2023-24 Coaching Staff

Whitney Standefer-Smith is beginning her first year as an assistant rowing coach for Middlebury.
Prior to coaching at Middlebury, Whitney was the assistant boys coach at Baylor School in Chattanooga, TN for two years (2018-2020) as well as assistant varsity and interim head varsity coach for Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga, TN for four years (2010-2011, 2014-2017).
Whitney began her rowing career in high school at Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga, TN after which she was offered a rowing scholarship to the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA).
She rowed for two years at UCLA and qualified for U23 National Team selection camp before being injured and medically retired from high level training.
However, she still enjoys rowing and racing recreationally as well as helping young rowers learn the sport and reach their own goals.
Whitney is also a business, tax, and IP attorney with a J.D. from Vermont Law School and an LL.M. in Tax Law from Villanova University.
She has her own law practice with offices in Chattanooga, TN and Brandon, VT.
Whitney currently lives in Rutland, VT with her husband, Trevor, and young daughter, Adeline.

Elliott joined the Middlebury Crew coaching staff as an assistant in the spring of 2021.
Before ever laying hands on a racing oar, he fell in love with rowing as a high school senior after reading Stephen Kiesling's The Shell Game.
Attracted to the sport by its beauty, camaraderie, and fierce competition, he joined the rowing team at Bowdoin College a few months later.
He rowed for four years as a student and he got his first taste of coaching as an intern at St. Paul's School Advanced Studies Program.
Elliott is also an avid alpine skier and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
He currently lives near the college in Middlebury with his spouse Elizabeth and daughter Lydia.