Penn women’s rowing has a new addition to their coaching staff in assistant coach Josie Konopka, the team’s former captain. While having a collegiate coach would be considered unique in most families, for the Konopkas, rowing runs deep.
Both of Konopka's parents and brother coach rowing at the collegiate and varsity levels. Growing up, Konopka attended rowing camps, which began her love for the sport. She then competed for her high school team, which was coached by her mother, and then joined Penn’s rowing team, which she later became the captain of. When it came time to look to her post-graduation plans, entering coaching felt like a natural progression.
“Coaching at Penn felt like the perfect opportunity since I had already worked so closely with [associate head coach Kumari Lewis] and [head coach Wesley Ng],” Konopka said. “That transition would be smooth and that I would have people around me who really understand me.”
While the coaching staff were familiar faces to Konopka, her transition from being captain of the team to its assistant coach meant having to take on a more authoritative role and learning how to communicate feedback effectively to the team.
“When you’re on the team, you don’t have any more authority than anyone else on the team," she said. "Now I have more authority to steer the athlete in the direction we as a coaching staff would like to unlock their full potential.”
This emphasis on increased communication as a coach has been a learning process for Konopka, and she believes there are always more techniques she can pick up with experience to improve her capabilities as a coach.
“When I’m rowing, I know what an improvement should feel like. As a coach, I’ve been learning to communicate and demonstrate those changes to the girls. It’s been really helpful to learn from [Lewis] and [Ng] and watch them while conducting the practice sessions,” she said. “ I’m also learning a lot from the broader support staff and from the men’s coaching team.”
Being an assistant coach has unexpectedly also provided more of a behind the scenes perspective to the season, as she now is involved in directions regarding the focus of practice sessions and the wider goals of the team in the coming weeks.
“I just have a lot more information now. I work with the broader support staff as well and they’ve been super welcoming and happy to have me onboard,” said Konopka.
When looking to the future, Konopka reiterated her pursuit of furthering her ability to coach effectively.
“No one is ever a finished product, so I’ll always be able to learn about coaching and figure out ways I can further help the team,” she said.
Konopka holds the unique perspective of having captained many of the players on the team, sharing a relationship with them that is now transitioning from a comrade to a more authoritative figure, but the trait that remains in this shift is the importance Konopka places on providing support in order to help the team reach its maximum potential.
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