USRowing Announces Most Recent Level 3 High Performance Coach Graduates

USRowing is excited to announce the 36 coaches that recently completed the Level 3 High Performance Coach Certification Course.

Over the course of six months, these coaches completed 11 elite coaching modules designed to advance their skills in fields such as biomechanics, advanced rigging, long-term athlete development and rowing philosophy, to name a few. All told, the graduates completed over 100 hours of training to earn their certification.

Please join us in congratulating the latest additions to the Level 3 coaching ranks!

Kit Bennett

Kit Bennett Head ShotKit Bennett hails from London, England, where he began coaching athletics in 2000. Bennett proudly became a U.S. citizen in 2019. He is the director and head coach of Skyline High School Crew and Washtenaw Rowing Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. Founded in 2009, Skyline Crew has won more than 50 Midwest Scholastic titles, as well as seven U.S. and Canadian Scholastic National Championships. In 2013, Bennett was an assistant sculling coach at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai Lithuania, and in 2012, he led the U.S. squad to multiple golds at the 2012 CanAmMex Regatta in Mexico City. Bennett completed four years as an assistant for the varsity men's program at the University of Michigan, where boats under his guidance won multiple ACRA National Championships, as well as a Dad Vail title. More recently, he has focused on forging community partnerships to address the diversity issue facing rowing. This was kick-started by the Washtenaw Rowing Center and Ann Arbor Public Schools being awarded a George Pocock Foundation Erg Ed grant in 2017.

Helmut Berthold

Helmut Berthold Head ShotHelmut Berthold helped to start the Para Adaptive Rowing Program at the Greater Columbus Rowing Association in 2010. The adaptive program focuses on introducing people with disabilities to the sport of rowing. Berthold has been coaching and managing the program since its inception. Prior to coaching in Columbus, he coached at the Baltimore Rowing Club.

Ben Carr

Benn Carr Head ShotBen Carr is a doctoral candidate at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. After completing his athletic rowing career, Carr moved directly into professional coaching with the University of Virginia men's program. Under the guidance of head coach Frank Biller and the team's guru, Dr. August Leming, Carr developed a coaching philosophy singularly devoted to the service to others over sporting success. He implemented this service at several programs around the country and moved to Switzerland after being invited to spend a season with the Swiss Senior National Team. Seeing the same confusion that leads coaches and administrators to make self-oriented decisions at all levels of the sport in both countries, Carr shifted to academia to pursue the answers to these global, human problems. He has since worked with World Rowing to improve its coaching development program, aiming to ensure the growth of rowing around the world is done in tandem with the spread of compassionate understanding of the human condition.

Kim Chavers

Kim Chavers Head ShotKim Chavers is the women's rowing head coach at Michigan State University. In her first season in 2019-20, the Spartans earned 12 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars and 26 Academic All-Big Ten selections. Prior to MSU, Chavers served as an assistant coach at Old Dominion University during the 2018-19 season, helping guide the Monarchs into their inaugural season of competition in the American Athletic Conference. Chavers previously worked with novice rowers at Indiana University for three seasons, assisting IU in finishing fourth, fourth and fifth as a program at the Big Ten Championships and qualifying for the NCAA Championship, finishing 12th, 13th, and 15th from 2015-18. Chavers served as an assistant coach at Stetson University in the MAAC from 2014-15. Prior to moving into collegiate coaching, she was the head coach at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Va., from 2012-14, qualifying crews for the SRAA Championships and Stotesbury Cup finals. She served as an assistant coach at Boston Latin School in Massachusetts for three seasons (2009-11) and was also MIT's club rowing coach during the 2010-11 campaign. Chavers was an instructor at the Capital Rowing Club in Washington, D.C. (2013-14) and coach at Community Rowing, Inc. (Boston) from 2009-11 while coaching at Boston Latin. She rowed at Marietta College in Ohio, where she graduated in 2008 with her degree in health science. She earned her doctor in physical therapy degree from Northeastern University in 2012, and a master's in sport coaching leadership with a concentration in rowing from Drexel University in 2019.

