Julia Vari arrived at Rutgers as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in 2018 and helped conduct one of the most successful turnaround stories in NCAA rowing in just four years and three competition seasons. Following an 18-year drought, Vari helped coach Rutgers to consecutive NCAA Championships in 2019 and 2021, with the 2021 Scarlet Knights posting their best-ever finish at the national regatta in seventh place. Just four years after Rutgers finished last at the Big Ten Championships for a third consecutive year, Vari helped guide the Scarlet Knights to fourth place and third place finishes at the conference championship event in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
Following the landmark 2021 season, Vari and her colleagues were named the CRCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year.
In just her second season at Rutgers, Vari helped guide the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA Championships, snapping an 18-year drought. RU finished 11th at the 2019 NCAA Championships, placing ahead of five other ranked squads and three Big Ten schools. Rutgers claimed its first Big Ten medals in 2019, capturing silver and bronze in two events.
The Scarlet Knights earned their first preseason ranking at No. 12 in 2020 before COVID-19 canceled the NCAA season. Rutgers peaked at No. 4 in the CRCA Pocock national poll during the 2021 campaign.
Vari has mentored nine Pocock All-Americans "On the Banks," including eight over the past two seasons in 2019 and 2021. The 2021 season also saw 10 Rutgers rowers earn CRCA Scholar Student-Athlete status and 48 named Academic All-Big Ten.
Vari arrived at Rutgers after spending the 2016-17 season at Loyola Marymount with RU head coach Justin Price. While at LMU, the Lions finished third at the West Coast Conference Championships in a seven-team field and the program also earned a pair selections to the WCC All-Conference teams.
Vari began her collegiate coaching career at her alma mater Ohio State where she worked with the Buckeye’s walk-on/novice athletes in the fall of 2015.
At Ohio State, Vari was a member of the coaching staffs that won the NCAA Championship in 2015 and back-to-back Big Ten Conference Championships in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she helped lead the V4 and 3V4 to first-place finishes at the Big Ten Championship. In her first year on the Ohio State coaching staff, Vari coached the 3V4 to victory at the 2015 Big Ten Championship.
In addition to coaching at the collegiate level, Vari also spent the summers of 2014 and 2015 as an assistant coach with the Princeton National Rowing Association (PNRA). While working at PNRA, she coached the PNRA/Mercer Junior Rowing Club to back-to-back victories in the Under 17 8+ at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in 2014 and 2015. Vari also worked with the "Adult Learn to Scull" program in 2015, and led the "Novice Learn to Row" program in 2014.
Prior to beginning her coaching career, Vari rowed collegiately at Ohio State and was a member of the Buckeye team that won both the Big Ten and the NCAA Championship in 2013. Vari graduated cum laude from Ohio State with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Sport Industry.
