Aussie coach has a Southern accent (2.4.10)

CURTIS JORDAN

The New South Wales Institute of Sport and the Australian rowing community believes hiring its new coach was a coup — and that coup still has a faint Southern accent.

Curtis Jordan is coming out of a brief retirement to coach the Aussies and a NSWIS official says the hiring of the Columbus native is a "huge step forward" for the program.

“Curtis has an extremely impressive record and has shown he has the ability to gain the best out of his athletes at the elite level,” National High Performance Director Andrew Matheson said. “For NSWIS to gain his services is a credit to the program they are operating and his expertise will be of great value throughout their rowing program, and indeed right across Australia.”

Jordan's trip to Australia isn't a non-stop journey, of course. He spent 19 of his 30 years at Princeton University as head coach before retiring in July 2009. His 2006 squad went 9-0. All this taking over a dismal program that hadn't won the Eastern Sprints in decades. On his watch, the Tigers captured that title five times and won national championships in 1996 and 1998.

The former banker at CB&T also coached four U.S. Olympic crews and the 1996 American team brought home a bronze medal.

During his seven-month retirement in New Jersey, he used his experience as a commercial pilot to help seriously ill patients and their families travel to and from medical appointments through Angel Flights. Since September, he flew about a dozen volunteer missions.

Jordan and his wife, Paige Petersen, arrived in Sydney this week and his appointment was announced in Australia newspapers on Thursday.