Coaches
Kelsey Anderson (She/Her)
Kelsey Anderson joined ABCrew in Fall 2022 as the Novice Boys coach.
Kelsey Anderson was born into a rowing family, and began coxing at the beginning of High School for Oakland Strokes in California. She was recruited to UMass by Olympic rower & coach Jim Dietz, and continued to cox at a high level in college. She has had the opportunity to race with UMass at NCAA's, IRA's and at Women's Henley over the course of her college career. She stayed at UMass for her Masters and volunteer coached during the year while earning her Masters in Political Science.
In the summers she coaches for Ready Set Row as both a rowing and a coxswain coach, and has focused on building a manual for developing coxswains in their early careers. When not rowing (or talking about rowing!) she likes to read history books and go for runs.
Clara Babbott-Ward (they/Them)
Clara started their rowing career at Wayland-Weston High School. Captain of both novice and varsity squads, they fell in love with rowing and got recruited to Wesleyan University, competing in the Varsity 8+ at NCAAs all 4 years and taking gold at the Charles in the Collegiate 8+ back in 2016. Clara served as head coach at St. Mark’s School for 2 years, and is now thrilled to be on AB Crew. When Clara isn’t coaching at AB, they are coaching the paraplegic team at CRI, teaching music at Excel Academy, hiking, writing music, singing in their acappella group, hosting open mics, and hanging out with their fish named Beep and Susan.
Kelly Houston (they/Them)
My rowing career began when I was a freshman in high school. I started rowing at Arlington Belmont for my first three years before transitioning to CRI. Following this, I was recruited to a Division 1 program at UMass Amherst, where I rowed for 3.5 years before graduating a semester early. During the past few summers I have coached at DBMS crew, the Olympic Development Program in Jacksonville, FL, and Community Rowing Incorporated (CRI). When I’m not on the water I really enjoy long walks, playing with pets, and maybe a little cooking here and there. I look forward to continuing my coaching journey at Arlington Belmont and beyond!
Elizabeth Conover-Prentiss (Lizzy)
Lizzy started her coxing career in 2012 at AB Crew. Leaving
high school a year early, she coxed at a brand new D3
program in 2015 which got a bid in HOCR and went on to
place third in conference finals in only their second year.
Since then, she’s been competing with the CRI Women’s
Competitive team where she’s now a 2x Masters National
Champion, Masters Royal Henley Regatta winner, and has
placed in the top half in HOCR.
Coaching has always been a passion of hers, starting in
2018 she coached multiple youth recreational classes both
sweeping and sculling and was the Assistant Corporate
Rowing Specialist at CRI. Most recently she was an assistant coach on the Novice/ U17 girls squad at CRI. She’s most happy and grateful to be back where it all started at AB Crew!
Outside of rowing she’s currently assisting with events at a local restaurant and is passionate about the Bruins, F1, vintage cars and French food.
Catherine Saarela
Catherine started rowing at the University of Nebraska and still rows and competes in the masters category. She has coached for Creighton University’s Women’s D1 Rowing team, University of New Hampshire, and Brandeis University. As president and head coach of Omaha Rowing Association, she grew 3 high school teams from 5 junior rowers and has sent the masters team to USRowing Masters Nationals and boats to The Head of the Charles. She is also a USRowing referee and was LOC for the first combined Nebraska and Iowa State Games Regatta.
