The Blue Crew nearly burst the nonexistent buttons on their team jackets as they marched in President Paula A. Johnson’s inauguration procession in September—representing “Wellesley’s NCAA Champion Sports.” Now they have another reason to be proud: Their coach, Tessa Spillane, is bringing home one of USRowing’s most prestigious awards in early December.

Spillane, who has coached the Blue since the 2005–06 season, has received the Ernestine Bayer Award, formerly known as USRowing’s Woman of the Year Award. The honor recognizes outstanding contributions to women’s rowing or an outstanding woman in rowing. Spillane is the first NCAA Division III women’s rowing coach to earn the award since its inception in 1982.

“I am truly honored to have been nominated and selected as the Ernestine Bayer Award winner by USRowing,” Spillane says. “Ernestine Bayer is the mother of women’s competitive rowing. She was a doer and a champion. I met her as a 19-year-old, and I have her picture in my office, so to have my name even affiliated with her is absolutely something I never could have imagined.”

Spillane has guided Wellesley to seven consecutive appearances at the NCAA Division III Championships—winning the national title in 2016, the first ever for a women’s college crew—and six consecutive NEWMAC Conference titles. She has coached 12 All-America honorees. Under Spillane, the 2010–11 and 2015–16 Division III National Coach of the Year, Wellesley has been ranked in the top 10 nationally for each of the last seven seasons.