University of Pennsylvania - Penn Women's Cheerleading

Bill Manning, who has more than 25 years of success as a rowing coach both in the Ivy League and internationally, was named the head women's rowing coach at Penn on August 13, 2024. His first season with the Quakers saw a continuation of the success that the program has enjoyed in recent years. Penn competed in the NCAA Championships for the fourth year in a row and took 17th overall, after a regular season that saw the Varsity Eight post 17 wins and the Second Varsity Eight with 15.  Prior to his arrival at Penn, Manning was a high-performance coach at Penn AC on Boathouse Row and a senior national team coach with US Rowing who previously spent 23 years as a coach at both Princeton and Harvard. Manning's national and international coaching success dates to 1996 with US Rowing as a head and assistant coach. He served as an assistant coach with the men's pair, men's double and men's lightweight double at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.  He coached multiple medal-winning boats at the 2015 and 2023 Pan American Games including in 2023 the gold medal winning women's pair and the silver medal winning women's eight, women's four, and women's lightweight double.  He was also Team USA's head coach at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, in addition to coaching at five Senior World Championships (2003, 2014, 2015, 2022 and 2023). Manning also organized, directed and coached U23 camps to compete at three World Championships (2006, 2007, 2019) and at the U19 selection camps and World Championships (1996-02, 2016-18) winning multiple medals with the U19 Women's Team. Over the past three years at Penn AC, Manning coached 10 athletes at the World Championships and one on the U.S. Olympic Team. Collegiately, Manning coached eight years at Princeton as an assistant coach with both the women's rowing (2019-21) and men's lightweight (2013-19) programs. In 2021, Princeton finished 12th at the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships. With the men's lightweight program, Manning helped the Tigers to consecutive silver medals at the IRA National Championships in 2018 and 2019, two Eastern Sprints titles in 2016 and 2018, and three straight medals at IRAs with the LM4- and LM4+, which included a national title in 2015. He also coached at Harvard for 15 years, including his final two years in Cambridge as the associate head coach from 2011-13. Harvard won the Rowe Cup at Eastern Sprints in 2012 and 2013 and swept Yale, and the first varsity eight won the Eastern Sprints in 2013. The team medaled at IRAs both seasons and won the Prince Albert Cup (2011), Ladies' Challenge Plate (2012) and Visitor's Challenge Cup (2013) at the Henley Royal Regatta. As Harvard's freshman coach from 1998-2011, Manning led the Crimson to medals at Eastern Sprints in 12 of his 13 years including seven victories. Twice, Harvard won the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley. His first freshman boat did not lose a dual race in his final five seasons, defeating 35 consecutive opponents from 2007-11.  Harvard also won three silvers and three bronzes at IRAs from 2003-11. Harvard won three consecutive IRA National Championships in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Manning received his bachelor's degree from Holy Cross in 1987, where he rowed and served as team captain, and a Master of Education from Harvard in 1998. He earned a Level III Coaching Certification from US Rowing and is a frequent contributor to Rowing Magazine.  

