mborghard@scarletknights.com
Phone:
848-932-4226

Max Borghard became the Head Coach of Rutgers Women's Crew in 1995. Under his leadership, the Scarlet Knights have qualified for the NCAA DI National Championships three times, in 1997, 1998 and 2001. Rutgers was one of only eight teams in the country to earn a full-team bid to the first ever NCAA championships in 1997. In conference and league championships, his crews have amassed twenty-six Big East medals and four EAWRC medals.

Borghard's coaching philosophy is based on two mainstays: work hard and love the sport. As a result, his mentoring extends beyond the Rutgers boathouse. Sharon Kriz '98 finished second at the 1997 U-23 World Championships as a member of the U. S. straight four and fourth at Senior Worlds in the U. S. women's eight in 2005.

Maite Urtasun `01, a two-time First Team All-American, made five senior national teams. In 2002, she was a world champion as a member of the U.S. women's eight. Borghard has also mentored numerous All-Region Scholar-Athletes and Big East Academic All-Stars, and several of his former athletes currently coach at DI collegiate rowing programs.

Before returning to his alma mater, Borghard coached at Dartmouth College from 1989 to 1995. He coached the Big Green freshman lightweights to a bronze medal at the 1990 Eastern Sprints and to gold in 1991. During the summer of 2013, Borghard helped coach the U.S. Under-23 National Team at the Women's Olympic Training Center at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. On the national level, Borghard served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Junior Men's National Team in 1991, 92 and 94.

He coached the junior men's double to a gold medal at the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival in Los Angeles and assisted with the junior men's eight that won gold in Montreal, Canada in 1992. Borghard, a native of Long Island, NY, began rowing in high school under the tutelage of his father, Al Borghard. A graduate of Rutgers, he received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1987.

He captained the Rutgers Lightweights his junior and senior years and stroked the varsity lightweight eight to back-to-back Eastern Sprints bronze medals those same years. Capping off a successful collegiate rowing career, Borghard was selected to two consecutive U.S. National Teams in 1986 and 1987.