Tulane University Athletics

Charles Higgins entered his third year as the head coach of the Tulane sailing team in the fall of 2019. He was named the first varsity head coach in school history on October 16, 2017.

In the 2019 season, sophomore Ciara Rodriguez-Horan won the SEISA Women's Singlehanded Championship (for the second time in her career) and freshman Cameron Giblin won the SEISA Men's Singlehanded Championship, earning both sailors a spot in the ICSA Singlehanded Championships. The Olive and Blue went on to win the SEISA Match Race Championship, the SEISA Fall Coed Regatta and the SEISA Fall Women's Regatta, ultimately leading to top 20 national rankings for the women's and coed teams.

The Green Wave women finished the fall season ranked 15th in the country, while the coed squad was 20th.

When sailing was elevated from club to intercollegiate varsity status in the 2018-19 season, Higgins led the team through the transition and worked to change the culture of the program.

In Higgins' first season Uptown, Rodriguez-Horan won the SEISA Women's Singlehanded Championship to earn a spot in the ICSA Singlehanded Championships. The Green Wave also won the SEISA Women's Championship and finished second overall in the SEISA Conference Championship.

In August of 2018, Higgins was selected to serve as the head coach at the LaserPerformance Collegiate Cup (LPCC) in Torbole, Italy, where he instructed university-aged students from all over the world.
 
Higgins arrived at Tulane by way of Old Dominion University, where he has served as assistant coach for 10 seasons. At Old Dominion, Charles helped guide the team to 25 National Championship appearances with 15 top-10 finishes, including appearances at the spring championships every year from 2009-2017.
 
Prior to his time coaching at Old Dominion, Higgins got his first collegiate coaching stint at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., and helped guide the Mariners to a National Championship appearance in 2008.
 
On the water, Higgins has coached student-athletes who have gone on to receive 17 All-America honors. Off the water, he helped oversee the academic advancement of the student-athletes in which 25 Academic All-America selections were awarded during his tenure.
 
In the off-season, Higgins coached many up-and-coming sailors at the youth and post-collegiate levels. He has been a coach for the United States Sailing Association at their 2016 and 2017 U.S. Youth Championship, as well as the 2017 U.S. Youth Women's Double-Handed Championship.
 
During the summer of 2017, he was also the selected coach and team leader for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association's bi-annual ICSA-BUSA tour with a team of U.S. College All-Stars. The team competed against the top collegiate sailors in Great Britain before advancing and ultimately winning the LaserPerformance Collegiate Cup in Campione del Garda, Italy against collegiate teams from all over the world.
 
During his collegiate career at Old Dominion, Higgins competed in all disciplines within collegiate sailing, including singlehanded, keelboat, match racing, team racing, and coed doublehanded. In 2005, Higgins helped the Monarchs to a sixth-place finish at the ICSA National Championships hosted by the University of Texas in Austin. As a senior, Higgins was named the Old Dominion Sailing MVP and selected to the All-MAISA team.
 
He graduated from Old Dominion in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in business management.
 
Higgins still competes regularly, having won the 2006 National Championship in the Vanguard-15, leading to an invitation to the U.S. Sailing Championship of Champions in San Diego, Calif., where he finished fifth. He also won the U.S. Team Race Association midwinter championship in 2008, the 2015 Hampton One-Design National Championship, and the 2016 United States Team Racing National Championship.
 
Tulane will be the 15th NCAA Division I school to offer sailing as a varsity sport for women, including Boston College, College of Charleston, Cornell, Dartmouth, George Washington, Georgetown, Hampton, Harvard, Hawai'i, Navy, Old Dominion, South Florida, Stanford and Yale.