Brian Colgan

Brian Colgan Head ShotA Philadelphia native (Vesper Boat Club member since in utero), Brian Colgan began his coaching career in 1976 with Anita DeFrantz at Camp Dimension (the first U.S. Community Rowing Program). As a rower, Colgan represented the USA at both junior and senior world championships and is a two-time Pan American Games silver medalist. He is particularly proud of being both a junior and elite national champion in the pair with coxswain and winning the Eastern Sprints and the IRAs for the University of Pennsylvania. Having been molded in his rowing career by a pantheon of American coaches including Gus Ignas, Jim Barker, Stan Bergman, Ted Nash, Dietrich Rose and Kris Korzeniowski and after a 35-year career in global financial trading software, he returned to coaching in 2016 to 'pay it forward.' Since then, Colgan has been a junior coach at Intrepid RC, Treasure Coast RC, Camp Randall RC, and for the past two years, he has served as the director of rowing at Vero Beach Rowing. Rather than list the medals his crews have won at major regattas, Colgan prefers to focus on the character-building aspects inherent in teaching the mental and physical discipline of rowing, as it is the crucible for instilling the character traits of perseverance, leadership, good sportsmanship, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence into the next generation of American citizens.

Mike Cute

Mike Cute Head ShotMike Cute is the director of rowing and head coach at the West Side Rowing Club in Buffalo, NY. Prior to West Side, Cute served as assistant men's coach at Colgate University from 2011-15. At West Side, Cute coaches a number of programs during the year including the high school club team, u23/senior men's summer program, and masters, while also overseeing all other club programs. His rowers and crews have won medals at the Dad Vail Regatta, USRowing Club National Championships, Head of the Charles, Canidain Henley, USRowing U17/U15 National Championships and C.R.A.S.H.-B.s. Cute rowed four years at Marietta Colleges and started rowing at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia.

Eduardo De Camillis

Eduardo De Camillis Head ShotEduardo De Camillis is the president and head coach of the Decamillis Rowing Academy and the varsity girls' assistant coach at Miami Beach Rowing Club. He has been an active rower for over 60 years as a coxswain, competitive rower, and coach. He started his coaching career in Brazil as head coach of Club de Regatas Guaiba – Porto Alegre and later was head coach of Club Nautico Capibaribe in Recife (gold medal championship in the state of Pernambuco). De Camillis then moved to Spain, where he was the head coach of Real Club Maritimo De Barcelona. He returned to South America, this time in Peru, where he was head coach at Club de Regatas in Lima (gold medal at the Peruvian National Championships), Club Canottieri Italia in La Punta (gold medal in the eight at the Peruvian National Championships), and the Peruvian Rowing Federation in the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela (bronze medal in the boat pair with coxswain). He then moved to Paraguay as head coach for Club de Portivo de Puerto Sajonia in Asuncion (gold medal in the national championship). De Camillis also has served as head coach for the Olympic Committee from Paraguay at the 2016 World Rowing Championships and for the Puerto Rican Federation at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. At the Decamillis Rowing Academy, he has trained rowers from Germany, Spain, Brazil, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and the United States for high-level competition in single sculls.

Liza Dickson

Liza Dickson Head ShotLiza Dickson is the junior program director and boys' head coach at Sammamish Rowing Association. SRA boasts a school year roster of 200+ junior rowers and regularly qualifies for Youth Nationals. Dickson has been coaching for nearly 25 years with success at the junior, high school, collegiate and elite levels. In 2015, she was the coach for the U.S. women's team at the World University Games in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to coaching, she is a board member of the Northwest Rowing Council. Dickson's goal is to introduce a better system for developing junior athletes within her own club and beyond. Her focus is on long-term athlete development -- to ensure that every young athlete receives developmentally appropriate coaching and support that maximizes their time as a junior rower and prepares them for future success, on and off the water.

