Jason Elefant joined the Cal men's rowing team prior to the 2022-23 season. Elefant joins the 2022 National Champions after serving as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Syracuse.
The Hamilton, N.J. native made his way to the West Coast after spending five years with Syracuse, the last four as the recruiting coordinator for the Orange. Elefant was responsible for recruiting all nine members of the 2022 Varsity Eight that ranked as high as No. 6 nationally and finished fifth in the 2022 IRA Championships earlier this month. It marked the second-consecutive year that Orange raced in the IRA Grand Finals. The 2V8+ and 3V8+ placed 8th and 10th respectively, making it the third time in the last five years that Syracuse has placed three crews placed in the top 10 nationally.
In 2021, in an abbreviated season marked by Covid restrictions, Syracuse recorded its highest finishes in nearly 30 years, with the V8+ and 2V8+ eights taking 4th and 5th in their respective Grand Finals.
During the 2019 season, Syracuse posted its strongest dual season in over a decade, with the V8+, 2V+, and 3V+ going a combined 14-4 and claiming the Goes, Stagg, and Packard Trophies with wins over Wisconsin, Cornell, Navy, Columbia, and Dartmouth. The program's top three eights went on to post 7th, 8th, and 4th place finishes at Eastern Sprints followed by 9th, 11th, and 9th place finishes at the IRA Championships, respectively. Elefant was the primary coach for the second varsity eight during the racing season.
Elefant was elevated to the post of recruiting coordinator following the completion of a successful first year at Syracuse, in which he coached the third varsity eight to an unbeaten record in the dual season and a #10 national ranking at the IRA Championship Regatta. With the 3V's 10th place finish at the 2018 IRA, Syracuse placed three eights in the national top-10 for the first time since the regatta entered its new format in 2013.
Before joining the coaching staff at Syracuse, Elefant spent two years coaching junior rowers in Great Britain. From 2015-17, Elefant held the position of Colet Fellow at St Paul's School in London, one of the country's pre-eminent schools and rowing programs. While an assistant at St Paul's, the program achieved numerous successes, highlighted by the program's first-ever victory in Championship Eights at the UK National Schools' Regatta in 2017.
Elefant graduated from Princeton in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in History. As a member of the men's lightweight rowing team, Elefant medaled three times at the Eastern Sprints and earned a spot on the 2014 IRA All-Academic Team during his junior year. Elefant also participated in the 2012 United States Under-23 lightweight four camp and was an alternate on the 2011 United States Under-19 National Team.
