Florida Tech Hires Championship-caliber Rowing Coach

MELBOURNE, Fla. (Men’s Rowing) – Florida Tech Athletic Director Bill Jurgens announces the hiring of Jim Granger, former Head Coach of Men’s Crew at Thomas
Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Granger will begin work as the men’s rowing coach August 13.

“Adam Thorstad [Rowing Director and women’s rowing coach] and I searched all summer to find the right person for Florida Tech,” said Athletic Director Bill
Jurgens. “We’re very pleased we found someone to carry on the tradition at Florida Tech and will be comfortable doing it.”

Thorstad said he looks forward to working with Granger and producing healthy competition.

“It will be great working with a coach of that caliber on a daily basis who will challenge his team and me,” Thorstad said.

Granger isn’t daunted by the jump from high school to collegiate athletics.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to work on the collegiate level with such a storied tradition as Florida Tech’s,” Granger said. “Tech is a program on the
cusp of the next level, and that is where we want to go.”

Granger is no stranger to the championship tradition. As a coach for Thomas Jefferson High, he led the area’s largest crew program to three national
championships in just four years. He also won six consecutive state championships (2002 – 2007) in Virginia. He also was named the 2004 Men’s Rowing
All-Met Coach of the Year by The Washington Post. His success has been based on a simple philosophy.

“The best way to change the odds in your favor is to pay attention to fundamentals and work hard,” Granger said. “If you do that, you’ll win at any level.”

Granger will make it a priority to get to know his athletes.

“First, I want to establish a relationship with the kids, and then begin to work hard on every level,” Granger said.

It is his ability to connect with his rowers that helped spur his national championship runs as well as interested Florida Tech.

“His successful program and the joy his rowers have to row for him were the two main factors in this decision,” Jurgens said.

Last year the men’s rowing team placed third at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania behind Purdue (first) and Temple (second). In the near
future, Granger looks to win it.