Malcolm Doldron

Malcolm DoldronA Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Malcolm Doldron was named head coach of lightweight rowing at Boston University when the program was established in 2012. Since then, his crews have won 10 medals at the IRA National Championships, including three silver-medal finishes in the lightweight varsity eight and two national championships in the lightweight double sculls. Doldron also served as USRowing's Under 23 National Team Lightweight Women's Selection Camp Head Coach. Between 2016 and 2018, Doldron directed nine crews in international competition, at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships, with five grand final appearances and three medal finishes including gold in the lightweight pair in 2017. In addition to his coaching credentials, Doldron is a member of USRowing's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for both Community Rowing Inc., and the Head of the Charles Regatta. Outside of the rowing world, Doldron is an elected official in the Massachusetts Town of Brookline and is a Commissioner in Brookline's Committee for Diversity, Inclusion, & Community Relations.

Tracy Falkenthal

Tracy Falkenthal Head ShotTracy Falkenthal started rowing at the age of 16 at Berkeley High School. She went on to row varsity at Boston University and as a masters rower at Marin, Petaluma, Spokane-Coeur D'Alene, Chinook and currently with Texas Rowing Center. She has won the Henley Masters, Head of the Charles (four times), and USRowing Masters National Championships (four times), as well as the World Rowing Masters Regatta in 2011 and 2018. Falkenthal won her IFBB PRO titles in Physique & Figure at Team Universe in July, 2016. She is also a personal trainer and health coach. Falkenthal served 16 years in the Army National Guard and finished as a Staff Sergeant. After the military, she went on to become a firefighter with the Dallas Fire Department and later with the Alameda County Fire Department. She retired after 19 years of service without injury. Falkenthal is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer & ACE Certified Health Coach, as well as an IFBB PRO Physique athlete. Rarely without a smile, she has a passion and enthusiasm for fitness that is infectious and provides a fun and rewarding atmosphere for her clients. Opening the eyes of all cultures to rowing and fitness is her goal, to make rowing a more approachable sport to all. Diversity is key. She emphasizes a balanced approach of both proper exercise and carefully planned nutritional guidelines to maximize goal achievement.

Chris Garver

Chris Garver Head ShotChris Garver is an assistant coach for women's rowing at Robert Morris University and a part-time coach with Three Rivers Rowing Association. He began rowing for a Pittsburgh scholastic program and then went to compete with the University of PIttsburgh, where he earned a degree in rehabilitation sciences and pathokinesiology of disability. Garver started his coaching career with TRRA's adaptive rowing program. Since then, he has coached First Row, Three Rivers Junior Rowing, TRJR's Youth Development, TRRA's Masters Rowing, and he served two years as the women's coach for the University of Pittsburgh. In that time, Garver's crews have won, medaled, and placed in the top six at ACRAs, Dad Vails, Midwest Youth Championships, USRowing U17/U15 National Championships, and Canadian Henley.

Eric Gehrke

Gehrke Head ShotEric Gehrke currently serves as the head coach of George Washington University Men's Rowing, as well as the men's lead coach for USRowing's Under 19 National Team under Casey Galvanek. In his 13 years of coaching, Gehrke's crews have won, earned top-six finishes, and medaled at the USRowing Youth National Championships, PAC-12 Championships, CanAmMex Regatta, Stotesbury Cup Regatta, Scholastic Nationals, Canadian Henley, Head of the Charles, Head of the Hooch, and USRowing Club National Championships. On top of his current positions, Gehrke has coached at Saratoga Rowing Association, University of Southern California, Nashville Rowing, Bishop Ireton High School, and Gonzaga High School, while working in the USRowing Junior National Team System since 2009. He has presented on topics ranging from rigging, periodization, and technique at virtual seminars, and conventions for Joy of Sculling, Saratoga Juniors Conference, and USRowing.

