7 October 2021

Trinity College, Hartford, announces that the college has hired two new assistant coaches for the women's rowing team.

The Trinity College women's rowing team has hired Elizabeth Sonshine and Renee Jones as assistant coaches for the 2021-22 season. Peter Graves was hired as Trinity's interim head women's rowing coach on 30 August and the Bantam crews opened the fall season on Sunday, 3 October, at the Head of the Riverfront Regatta on the Connecticut River.

Elizabeth Sonshine, photo: USRowing

Sonshine begins her first season as an assistant women's rowing coach for the Bantams this fall. A 2012 graduate of Bates College with a degree in geology, Sonshine was a member of the U.S. National Team for several years until the spring of this year. Sonshine trained at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont as part of the Green Racing Project, with Riverside Boat Club, and with ARION in New York from 2012 to 2016. She debuted for Team USA at the 2017 World Championships in Florida as a member of the women's 4x. Sonshine trained with Team USA in New Jersey for the next four years, rowing in the 4x at the World Championships in 2018 in Bulgaria serving as a spare at the 2019 World Championships in Austria.

Renee Jones, photo: Wesleyan athletics

Jones rejoins Trinity women's rowing as a part-time assistant coach in 2021-22. She was Trinity's interim women's rowing head coach for the 2015-16 season, and guided the Bantams to a 9-3 record in dual races, a fifth-place finish in the New England Rowing Championships (NERC), and sixth-place finish in the National Invitational Rowing Championships (NIRC) regattas. Jones, an assistant for three years prior to 2015-16, coached the Trinity novice eight to second place at NERC and a first-place finish at NIRC in her first season, and led the novice boat to an undefeated campaign in 2014. Jones coached the third varsity to silver medals at both regattas and guided Trinity's second varsity to third place in the 2015 NCAA Division III Championship Regatta in 2015. Jones, who owns a bachelor's degree from UT-Chattanooga in health/physical education has been a president of the Farmington Valley Rowing Association.