Rowing Australia, the ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS) and Rowing ACT are pleased to announce that Andrew Randell has been appointed as ACTAS Head Coach and ACT Development Coordinator.

Andrew is currently the Director of Rowing and Head Coach at Prince Alfred College and the Adelaide Rowing Club. Prior to this Andrew worked predominately within high performance clubs and schools in NSW. He was involved in roles such as Director of Coaching at The King’s School, Technical Coordinator for Rowing NSW and Head Rowing/Technical Coach at NSWIS. In the past Andrew has also held the positions of Technical Director of Rowing and Head Coach of Heavy Weight Men at Sydney University Boat Club, Head Coach at Drummoyne Rowing Club and Director of Rowing at Sydney Grammar School.

Andrew has a Post Doctorate Fellowship in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of Sydney, a Doctorate of Philosophy in Medicine from the University of NSW, a Master of Science (Hons) from the University of Wollongong, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Canberra.

Andrew has held numerous National Team roles including Assistant Coach for the Australian Rowing Team at the Beijing Olympics, Head Coach of the Australian U23 team a number of times and a National Team Coach prior to that. He was also an Australian representative during his formative years.

Andrew spent many of his earlier years rowing in Canberra as a member of Canberra Rowing Club. He represented the ACT on several occasions in the Penrith Cup for lightweight fours.

Andrew indicated this morning he is looking forward to commencing in his new role. “I am very excited to be returning to my rowing roots. I see that the ACT rowing environment is a vibrant community and believe there is a lot of potential to build the program into the future. I am excited to see, and be involved in the development of all areas of rowing in the ACT including the school, club, elite and masters programs.”

After attending to the birth of his child towards the end of the year and finishing coaching duties in Adelaide, Andrew will commence his new role in early in 2014.

Until this time Ben Southwell will continue in his role as program caretaker and lead coach, a position he took up following Gordon Marcks’s transition to the National Rowing Centre of Excellence as head of Para-rowing.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Gordon for his many years of service and Ben for taking on his current role and ensuring services have continued for everyone currently involved in the ACTAS program.

We congratulate Andrew and look forward to working with him into the future.