Molly Hamrick

Molly Hamrick Head ShotMolly Hamrick is an assistant coach for the women at Stanford University. Prior to Stanford, Hamrick served as an assistant coach at Princeton University, her alma mater, for the previous two seasons. She was a member of Princeton's 2011 varsity eight that captured one of two NCAA titles in that event in school history. During Hamrick's coaching tenure from 2017-19, Princeton produced a pair of top-10 finishes nationally and consecutive Ivy League titles. In 2019, Hamrick coached the U.S. lightweight women's pair to a silver medal at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Sarasota, Fla. She began her coaching career in 2015 as an assistant for the Brookline High School and Community Rowing, Inc., junior girls' programs, both in Boston.

Monica Hilcu

Monica Hilcu Head ShotMonica Hilcu started rowing at Purdue University. After listening to her dad's stories of rowing in Romania, she knew she had to at least "give rowing a try." After graduation, Hilcu moved from Cleveland, Ohio, to the San Francisco Bay area and was recruited to "give coaching a try" at Junipero Serra High School. After growing the program to 125 athletes in conjunction with NDB and Mercy High School, Hilcu moved next door and worked as the boathouse manager/ second assistant at Stanford University and head coach of Stanford Rowing Center. The SRC program grew into the current Redwood Scullers program, a team of 40-50 middle and high school scullers. Over the years, SRC/Redwood has sent many athletes to compete at the junior national and collegiate level, as well as medaling at Youth National Championships, HOCR and HOSR. Most recently, Hilcu has had the privilege of working with Aisha Chow of Trinidad and Tobago, as she prepares for Tokyo in the women's single sculls, as well as coaching for the Southwest Region at the USRowing Youth Regional Challenge.

Craig Hoffman

Criag Hoffman Head ShotCraig Hoffman is the executive director and under 23 head coach at the Conshohocken Rowing Center. Hoffman served as the head rowing coach at Malvern Prep from 1997-2019 where his teams won 38 Scholastic and USRowing Youth National championships and 32 Stotesbury Cup championships. As a testament to Hoffman's tutelage, more than 80 of his rowers have gone on to row in Division 1 programs at a variety of prestigious universities. Hoffman's boats have represented the United States in 14 world championships at the junior, under 23, and senior levels. As the USA's head rowing coach at the 1997, 2009, and 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, his team won 18 gold, three silver, and a bronze medal in 24 events. He is a recipient of the United States Olympic Committee's Rowing Development Coach of the Year award and the Joseph F. Brennan lifetime achievement award, recognizing coaches by the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association. From 1999-2009, Hoffman served as a member and chair of the U.S. Junior National Men's Rowing Committee and, from 2009-2015, USRowing's Junior High Performance Committee. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Scholastic Rowing Association of America, Philadelphia Gold Cup Challenge, and Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

John Kaitz

John Kaitz Head ShotJohn Kaitz has been a rowing coach for more than 30 years. His coaching philosophy is simple and has proven successful: mindful preparation with a disciplined work ethic is the key to success. Kaitz began his coaching career at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1989 where he coached novice men (1989-1991), and they went on to become PAC-10 champions twice. In that first year, he had the chance to coach an open varsity four that went on to become national champions at the IRA in 1990. His collegiate coaching experience continued at UCLA (1991-1992) and Stanford University (1998-2000). Kaitz's masters coaching career began at Marin Rowing Association in 1993 and includes coaching masters men (1995-1997) and masters women (1993-1998, 2014, and 2016-current). With more than 35 national championships and world gold medals while at Marin, he continues to enjoy a successful coaching career there. Kaitz is also an elite trainer. While coaching the masters women at Marin in 2014, he also coached elite rower Matt Brown to prepare him for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Kaitz has trained other Olympic-athlete clients including Jonny Moseley (2002 Olympics) and Michelle Roark (2006 and 2010 Olympics). Other high-profile clients include Gregory Peck (yes, that one), Cecilia Peck (actor, director), Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind), and Shelley McGill (U.S. Freestyle Skiing Team). Kaitz is a certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength & Conditioning Association. He earned his masters degree from the University of San Francisco in sports and fitness management in 1997. Kaitz rowed and played football at the University of California, Berkeley, while getting his bachelor's degree in sports management/kinesiology in 1988. He is a father to Mariah and Chaz, his best accomplishments to date, other than getting Milda, his wife, to marry him.

