Holly Metcalf is in her 12th season as head coach for the MIT openweight women in 2018-19. She has transformed the program from a struggling Division I squad into a team that is competitive within the Eastern Sprints, as well as in the Patriot League, where the Engineers’ varsity 8 squad has regularly gained the Grand Final. Additionally, in every year under Metcalf the team has earned Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA for its exceptional academic performance. In the 2017 Patriot League Championship, the team finished fifth overall behind a third-place showing by the varsity 8. At the conclusion of the event, Metcalf was honored as the 2017 Patriot League Coach of the Year.

Metcalf was a six-time member of the U.S. National Team and won five World Championship and Olympic medals, including a Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in the women’s eight. She has coached extensively at the club, college, and national team levels. Metcalf also directed the Silver Medal winning crew at the 1990 World Championships. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she was selected as a member of that school’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.

More recently, Metcalf used rowing to enrich the lives of hundreds of women and girls through a variety of non-profit programs. In 1994, she founded the Row As One Institute, which provides masters women with top-level coaching. She extended this concept to inner-city girls in 1996 with her G-ROW program in Watertown, Massachusetts. Six years later Metcalf established WeCanRow, a wellness and rehabilitation organization for female cancer survivors, which recently evolved into WeCanRow National.

Over the years Metcalf has accrued numerous awards and honors, including:

2017 - Patriot League Coach of the Year

2008 - USRowing Woman of the Year (with Olympic teammates)

2004 - RYKÄ First Women of Fitness Award

1999 - YWCA Outstanding Woman

1999 - New England Women's Leadership Award

1999 - USRowing Woman of the Year (with Ernestine Bayer)

1999 - New England Women's Sports Hall of Fame

1998 - New England Hero Award

1998 - Girl Scouts of America Leading Woman

1997 - Boston Magazine's Top 50 Most Intriguing Women

1993 - Peter F. Drucker Award, Project Teamwork

1990 - World Championships Silver Medal (coach)

1987 - World Championships Silver Medal 

1984 - USRowing Hall of Fame

1984 - Olympic Gold Medal

1983 - World Championships Silver Medal

1982 - World Championships Silver Medal

1981 - World Championships Bronze Medal