The South Florida Bulls sailing team represents the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

in the sport of

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...

. The team competes in the

South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association The South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA) is a conference in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association and was founded April 25, 1964. SAISA encompasses a geographic area that includes Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, ...

within the

Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is a volunteer organization that serves as the governing authority for all sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. History The fir ...

. The Bulls are coached by

Allison Jolly Allison Blair Jolly (born August 4, 1956) is an American sailor and Olympic champion. Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jolly began sailing at the age of 10 and attended the Florida State University where she won the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Ass ...

, gold medalist in the first Olympic women's sailing event at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. She has coached the team since 2004. The team's home venue is the Donald A. Haney Landing Sailing Center on the

University of South Florida St. Petersburg The University of South Florida St. Petersburg is a campus of the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida. Opened in 1965 as a satellite campus of the University of South Florida, it was consolidated with the other two USF camp ...

campus. It is the university's only varsity sport based on the St. Petersburg campus. The sailing program has won three ICSA National Championships: Sloop in 2009 and Offshore Large Boats in 2016 and 2017. Their three national championships are the most of any USF team.

History

Like many varsity sailing teams across the nation, the USF sailing team began as a club team at the USF St. Petersburg. The club team was born in 1993, with USF St. Petersburg College of Education professor Dr. William "Steve" Lang serving as the head coach. The team achieved varsity status in fall 1997, with Lang remaining as the head coach. They won their conference title and qualified for the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (now Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association) Team Racing National Championship during their first year of existence, and finished as the 11th-best team in the country. They returned to the National Championships in the following season as well. Lang resigned as coach in 2000 to focus on his work as a professor at the university. As of 2022, Lang still teaches at USF. Stephanie Doyle replaced Steve Lang as head coach in 2000. The Bulls won conference titles in 2002, 2003, and 2004 under her leadership. After Doyle's departure in 2004, USF hired Olympic gold medalist and St. Petersburg native

as the third coach in program history. Jolly has led the Bulls to three national championships (sloop in 2009 and offshore large boats in 2016 and 2017), two national runner-up finishes (singlehanded in 2009 and 2011), seven conference championships, 14 appearances in ICSA nationals, and two appearances representing the United States in the

Student Yachting World Cup The Student Yachting World Cup (SYWoC) is an annual sailing competition for students which was created in 1979 and is held in France. 36th edition The 36th edition of the Student Yachting World Cup took place in La Rochelle, France. The compe ...

Honors

National championships

USF has won three sailing national titles:

National runners-up

The Bulls have finished as national runners-up twice:

References

External links

Team website
{University of South Florida South Florida Bulls Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association teams