Rich Kesor

Rich Kesor Head ShotRich Kesor began his rowing career in 1988 as a seventh grader at Mt. Carmel Elementary in Wyandotte, Mich. During his racing career for Mt. Carmel High School and the Wyandotte Boat Club, he earned 14 medals at the Stotesbury Cup, SRAA National Championships, CSSRA Championships, USRowing Youth National Championships and USRowing Club National Championships. After graduation, Kesor chose to begin his coaching career rather than continue on racing in college. This is his 28th year coaching. During his career, he was an assistant at Mt. Carmel, Ann Arbor Huron and the Wyandotte Boat Club. Kesor has been the head coach of Mt. Carmel, Riverview Community High School, and Montgomery Bell Academy, his current position. Since taking over MBA in the fall of 2016, he has grown the program from 13 boys to 125 in grades 7-12. In his coaching career, Kesor has produced more than 90 medalists at the Midwest Scholastic Championships and over 30 finalists at the Stotesbury Cup, SRRA and CSSRA Championships.

Anna Liberovsky

Anna Liberovsky HEed ShotAnna Liberovsky started rowing as a freshman walk-on at the University of Southern California in 2002 and was part of the PAC-10 Championship team her senior year. She has continued to race as a coxswain and lightweight rower, winning numerous medals at the San Diego Crew Classic and USRowing Southwest Regional Championships. During her 13+ years of coaching, she has worked with rowers of all levels from learn-to-row to national team rowers. Currently, Liberovsky is in her fourth year as head coach of the USC men's rowing team, after spending four seasons as the assistant coach. She also serves a number of coaching roles at the Long Beach Rowing Association. Liberovsky truly enjoys spreading her passion for rowing to others, teaching athletes to push their limits, develop new skills and help them find those "lightbulb" moments.

Joseph Maguire

Joseph Maguire Head ShotJoseph Maguire has been an assistant rowing coach for St. Augustine Preparatory School in Richland, N.J., since the program's inception in 1998. He has focused most of his time with the freshman and novice program, teaching and developing first-year athletes. Additionally, he developed and helped implement the entire team conditioning, training and testing program after attaining his initial Level 3 certification in 2005. Maguire has worked as an assistant varsity coach, guiding boats in the freshman eight, junior eigh and second eigh to medals at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America National Championship Regatta and Stotesbury Cup Regatta, including a gold at the 2012 SRAA in the men's junior eight. He has coached multiple New Jersey State, Philadelphia City and Atlantic County Championship winners in various men's eights including two undefeated novice eights in 2003 and 2010. Through the years, his crews have contributed to eight consecutive men's team point trophies at the NJ State Championship (2008-2015) and the men's team point trophy at the Atlantic County Championship regatta every year since that race was established in 2005. Maguire was voted the Southern New Jersey Scholastic Rowing Association Coach of the Year in 2011.

Peter Mansfeld

Peter Mansfield Head ShotPeter Mansfeld started rowing at Dresdner Ruder Club in Germany in 1995. During a student-exchange program, he became a member at VK Slavia Prague and went to compete at the World University Championships in the pair for the University of Konstanz. He won several medals at national championships in Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland. In 2006, Mansfeld started coaching at Seeclub Zurich and would become head coach at Ruder Club Zurich in 2009. During those years, he developed many athletes to the junior and U23 world championships. Jeannine Gmeline and Pascale Walker were just two among them. After coaching development classes at the German and Swiss Rowing Federation, he studied sport science at the University of Basel. In 2015, Mansfeld moved to the United States as an assistant coach for the California Rowing Club, where he would help develop athletes for USRowing to compete at world cups and world championships. During his time in Oakland, he also became junior varsity head coach at Artemis Rowing Club for the 2015-16 season. Since 2018, he has been the head coach of Vesper Boat Club's high performance group.

