Wisconsin women’s lightweight crew head coach Maren LaLiberty is proud of her top-ranked program, but it is not because of the flawless record. Coach LaLiberty is proud of her student athletes for other reasons.

Although the women’s lightweight crew has not lost a race this season, you will not hear LaLiberty bragging about the immaculate success of her team. Instead, LaLiberty is most pleased with the composure her team has held while boasting the No. 1 ranking in the NCAA.

“Our main goal is to have great performances at every regatta,” LaLiberty said. “You can’t win all the time, but you can control whether you have a good performance, so that’s what we concentrate on.”

LaLiberty, who married Wisconsin’s men’s soccer assistant coach David LaLiberty last August, became the head coach in 1999 after serving as an assistant with UW. Since then, she said the steady improvement of the program is her greatest accomplishment.

Before coming to Wisconsin, LaLiberty rowed her way to a national championship in 1982 while she attended the University of Minnesota.

Even when her days with the Gophers were over, LaLiberty still didn’t head straight to the Badgers. A medical student at Minnesota, she tried out her profession for a while before getting back in the boat.

LaLiberty became a physician in Madison and joined the crew coaching staff as a volunteer.

She later switched professions as a way to fulfill her desire for independence and to create new challenges.

“Every year you are starting over with a new team, so there are new challenges and new people,” LaLiberty said. “We build up to a big ending and you start over again, and that gives a nice rhythm to my life that I really have enjoyed over the years.”

To help with the career change, LaLiberty has a coaching staff that is ready to help her out.

Veronika Platzer joined LaLiberty’s staff as the women’s novice lightweight coach last August. Platzer said there was one reason she accepted LaLiberty’s invitation to coach at UW.

“[LaLiberty] brings a really good perspective and a high degree of professionalism, not only to this program, but to this sport,” Platzer said.

Although LaLiberty’s time at Minnesota was triumphant, she said she would not be confused about where her loyalties lay when she’s done.

“I’m a Badger. I feel like I went to the University of Wisconsin,” the lightweight crew coach said.

Although she didn’t attend UW, she has left an impact on her Badger rowers.

LaLiberty has coached Jade Brueckner, a junior who is the coxswain and will captain next year, for the past two years. Brueckner said LaLiberty is personable and does not care just about athletics; she also takes time to check on academics.

“She will always meet with us one-on-one. She always has time for [each of the members],” said Brueckner. “[LaLiberty] stresses performance over results; she wants to know that we come off the water satisfied and that we did everything we could do,” said Brueckner.

LaLiberty said she agreed.

“That’s what we have really been concentrating on this year is to value performance over results . . . making sure that we have our peak performance at every regatta. Every regatta we talk about the fact that we want to come away from this regatta as a smarter, faster crew. We are trying to use every race as a tool to fine-tune everything that surrounds achieving a great performance at the very end of our season.”

LaLiberty is proud of her team’s maturity and respect for each other.

“The biggest accomplishment this season is they have created a sense of support and respect so if you are not in the top boat, you still feel like you are part of the success of the top boat,” LaLiberty said.

“The key is building a team whose foundation is respect and support of all athletes, building a team whose goal is to make a successful team. Everyone feels a part of that success.”

The lightweight rowers have the league championship May 12, which will prepare them for the national championships the first weekend in June.
“Our goal is to win a national championship,” LaLiberty said. “We certainly have been working hard toward that goal.”
LaLiberty said the team controls its destiny and needs to make sure not to cause its own failure.
“I feel like we are our biggest potential enemies,” LaLiberty said. “We are happy that we are No. 1, we feel like we deserve to be ranked No. 1, but we are still trying to concentrate on our performance and make sure we perform well at every regatta.”