Al Monte was named the University of Pennsylvania’s Nicholas B. Paumgarten Head Coach of Men’s Heavyweight Rowing in September of 2022. His impact has been immediate and recognized by his peers—Monte was the 2023-24 recipient of the Intercollege Rowing Coaches Association's (IRCA) Leadership Award, one of six finalists for the Division 1 Coach of the Year honor after his first year at Penn, and one of just four finalists for the same award following his second year on Boathouse Row. Monte's first year overseeing the heavyweights was certainly a success, as the Quakers captured the Clayton W. Chapman Trophy as the program to improve its points standing the most from the previous year at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships in June. All three Eights earned top-12 finishes at IRAs, the Varsity Eight earning its best placement since 2016, and all three were top-10 at EARC Sprints. The 2023-24 year continued the program's ascension. The Varsity Eight took fifth at the EARC Sprints, its best finish at that event since the 2001 crew also finished fifth, and at the IRA Championships the 1V8 finished eighth (its best finish since 2000) while the 2V8 and 3V8 both beat their pre-race seeds in finishing ninth and 12th. As a team, Penn took ninth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings for total team points. The Quakers also swept the Madeira Cup and Wray Trophy from Cornell during the regular season, winning the Madeira for just the fourth time this century and the Wray (total points) for the first time since 1998. Penn had another solid campaign in 2024-25. All five boats made the Grand Final at Sprints, and the Quakers placed tenth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings. During the regular season, the Red and Blue retained the Madeira Cup and Wray Trophy and gained possession of the Burk Cup (beating Northeastern) and the Blackwell Cup (beating Yale and Columbia). The last time Penn held all that hardware in the same season was 2001. In just two years at Penn, Monte has coached three student-athletes to a total of five IRCA All-America certificates, has had 28 student-athletes earn IRCA Scholar Athlete status, and had 13 student-athletes named Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) All-Academic.   Monte came to Penn after eight years as Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Dartmouth College. There, he helped lead the Big Greeh’s historic rise at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships, as they finished third in 2021 and fifth in 2022. During that time, Dartmouth won the Clayton W. Chapman Trophy—awarded to the most improved team at IRAs—in 2017 and again in 2021.   As Dartmouth’s primary recruiter, Monte helped bring in some of the strongest classes in the program’s history, which culminated in a third-place finish at the Eastern Sprints last spring. He was part of the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association Coaching Staff of the Year in 2021 at Dartmouth and coached the Big Green to multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Head of the Charles, Princeton Chase, Eastern Sprints, and IRA National Championship in all boat classes. In 2019, he coached the USA U23 Men’s Pair to a ninth-place finish at the FISA World Rowing U23 Championships.   Prior to arriving at Dartmouth in 2014, Monte was the head men’s rowing coach at Bucknell for three years. He was named the 2012 American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Coach of the Year, and in 2014 all Bison boats made the finals of the Knecht Cup, Dad Vail, ECAC and ACRA regattas. He arrived at Bucknell in 2008 as the program’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator and led the Bison Freshmen 8+ to gold at the ECAC (NIRC) championship in 2011.   Monte is no stranger to coaching on Boathouse Row where he has led programs at Fairmount Rowing Association and Vesper Boat Club. At Vesper in 2011 and 2012, Monte served as head coach for the senior and under 23 men and led his crews to multiple titles at the USRowing National Championships and Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.   During his time on the US rowing scene, Monte was an eight-time USRowing national champion, a two-time Royal Canadian Henley winner, and has experience rowing on the United States National Team. He represented the USA at the 2003 World Rowing Junior Championships in Athens, Greece and in 2006 he was invited to the World Rowing Under 23 Championships Selection Camp.   A Philadelphia native, Monte graduated from Roman Catholic High School in 2003. He then went on to the College of the Holy Cross, where he was a team captain and four-year letter winner. Monte was a member of the Crusaders’ Varsity Eight for four years, stroking the boat to a historic best finish at the 2005 EARC Sprints. He graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s in history.    

Phillip Brunner has been an assistant coach with the University of Pennsylvania heavyweight crew program since August 2019. Brunner helped Penn earn the Clayton W. Chapman Trophy at the 2023 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships, indicative of the program that improved the most in the overall team points standings from the previous year. The 2023-24 season saw the Varsity Eight take fifth at EARC Sprints, its best finish at that event since the 2001 crew also finished fifth, and at the IRA Championships the 1V8 finished eighth (its best finish since 2000) while the 2V8 and 3V8 both beat their pre-race seeds in finishing ninth and 12th. As a team, Penn took ninth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings for total team points. The Quakers also swept the Madeira and Wray Cups from Cornell during the regular season, winning the Madeira for just the fourth time this century and the Wray (total points) for the first time since 1998. Penn had another solid campaign in 2024-25. All five boats made the Grand Final at Sprints, and the Quakers placed tenth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings. During the regular season, the Red and Blue retained the Madeira Cup and Wray Trophy and gained possession of the Burk Cup (beating Northeastern) and the Blackwell Cup (beating Yale and Columbia). The last time Penn held all that hardware in the same season was 2001. Brunner came to Penn from Yale University, where he spent 2018-19 as an assistant coach overseeing the Bulldogs’ Third and Fourth Varsity Eights. Both of those boats earned victories at EARC Sprints, and overall Yale placed all of their boats on the podium at the IRA National Championship regatta for the first time in program history. It was Brunner’s second stint at Yale, as he also spent the 2014-15 year with the Bulldogs.   In between his Yale coaching stints, Brunner spent three years at Princeton University where he coached medal-winning crews at Sprints and IRAs every year. In 2016, his first year, the Tigers had their best IRA finish since 1998 and was the only heavyweight program to medal in all events entered.   Brunner rowed for Notre Dame’s club program in college, graduating in 2011. He then spent three years on the Fighting Irish’s coaching staff—the first as freshman coach, then the next two as head coach. In his final year as head coach, Notre Dame made five of six grand finals and earned two medals (including one gold) at the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championship regatta.   Brunner—who also has experience coaching both the New York and Pennsylvania Athletic Clubs—graduated with a degree in history from Notre Dame.  

