Meet the Pathways Development Camp Coaches

The Pathways Development Camp (PDC) is a great stepping stone for the U.S. national teams. The PDC will help rowers develop their technique in small boats and learn or improve their sculling skills. Long-term athlete development in small boats is the foundation for successful rower development around the world. Coaches will focus on teaching some of the most important skills rowers and coxswains need to develop to become elite athletes. All coaches are Level 2 USRowing Certified. Meet the Pathways Development Camp coaches, including multiple Olympians and collegiate coaches. 

Olympic Medalists

Megan Dirkmaat McCourt runs the camp with her husband, Sean McCourt. Megan won silver in the women’s eight at the 2004 Athens Olympics and gold in the four at the 2007 World Rowing Championships. She is a six-time member of the U.S. National Rowing Team and has worked as a successful high school coach for multiple years.

Dan Beery is an Olympic gold medalist and a three-time world champion. He won gold in the men’s eight at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a world record time of 5:19.85. He also won three gold medals and one silver at the World Championships. He is currently a coach at Pegasus Rowing and was inducted into the National Rowing Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

Micah Boyd is an Olympic bronze medalist who competed in the men’s eight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also took bronze in the men’s coxed pair at the 2005 World Championships. Boyd has previously coached at Duke University and is a three-time American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) South Regional Coach of the Year, as well as the 2015 ACRA National Coach of the Year.

Katelin Snyder Guregian is a five-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist. She coxed the women’s eight to gold at the 2016 Olympics. A seven-time U.S. National Team member and two-time Olympian, she won gold and bronze in the U23 women’s eight at the 2006 and 2007 World Championships. She has previously coached at the Princeton National Rowing Association and Loyola Marymount University. She was inducted into the National Rowing Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 2023.

Amanda Polk was a member of the historic U.S. women’s eight. She won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016 and secured five World Championships titles in the women’s eight. An eight-time member of the U.S. National Rowing Team, she previously coached at Clemson University. She was inducted into the National Rowing Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 2023.

Collegiate and High School Coaches

Sean McCourt runs the camp with his wife, Olympian Megan Dirkmaat McCourt. He was named head coach of McCallie Rowing in 2012. Under his leadership, McCallie has won medals at prestigious races such as the Scholastic Rowing Association of America National Championships, the National Schools Championship, the USRowing Southeast Regional Championship, and the Mid-South Scholastic Championship. Many of McCallie’s rowers have continued their rowing careers at prestigious universities, including Boston University, Cambridge, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Hobart, MIT, Oxford, Penn, Princeton, Syracuse, the U.S. Naval Academy, Virginia, Yale, and Wisconsin. Additionally, McCallie alumni have competed in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, the Junior World Championships, the U23 World Championships, and the Senior World Championships.

Dan Harrison is an assistant coach for the women’s rowing team at Harvard University. He began coaching at Harvard in 2023 after serving as an assistant coach at Oregon State. In 2015, he completed a one-year coaching education program at the Institute for Rowing Leadership.

Lizzie Houston is the head coach for the lightweight women’s rowing team at Stanford University. In her first season, Stanford’s lightweight women’s team swept the WIRA Championships and finished second at the IRA Championships. The team placed in the top four in all three events, winning the Varsity 4+ grand final. Stanford finished just one point behind Princeton (67-66) for the overall title. Before joining Stanford, Houston coached at Boston College and has previously coached for U.S. development camps.

Leah Pearman is the Rowing Assistant Coach & Director of Operations at the University of Oklahoma. She has been coaching at Oklahoma since 2021.

Garrison Smith has over 20 years of experience as a teacher and coach. He currently coaches and teaches at Baylor School. Prior to Baylor, he coached and taught at the Kent School.

Astrid Wettstein is currently an assistant rowing coach at Syracuse University. Previously, she served as the head coach at the Austin Rowing Club. As a rower at Princeton University, she won three Ivy League Championships and finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Since 2021, Wettstein has been a council member for the USRowing Central Youth Council in the central region.

To apply, log in to your USRowing membership portal and select camps on the lefthand menu. To learn more about the camp, click here.