Eva Kovach enters her 23rd season as the head women's rowing coach at Connecticut College in 2023-24.
A 1993 graduate of Clark University in Worcester, Mass., Kovach captained the women's crew from 1991-93 and was named the team's most valuable oarswoman in 1992. She earned her first coaching position at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., in the fall of 1993. She then went on to coach the United States Coast Guard Academy and Georgetown University.
Within the athletic department Kovach also holds the positions of Associate Director of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrator, Adjunct Professor of Physical Education, and Deputy Title IX Coordinator. As Adjunct Professor of Physical Education she has taught three popular classes: Sports Leadership, Contemporary Issues of Sport in Society, and Sport and Sustainability – which she recently designed with Coach Ward, head coach of men’s ice hockey.
In addition to her involvement with national rowing events, Kovach has also worked at, and continues to be involved in, numerous international regattas. In November 2003, she attended the FISA World Coaches Conference in Athens, Greece. While in Athens, Kovach had the opportunity to interview with the 2004 Athens Olympic Committee for a position at the rowing venue during the Olympic Games. She was offered the position of Field of Play Assistant to the Olympic Rowing Venue Competition Team. While working at the course she was responsible for the daily operations of the course and assisting with lightweight and coxswain weigh-ins. In May 2005, Kovach worked at the FISA World Cup Regatta at Dorney Lake, Eton, UK. She returned to the UK to work as part of the Control Commission Team for the 2006 World Rowing Championships. In 2009 she was elected into the historic Leander Club of Henley-on-Thames, UK. Also in 2009, she completed course work towards a M.S. in Sport Leadership from Northeastern University.
Kovach once again traveled to the UK to work at the 2011 Junior World Rowing Championships at Dorney Lake, which was the test event for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Subsequently, she was appointed a member of the Control Commission Team for the 2012 Olympic Games. She worked at the race course with officials to identify crew members, weigh both athletes and boats, as well as organize the daily operations of the racing. Additionally, she works with Henley Women’s Regatta officials to vet US entries and to assist with the regatta Control Commission at the start of the regatta.
Kovach has coached the Connecticut College women's rowing program to several New England Championships and her crews have medaled at numerous New England Championship and ECAC events, most recently in 2016 when the women’s varsity four won the New England Rowing Championships and won gold at the ECAC National Invitational Regatta. The women’s second varsity four and novice four crews also won in their events at the 2019 New England Rowing Championships. The program returns to the river this fall after a successful campaign in the spring of 2023.