Josie Konopka returned to the Penn women’s rowing program in July 2025, taking on the position of assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.   The hiring marked a return to Boathouse Row for Konopka, who put together an All-America career wearing the Red and Blue singlet and then spent the 2023-24 season as an assistant coach for the Quakers.   Konopka came back to Penn after one year as an assistant coach at the University of Virginia in 2024-25. She helped the Cavaliers to a tenth-place finish at the NCAA Championship following a runner-up finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship.   Prior to that, Konopka spent the 2023-24 season on Penn’s staff as an assistant coach. That year, the Quakers continued to make history as they qualified for the NCAA Championships for the third straight year and had all three NCAA boats earn top-12 finishes for the first time (1V8 10th, 2V8 10th, V4A 11th) en route to a tenth-place team finish. At the Ivy League Championship, Penn took fourth in both the overall and NCAA point standings and the Red and Blue earned silver medals in the Varsity Eight, the Third Varsity Eight, and the Third Varsity Four. Konopka was a two-year captain for the Quakers and earned first-team All-America honors from the College Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) and first-team All-Ivy two times. She helped lead the Quakers to their first full-team NCAA Championship appearance in 2022, when Penn finished 11th, and then was in the two-seat in 2023 as the Quakers’ Varsity Eight won silver at the Ivy League Championship and followed that up with a fourth-place finish at NCAAs. Overall, Penn took sixth as a team. Konopka then moved back into her usual spot in the stroke seat as Penn made its debut at both the Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta, helping the Quakers advance to the final of the Royal’s Island Challenge Cup final where they were nipped at the finish by the reigning British University champion, Oxford Brookes. Konopka is the latest addition to one of the longest-standing relationships in the college rowing world. Her father, Bruce, was one of three Konopkas from that generation to row for the Quakers and led the Penn lightweights to the 1976 Eastern Sprints title and the Thames Challenge Cup semifinal round at Henley. Bruce later had coaching stints across all three of Penn’s rowing programs and was the 1984 ECAC Coach of the Year. Josie’s mother, Molly, also rowed for Penn and later was an assistant coach with the Quakers. And Josie’s older brother, James, rowed for Penn’s lightweights. Another brother, Will, currently rows at Yale and rowed with rising Penn senior Ian Holly in the lightweight double sculls at the recent World Rowing U23 Championships.    

Allyson Baker joined the University of Pennsylvania women's rowing staff as an assistant coach in October 2024 and helped the Quakers achieve their fourth straight NCAA Championship appearance in 2025.   A former walk-on rower who raised herself to the sport's highest levels, Baker competed for USRowing at the World Championships in 2019 (Linz, Austria) and 2022 (Racice, Czech Republic). She rowed in two U.S. boats at the 2019 World Cup 2 in Poznan, Poland and took fourth in the 2- at the 2022 World Cup 2 in Poznan.   Baker's coaching experience includes The Hun School, where she coaches the boys, and the Princeton National Rowing Association (PNRA) where she coaches the novice and varsity girls. PNRA sent four boats to 2023 Youth Nationals and won bronze in the Youth 2-.   Baker walked on to the women's rowing team at The Ohio State University and was a member from 2013-17, helping the Buckeyes win the NCAA championship in 2014 and 2015 as well as four Big Ten titles. She graduated from OSU with a bachelor's degree in health and rehabilitation services. While in Columbus, Baker was a member of the school's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).  

