SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara announced the hiring of Matt Pinschmidt to lead the women's rowing program Tuesday. Pinscmidt brings a wealth of rowing and coaching experience. He was an assistant for the Santa Clara women's rowing team during the 2005-06 season and an assistant for the men's team from 2006-09.

From 2010-15 Pinschmidt was the junior women's varsity crew coach at the Los Gatos Rowing Club. While there he led at least one boat to the US Rowing Youth Nationals in five of his six years.

"I want to thank Renee Baumgartner and Staci Gustafson for the tremendous opportunity to lead the women's rowing team here at Santa Clara," Pinschmidt said. "As a Santa Clara and men's rowing alumnus, as well as former assistant coach for both the women's and men's rowing teams, this is a wonderful homecoming for me. Santa Clara University is an extremely special place and I feel humbled and very honored to once again be a part of the incredible work that goes on here every day."

"It is great to have a Bronco leading our rowing team," Santa Clara director of athletics Renee Baumgartner said. "Matt has great experience coaching on both the men's and women's sides and has a wealth of experience as both a rower and a coxswain. His junior teams had great success under his leadership and I look forward to him bringing his passion and expertise to Santa Clara."

In 2010 he guided the Women's Junior Lightweight 8 to a second place finish at Junior Nationals. The same season the Women's Junior 8 finished in fourth with Pinschmidt as the primary coach.

Pinschmidt was an assistant coach for the Women's Junior Lightweight 8 in 2009 that won the national championship. As an assistant coach he assisted in the development of each athlete and took part in all collaborative coaching decisions including, boatings, workouts, and technical direction.

As an assistant at Santa Clara in 2006, Pinschmidt was the primary coach for the Novice 8 that finished third at W.I.R.A.'s and second at D.I.R.T. In his three years as an assistant with the men's team, Pinschmidt ran the novice program with the goal of athlete retention for varsity success and injury prevention.

During his time as a student-athlete at Santa Clara, he coxed the third place Men's Varsity 4+ at the Pac 10 Championships in 2000.

He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

Pinschmidt and his wife Christie have two twos, Aiden, age eight, and Lochlan, age one. They reside in Campbell.