Travis Day enters his third season as assistant coach and fourth overall with SMU rowing in 2021-22.
In 2022, SMU swept all four races at the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship for a second straight season. The Mustangs finished 12th overall at the NCAA Championships with the 1V8+ in 11th, 2V8+ in 10th and the V4+ winning the C final for 13th. The second varsity eight was named AAC Boat of the Year, and the coaches won AAC Staff of the Year. SMU had eight All-AAC honorees with five first-team selections. Three Mustangs were named Pocock/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-Americans, the most in program history.
In 2021, Day helped lead SMU to its first conference title after winning all three races at the AAC Championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. SMU finished 11th overall, marking the best finish for an AAC team at this stage. SMU earned AAC Coaching Staff of the Year for the second time and the first varsity eight was named the league's Boat of the Year. Eight SMU rowers were named to the 2021 all-conference team.
At the 2021 NCAA Championships, the Mustangs placed 13th overall in the first varsity eight after winning the C final - the highest finish in the event in conference history. After becoming the first crew in conference history to compete in a petite final, the second varsity eight placed second in their final race for eighth overall, marking the highest ever finish in any NCAA event for an AAC team.
Captains Peyton Matthews and Juliet Traylor were named Pocock All-Americans while seven Mustangs were named CRCA Scholar Athletes. Starting the 2021 season nationally ranked for the first time (No. 20), SMU topped out at No. 10 in the final CRCA/Pocock poll, the highest ever for the program.
The Mustangs swept No. 8 Iowa to begin the 2021 season. SMU later defeated No. 12 Wisconsin and (RV) Notre Dame at the Cardinal Invitational, going on to defeat (RV) Louisville in all three races on the second day. The team gathered three top-two finishes at the Longhorn Invitational, finishing ahead of No. 10 Alabama and (RV) Notre Dame in the first, second and third varsity eights.
Prior to his second stint in Dallas, he was an assistant coach for Barry University women’s rowing from 2018-21.
In fall 2019, Barry’s varsity four opened the season with a win over University of Miami and Nova Southeastern, followed by a fourth place finish at the Head of the Charles. The Buccaneers capped the fall with wins for both the varsity eight and varsity four over Stetson, Embry-Riddle and Nova Southeastern before the spring 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his first season, the Buccaneers won a silver medal in the collegiate fours event at the 2018 Head of the Charles, going on to finish as runners-up at the 2019 Sunshine State Conference (SSC) Championship.
His two and a half seasons in Miami saw the team earn four CRCA All-American honorees, fifteen CRCA Scholar Athletes and three All-SSC selections.
Before Barry, Day served two seasons as volunteer assistant coach at SMU. During the 2017-18 season, the first with head coach Kim Cupini, Day helped the Mustangs to their then-highest AAC Championship finish in 2018. SMU finished fourth overall, led by the team's first ever medal performances - gold in the varsity four and bronze in the first varsity eight. The 2017-18 Mustangs included three all-conference selections and six CRCA Scholar Athletes.
Prior to SMU, he was an assistant coach under Derek Updegraff at Central Pennsylvania Rowing Association in Sunbury, Pa., where he coached competitive, novice and learn-to-row junior sculling programs in 2014. His class of rising seniors went on to row at Louisville, Duquesne, Bryn Mawr and Ithaca College. He served on the communications staff at USRowing in Princeton, N.J., in 2015 while training with Carnegie Lake Rowing Association.
Day rowed for Dowling College from 2011 to 2013 and Fairfield University from 2014 to 2016. He was a member of Fairfield’s 2014 Head of the Charles varsity eight which secured a program-first automatic qualification for the 2015 regatta, where he stroked the Stags’ eight in the same event. In his 2015-16 senior season, Day served as captain and was stroke seat of the program’s first gold medal crew at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship, earning all-conference honors. The same crew also advanced to the Dad Vail Regatta semifinal and was the program's first entry in the IRA National Championship.
A native of Lewisburg Pa., Day is a 2016 graduate of Fairfield, where he earned a B.A. in journalism and professional writing. He earned his USRowing Level II certification in Aug. 2017.