Taylor Brown was named the John R. Rockwell Assistant Coach for Men’s Lightweight Rowing in March 2023. Brown's first full season with Penn, the 2023-24 season, was certainly a successful one. The Quakers brought the Dodge Cup, Wood-Hammond Cup, and Callow Cup to Boathouse Row in the same season for just the fifth time in program history and the first since 1978. The Red and Blue then won the Jope Cup for total team points at EARC Sprints for just the second time in program history (the other coming in 1967) as the Second Varsity Eight won gold and the Varsity Eight and Third Varsity Eight both won silver. At the IRA National Championships, Penn was the only program to have all three boats medal as the 2V8 took second and the 1V8 and V4A were third. Following the season, Brown and head coach Colin Farrell were one of two finalists for the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Lightweight Staff of the Year along with Harvard. The success continued in 2024-25. Penn retained the Dodge Cup and the Callow Cup and won the Matthews Trophy against Cornell, again achieving a combination of wins not seen since 1978. At Sprints, the Quakers' 2V8 won silver medals while at the IRA Championships the Red and Blue got bronze in the 2V8 and silver in the V4A.   Brown came to Penn from Austin, Texas where he spent a decade in a variety of roles that included rowing coach, mental performance coaching, and leadership coaching. On the rowing front, he was most recently the Masters Racing Team head coach at Austin Rowing Club, coaching the team to a sixth-place finish at the 2021 USRowing Masters National Championships and third at the 2022 Championships. He also spent four years working with ARC from 2013-17, coaching in a variety of roles including junior boys’ head coach and masters head coach. Taylor coached three junior boats to wins at the Texas State Championships, two to victories at the Junior Regional Championships, and the boys’ quad to an eighth-place finish at Junior Nationals.   On the collegiate level, Brown spent the 2015-16 year as a volunteer assistant coach under Dave O’Neill with the University of Texas’ powerhouse women’s rowing program, working across all four Eights during the year and coaching the Longhorns’ 3V8 to gold at the Big 12 Conference Championship races.   In addition to his coaching background, Brown has extensive experience in mental performance and well-being. Most recently, he was a mental performance & well-being coach for Major League Rugby’s Austin Gilgronis (aka AG Rugby). He also founded Enduromind Mental Performance Consulting in 2020 and continues with that company as a mental performance consultant. Brown also spent three years as an associate director for leadership programs at UT’s Center for Sports Leadership & Innovation.   An outstanding rower himself, Brown competed at Brown University from 2008-12, winning EARC Sprints titles in the Bears’ 1V8 as a senior, 2V8 as a sophomore, and 1VF as a freshman. His senior year, Brown’s Varsity Eight took second at both the IRA National Championships and in the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brown, then rowed nationally and internationally for the Austin Rowing Center while pursuing his master’s in sports management from Texas.   Brown grew up in nearby Middletown, Del., where he attended St. Andrew’s School.    

A veteran coach in the Philadelphia area, Fergal Barry joined the Penn men’s heavyweight rowing program as an assistant coach in September 2023. His first year in the Burk-Bergman Boathouse coincided with the program's continued ascension. The Varsity Eight took fifth at EARC Sprints, its best finish at that event since the 2001 crew also finished fifth, and at the IRA Championships the 1V8 finished eighth (its best finish since 2000) while the 2V8 and 3V8 both beat their pre-race seeds in finishing ninth and 12th. As a team, Penn took ninth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings for total team points. The Quakers also swept the Madeira and Wray Cups from Cornell during the regular season, winning the Madeira for just the fourth time this century and the Wray (total points) for the first time since 1998. Penn had another solid campaign in 2024-25. All five boats made the Grand Final at Sprints, and the Quakers placed tenth in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings. During the regular season, the Red and Blue retained the Madeira Cup and Wray Trophy and gained possession of the Burk Cup (beating Northeastern) and the Blackwell Cup (beating Yale and Columbia). The last time Penn held all that hardware in the same season was 2001. A 2014 Temple graduate, Barry made the move to University City after several years as a coach with his alma mater. He served as a graduate assistant with the Owls before being promoted to assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in 2019. Finally, he was Temple’s interim head coach in June 2023. Barry coached Temple’s Freshmen/Novice program, leading that group to one Gold and three Silvers in the Dad Vail Regatta.  A four-year member of the Owls’ Varsity 8, Barry rowed under the tutelage of Dr. Gavin White while at Temple. His Varsity Eight crews won gold at the Stetson Sprints, the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta, the Philadelphia Frostbite, and the Knecht Cup. In the spring of 2011 and 2014, Barry raced in the Varsity Four and placed 11th at the IRA Championship both seasons. A native of Galway, Ireland, Barry represented his home country at the Home International in 2007 and 2008, winning the Junior Men's Eights and Fours in 2007. He has also raced several times at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta.    

The Young Family Head Coach of Fencing, Andy Ma, announced the addition of Brennan Louie to The University of Pennsylvania men's and women's fencing teams' coaching staffs in November 2023.   Louie joins Penn after a stint at his alma mater, UC San Diego, where he served as an assistant coach. With the Tritons, Louie led practice for the men's and women's foil teams, conducting one-on-one sessions with individual student-athletes to prepare them for meets. He was also instrumental in recruiting prospective athletes to the program, handling the compliance aspect of the process.   "I'm extremely proud and honored to be a part of the Penn fencing family," Louie exclaimed. The university uniquely provides its athletes with the opportunity to not only get a world-class education but also the ability to compete at the highest level. I'm excited and optimistic that we can add to the program's history of athletic and academic excellence."   While working with the Tritons, Louie was also the head coach of the Elite International Fencers Club in San Diego. Facilitating group training sessions for fencers from ages five to 17, he created individual training programs for each athlete, incorporating technical and tactical work. Louie also monitored the athletes' academic performances through study halls to prepare the fencers for the next step in their careers.    Before coaching in San Diego, Louie spent five years as a coach for the Los Angeles International Fencing Club, where he studied under U.S. national coach Dr. Misha Itkin. Louie developed programs for fencers ranging from six to 25, learning how to create a positive coaching environment while teaching the athletes the fundamentals of the sport. Louie coached notable fencers Olympian Nick Itkin, Quaker Bryce Louie, and Ukrainian national champion Klod Yunes during his time in Los Angeles.    Louie, a graduate of UC San Diego, obtained his Bachelor of Arts in psychology while competing on the Tritons' foil fencing team. During his undergrad, Louie fenced for the Philippines' Olympic Committee, where he was a national champion from 2015-19, being named the Southeast Asian champion in 2016. He also participated in the 18th and 29th Southeast Asian Games, earning a gold medal in Malaysia in 2017.

