Women's Rowing
- Title:
- Women's Rowing Head Coach
- Email:
- jadam@usc.edu
- Phone:
- (213) 740-3830
Josh Adam is in his seventh year (2023-24) as the head coach of the USC women’s rowing program. In his first year on campus, he led USC to the 2018 NCAA championships and has guided the Women of Troy to a 12th-place finish (2018), a 15th-place finish (2022), and a 16th-place finish (2023) in three berths in the national regatta.
Adam has 21 years of coaching experience at both the collegiate and national levels. In 2018, his Trojans finished fourth at the Pac-12 Championships and were 12th at the NCAA Championships. In 2019, USC finished sixth at conference championships.
USC’s 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 world pandemic. In 2021, USC finished seventh at the Pac-12 Championships. In 2022, the Trojans claimed fifth place in the league regatta and earned a berth in the NCAA Championships where they finished 15th.
Adam’s crews have produced two CRCA All-America second-team athletes (Chloe Brew in 2019; Jenna Van De Grift in 2022) and have had a pair of honorable mention All-America nods (Krete Koovit, 2019; Grete Alttoa, 2022). He has coached four student-athletes to Pac-12 All-Conference laurels and two to CRCA All-Region/Conference awards.
Adam arrived at USC after seven years at Washington State. He served as the Cougars’ assistant coach for four years (2011-14) and was elevated to associate head coach for three seasons (2015-17). During his time in Pullman, Adam helped coach WSU to six appearances in the NCAA Championships. The Cougars finished in the top 14 in each of those national regattas.
Under Adam’s tutelage, Washington State’s varsity four boat earned six top-15 finishes at the NCAA championships, including a sixth-place finish in 2013 and seventh in 2015. With Adam on staff at WSU, the Cougars produced CRCA All-Americans in each season. During his tenure, he coached members of national teams for Canada, Lithuania, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
Prior to Washington State, Adam spent two years (2009-10) as an assistant coach at Indiana, where he helped develop novice rowers and served as an assistant for the varsity crew. Adam also coached at Minnesota (2005) as a volunteer assistant with the novice women and as a graduate assistant with the varsity crews (2006-08). Adam helped develop first-team All-American Jenny Barnes for the Gophers and coached the Minnesota second varsity eight to the 2007 NCAA championship.
Adam began his coaching career at his alma mater Seattle Pacific where he was a men's and women's varsity assistant and the head novice coach for two years (2001-02). His women's novice four boat was named the U.S. Rowing Pacific Northwest Crew of the Year.
Adam was the men's novice assistant coach at Lewis and Clark for two seasons (2004-05) and served as the head coach of the master's women of the Station L Rowing Club in Portland (Ore.).
Internationally, Adam served as the pre-elite women's coach for the U.S. National Team (2009-10) and was the sculling women's head coach for the U23 National Team Selection Camp in 2011 and 2013 where he worked with five U.S. National Team members. From 2005 to 2007, Adam was the head coach of the U.S. women's U23 lightweight scullers where he mentored Olympian Kristin Hedstrom. He has coached his crews to top-10 finishes at the U23 World Championships, the U.S. Club Nationals and the Royal Canadian Henley.
As a collegiate athlete, Adam rowed for four years (1997-00) at Seattle Pacific, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and Christian education in 2000. Adam did post-bachelor's research at Katholieke Universiteit-Leuven in Belgium for two years (2002-03) and received a master's in sports and exercise science from Minnesota in 2008.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Adam and his wife Amy have four children: Katelyn, Megan, and twins
