Nic Baird, the 2019 College Sailor of the Year, began his coaching career at Stanford in 2019 after an All-American career at Yale.
Stanford was in a prime position to make a run for hardware in 2019-20 before the cancellation of the season due to the COVID-19 global outbreak. The coed team was the top-ranked program in the country when the season ended, and the women's team was ranked No. 6. The Cardinal captured the 2019-20 ICSA Match Race National Championship in the fall - the program's first win in the regatta - while Jack Parkin and Michelle Lahrkamp became the first Stanford sailors to win ICSA National Sailor of the Year awards.
Baird's award-winning senior season included a first-place finish at the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship, a fourth-place showing at the LaserPerformance Men's Singlehanded National Championship, a silver medal at this Gill Coed Championship, and victories at several other intersectional and team race regattas throughout the regular season. Behind his efforts, Yale claimed the coveted Fowle Trophy in 2018-19.
Baird was a four-time ICSA Coed All-America skipper. As a freshman, he was the NEISA Rookie of the Year and finished first at the Team Race National Championships. The following season, he was third at the singlehanded nationals and second in the B division at the Gill Coed National Championships. The St. Petersburg, Florida, native won the singles and team race conference titles as a junior and was also the runner-up in the A division at the conference coed championship.
Baird graduated from Yale in 2019 with a double major in political science and history.