Becky Cramer was named UCF's head rowing coach in June 2008 after serving as the Knights' interim head coach during the 2008 spring campaign.
She is no stranger to the UCF rowing program, however, having spent 17 seasons at UCF as either the head coach or as an assistant coach.
During her time at the helm, UCF Rowing has become a dominant force in the American Athletic Conference, winning the league crown in five consecutive seasons. With the fifth title, the Knights joined UConn Women's Basketball as the only two women's programs in The American to win five straight titles in the six-year history of the league.
On June 2, 2019, the Knights made history again as the Varsity Four became the first UCF boat to post a Top 15 finish at the NCAA Championships. As a team, Cramer's squad posted its fifth-straight Top 20 finish at NCAAs, matching its best team finish at 18th overall.
Under Cramer's guidance, Julie Poulsen earned Pocock Honorable Mention All-America honors in 2018 and 2019, becoming the first Knight since 2012 to earn the CRCA distinction.
In the fall of 2018, Cramer was voted the USRowing Fan’s Choice Collegiate Coach of the Year.
In May of 2017, Cramer guided the Knights to their third consecutive American Athletic Conference title, sweeping all six events in Sarasota. Just two weeks later, making their third straight NCAA appearance, UCF posted its highest team finish in program history at 18th overall.
The UCF staff earned its third American Athletic Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in 2017. The Varsity Eight collected the league's Boat of the Year distinction, marking the third consecutive season that a UCF boat earned the honor.
One year after winning the first conference championship in program history, the Knights repeated as league champs at the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championships on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. Two weeks later, the Black and Gold returned to the same course to race at the 2016 NCAA Championships. UCF posted faster times each time it raced, and finished 20th in the team standings.
The Knights trailed Tulsa at the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championships heading into the final event of the day: the Varsity Eight race. The squad, who had finished ahead of their last 21 opponents in UCF's last seven races and had not lost since March 15, won by a length of open water and secured the first conference championship in program history.
Two weeks later, UCF made its NCAA Championships debut and used three top-20 finishes by the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight and Varsity Four to finished 19th in the team standings.
Under Cramer's guidance, the UCF rowing team put forth a solid effort at the Conference USA Women's Rowing Championships and finished fourth overall in the league for the second-straight year in 2012. The Knights scored 34 team points, topping the previous year's performance of 31.
In her first season as the Knights' head coach in 2009, Cramer led her squad to a third-place showing in the South Region and to a 10th-place overall finish at the Aramark Sprints South/Central Regional Championships.
During the event, Cramer's varsity eight boat finished in fourth place in the Varsity Eight Petite Final after out-rowing Notre Dame and Kansas State.
During her first three seasons with the Black and Gold, Cramer worked with the novice squad, guiding them to numerous victories, including wins over Clemson, Columbia, Miami, Syracuse, Tennessee and UCLA.
Cramer served as an assistant coach at the University of San Diego for two years prior to her arrival in Orlando. Her responsibilities there included training the novice women's squad and acting as the primary recruiter.
Before her stint at USD, Cramer was the men's novice crew coach at the University of Notre Dame for a year, while she also worked as an intern with the University's Recreation Services department. In recognition of her contributions to the Fighting Irish rowing program, the team gave her the Christopher J. Nye Award for integrity, leadership and unselfish dedication - an honor traditionally bestowed on a student-athlete.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, Cramer rowed for the Big Green and competed in the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Rowing Championships. She was voted the team's most outstanding freshman in 1996. In 2000, while finishing her degree, she served as a student intern coach in charge of the varsity four.
From 1993 to 1995, Cramer trained at the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center, where she was the stroke of the Junior National Championship eight crew. She also was invited to U.S. Junior National Team Selection Camp in 1994.
Cramer, who earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Dartmouth in 2000, earned her USRowing Level III coaching certification in 2003 and has been a member of USRowing since 1994.
The former Becky Frost, she married Andrew Cramer in July 2008. The couple have two children.
*Updated July 2021
Becky Cramer