Sarah Shepherd '24 Recruiting Profile

HI! My name is Sarah Shepherd and I am a 2024 open weight rower with Oakland Strokes under Coach Allison Ray. I started rowing about 8 months ago, and have truly fallen in love with the sport. I played varsity tennis for the last 3 years, 2 years of JV soccer, competitive volleyball for 3 years, plus basketball and swim team for many years. Essentially, I love sports. 

My family has a very long and successful history of rowing and once I finally gave it a try last summer, I knew it was the sport for me. My brother currently rows for Oregon State under Gabe Winkler, my dad rowed for UC Berkeley under Mark Zembsch, and my uncle Rob Shepherd rowed for University of Washington, the US National Rowing Team, and in the Men’s 8 in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Lastly, my great-grandfather rowed for Cal Berkeley and coached for Sac State. I realize I don’t personally have a long history with rowing accomplishments quite yet, but I like to think that my rowing story is just getting started. 

This summer I participated in the Strokes’ camp, a Cal Berkeley rowing camp, and Stanford’s inaugural Elite High Performance Camp. I enjoyed them all but I definitely learned the most at the Stanford Camp where we primarily focused on technique and got to use the EmPower Oarlocks as well as rowing in a boat that provided us with our individual Peach Data. On my second 2k on 4/11/23, I was able to drop my score by 15.6 seconds with a stroke rate of 26. This improvement moved my position from #25 to #18 on the team. I don't have any current videos to share but will work on getting footage this summer.

I am strong, athletic, academic, responsible, determined, and focused on rowing in college. I earned a 3.8 GPA in my first semester of junior year and finished the second semester with a 4.0 GPA. I am also a 3-time Presidential Service Award winner for volunteering and an active member of the National Charity League.  I can't wait for the rowing camps, my senior year on the water, and seeing my progression as a student athlete.  

I look forward to connecting and learning more about women's collegiate rowing.

- Sarah Shepherd