A two-time first team All-American, and NCAA national champion as both a coach and student-athlete, Sarah Puddicombe is currently in her second stint at Sacramento State as assistant coach.
Puddicombe (formerly Whipple) has spent the past two seasons (2024, 2025) as assistant coach with the Hornets, after serving as the program’s novice coach under Connors for three years from 2005-07.
This past season (2025), she was part of a Hornet staff that coached the team to golds in the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four grand finals at the same WIRA Championship for the first time in program history (1995-pres.). In addition, the team joined the West Coast Conference for the first time in 2025, and finished fourth (out of nine schools) in the conference championship.
Puddicombe has 22 years of coaching experience. Prior to her second stint with the Hornets, she spent seven years as the head coach of Capital Crew - the Sacramento State Aquatic Center’s youth rowing program for high school students (2016-23). In addition, she has collegiate coaching stops at Cal (2008-16), UC Davis (2007-08) and Sacramento State (2005-07).
A local product from Orangevale, Puddicombe competed four years at UC Davis (1999-02) where she was a two-time All-American coxswain, three-time team captain, and helped the Aggies to a 2002 NCAA Div. II national championship.
She would later add another national championship at Cal, where she helped coach the Bears to a 2016 title. During her time at Cal, the team also had eight consecutive top three finishes at the NCAA Championships, and seven Pac-12 Conference team titles. That included a run of five straight Pac-12 titles from 2009-13.
Puddicombe was promoted to associate head coach at Cal in 2012, and was responsible for signing 67 student-athletes to National Letters of Intent from 2008-14. She coached four individual boats to top four finishes at the NCAA Championships (including a gold in 2014 and 2016), and five individual boat Pac-12 titles.
During her seven-year stint at Capital Crew, a total of 72 of her 105 seniors were recruited to row in college. In addition, she qualified boats to the USRowing Youth National Championships every full season of her tenure, which included winning a national championship in the Junior 4+ in 2017 and the Junior pair in 2022. The championships were canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
Other coaching stops included serving as a volunteer coach at the Under-23 National Team Camp in 2008 and 2010. She also worked as a Jr. Pre-Elite Rowing Coach from 2004-06, and made her coaching debut with Capital Crew from 2004-05.
Puddicombe graduated in 2002 from UC Davis with a degree in wildlife, fish and conservation biology. She would later add a master’s degree in 2009 from the University of Phoenix.
Puddicombe and her husband, Mark, have two daughters - Morgan and Charlotte.