Randall LeMaster has been involved with the University of Pennsylvania men's and women's fencing programs since the 2010-11 season. He took on the title of Director of Fencing Operations for the Quakers in 2016-17. Following a COVID-cancelled 2020-21 season, in 2021-22 Emon Daroian earned his second career first-team All-America selection. In 2019-20, Daroian earned his first All-America selection, joining fellow first-teamers Vanessa Dib and Jessica Liang (women's epee), and fellow All-Americans Eliot Herbst (Second-team men's epee), Michael Li (Second-team men's foil), Xiteng Lin (Second-team men's sabre), Grace Hao (Honorable mention women's foil), and Raymond Zhao (Honorable mention men's sabre). 2017-18 marked the third straight Ivy League title for the men's team, with Justin Yoo (epee), Jake Raynis (epee), WIllie Upbin (foil), and Julian Merchant (sabre) all earning First-Team All-Ivy merit. Individually, Justin Yoo led the way for the men's squad in 2016-17. The sophomore was one of two first-team All-Ivy honorees (John Vaiani) while also finishing runner-up at the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis.  In addition to the men's second-straight Ivy title, the 2016-17 season saw the rise of a women's program on the precipice of history. The team put together a 25-9 dual-match record, a third-place Ivy effort, and a trio of individual All-America selections, all freshmen -- Sara Papp, Danielle Ferdon and Nicole Vaiani. It was a historic 2015-16 for Coach LeMaster and the Quakers, as he helped lead the men's squad to the program's first Ivy League team title since 2009. In addition, the Quakers tallied a program-best 28 wins and rose to No. 1 in the national rankings for the first time in school history. On the women's side, the Quakers posted 19 victories in 2015-16 and placed fourth at the 2016 Ivy League Championships. To go along with the team accolades, the Quakers also totaled four All-America selections, including the Ivy League champion on men's saber (Shaul Gordon) and the conference champ on women's epee (Alejandra Trumble).  Both the men's and women's teams grew by leaps and bounds in 2011-12. On the men's side, a 16-0 start to the year left the Quakers as the last undefeated team in the nation. The team eventually finished at 19-5 and as champions of the U.S. Collegiate Weapon Squad Championships for the second year in a row. The women's team came in at 14-7 for the season and featured freshman Luona Wang, who advanced all the way to the national title bout in foil, ending her first year at Penn as the national runner-up in the weapon. All told, 10 fencers advanced to the national event and the Quakers ended the year in seventh place with six earning All-American honors. In his first season with the Red and Blue, LeMaster helped a pair of young squads improve, as the men went 18-4 and the women finished 14-8 in dual meets. Despite starting just three seniors between the two squads, the Quakers finished third and fourth at the Ivy League Championships. Penn also had nine fencers reach the NCAA Championships, highlighted by four All-Americans. LeMaster came to Philadelphia from Ft. Myers, Florida, were he served as owner and manager of Salle de Napoli, a fencing training facility in Ft. Myers, since 2006. During his four years at Salle, his pupils were regular fixtures among the top 16 at the North American Cup while several received national rankings. LeMaster holds a director's rating in epee, foil and saber. He honed his skills as a fencer under the tutelage of Michael Morgan, who has over 50 years of fencing experience and was a long-time student of Maîtres Lajos Csiszar and Bella De Tuscan. LeMaster previously spent time at Penn during the summers of 2005, 2005 and 2010, when he worked as a dorm advisor and coach for the Penn Fencing Camp. Working the camp, he assisted coaching in training and conditioning for all three weapons. In 2010, he taught Epee with group and individual instruction for over 20 students. LeMaster began his coaching career at the Ft. Myers Fencing Club in 1999. Prior to coaching, LeMaster served in the Navy, and following his honorable discharge worked as a technician and manager with one of the nation's leading installers of home and business automation.