Josh Gautreau - Women's Rowing Coach - University of Washington Athletics

Josh Gautreau

Title:
Assistant Coach & Lead Recruiter
Email:
gautreau@uw.edu
Phone:
(603) 801-6614

Josh Gautreau enters his fifth season as an assistant coach and lead recruiter for the Washington women's rowing team in 2020-21. He was named to the position in July of 2016.

In 2019, Gautreau was a member of the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Coaching Staff of the Year, sharing in that honor for the second time in three years. Gautreau coached the Huskies' second varsity eight, which won its race as a part of the UW's Pac-12 Championships sweep, and also won the grand final at the 2019 NCAA Championships, part of the UW's second-ever sweep of that regatta. It marked the third straight season that Gautreau's 2V boat had won the NCAA final.

The 2020 season was almost entirely lost due to the global pandemic, as the UW completed only one competition before all collegiate athletics were canceled.

In 2018, Gautreau oversaw the Huskies' second varsity eight crew, which dominated the season, capping the spring with a comfortable win at the NCAA Championships. The Huskies' second eight also won the Pac-12 Championship and led much of the way in a terrific Windermere Cup race against the Huskies' first eight and the Dutch women's national team.

Gautreau also continued to recruit top-notch athletes to the UW program, from the world of international rowing, from all over the United States and from the state of Washington. He was the architect of the Hometown Huskies program, which awards a tuition scholarship to one high school senior from the state of Washington, who has no experience in rowing.

In the summer of 2019, Gautreau also served as an assistant for the USRowing Under-23 Women's National Team.

Gautreau's first season was a complete success. In 2017, the Huskies won the NCAA Championship in unprecedented fashion, sweeping all three grand finals for the first time in the 21-year history of the event. It was the fourth NCAA title in UW history and the Huskies' first since 2001.

The Huskies also won their first Pac-12 Championship since 2003, sweeping all five events, and the UW coaching staff was named the Division I Coaching Staff of the Year by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA).

Gautreau also coached the Huskies' second varsity eight, which won its grand final at the 2017 NCAA regatta by more than six seconds.

Gautreau came to the UW from the University of Virginia, where he had served as assistant coach for the previous five years. During his tenure, Josh's crews earned medals at four of the previous five NCAA Championships, as he coached the varsity four to a national title in 2015 and the second varsity eight to bronze in 2014. In 2016, Josh led the Virginia 2V to fourth-place finish en route to the team achieving third overall.

Gautreau began rowing at Syracuse University, where he graduated in 2006 with a degree in physics. He is currently working toward a master's degree in exercise science. Josh is a U.S. club and elite national champion, Canadian Henley champion, and Head of the Charles winner. He represented the United States at the 2011 Pan American Games in the lightweight four. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Cat, and their sons, Bode and Wyatt.