Caitlin McClain

Caitlin McClain Head ShotCaitlin McClain has 15 years of coaching experience at Holy Names Academy in Seattle and six years with the USRowing Junior National Team system. In August 2020, she was named head women's coach at Seattle Pacific University. During her tenure at HNA, she led the team to unprecedented success, earning 10 medals at the USRowing Youth National Championships, most notably two golds in the pair and lightweight four with coxswain and two bronzes in the eight. She coached three rowers and two coxswains who made World Rowing Junior Championships' squads. With USRowing, she progressed from high performance assistant coach to CanAmMex sculling coach to coaching the women's quadruple sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships. Recently, she was name women's lead coach for the 2021 Under 19 National Team. McClain recognizes the value of a formative and rewarding competitive experience and strives to create that for each of her athletes. She is a champion of collaborative leadership and is excited for the opportunity to use the Level 3 insights and network to continue to evolve as a coach.

Sean McCourt

Sean McCourt Head ShotSean McCourt is currently head coach for The McCallie School and in Chattanooga, Tenn. He began rowing in high school at St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia and went on to row for Boston University, where he graduated in 1999 with a B.S. in secondary education. During that time, he was selected to attend the U.S. Nations Cup (Under 23) Lightweight Team Camp in 1998, Lightweight Selection Camp in 1999 and was runner-up in the lightweight pair at the 2000 World Championships Trials. Outside of McCallie, McCourt's coaching experience includes St Joseph's Prep, where he was an assistant coach before starting the Mercer Junior Rowing Club. He spent the next decade building the Mercer Juniors into a perennial contender, but more importantly, a strong community that encapsulated athletes from both suburban areas as well as inner city neighborhoods in Trenton, N.J. McCourt also has spent several years helping with the USRowing U17 development program and most recently served as the head coach for the Midwest & Central Region boys' squad. Over the years, he has helped many athletes achieve their goal of competing on the collegiate level and his crews have achieved victories and medals at the USRowing Youth National Championships, SRAA Nationals, Head of the Charles, Head of the Schuylkill, Head of the Hooch, Stotesbury Cup, Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Youth Championships, Southeast Youth Championships, Philadelphia City Championships, and the ODP Challenge, among others.

Stephanie Moore

Stephanie Moore Head ShotStephanie Moore is the director and founder of Holyoke Rows, a community boathouse in Holyoke, Mass. She started coaching at her alma mater, University of Virginia, then at FIT, UMass and Trinity College. In 1998, she started Holyoke Rows to serve a different type of athlete. Holyoke Rows offers rowing, kayaking and dragon boat programs. Accessibility and eliminating barriers is a major focus. Holyoke offers low-cost and free programs, adaptive rowing for people with disabilities and support for anyone who needs it. Holyoke Rows was the first program to enter adaptive boats at the Head of the Charles -- first at the Ernestine Bayer Regatta and then in the official HOCR. Moore will try to get anyone in a boat if they are game! She is currently perfecting a self-feathering oar for rowers with limited hand strength and mobility. Moore enjoys chaos, procrastination, bike touring and boathouse potlucks. She is the mother of four almost adult children. They have enriched, shaped and complicated the development of Holyoke Rows.

Henrique Motta

Henrique Motta Head ShotHenrique Motta is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and graduated with a degree in nutrition from Universidade Veiga de Almeida. He began rowing in 1991 at Botafogo Futebol e Regatas, and he has continued his rowing for over 20 years at the high-performance level, while being a member of the Brazilian National Team as a lightweight rower. Motta has coached at several of the most competitive rowing clubs in Brazil. He began his coaching career in 1995-1997 at Botafogo Futebol e Regatas. He was a rowing instructor from 1997-1999 and moved up to assistant coach from 1999-2013 at Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama. Motta is the personal coach of Emanuelle Abreu, a female lightweight rower and Brazilian national team athlete, from 2011 to present. In the United States, Motta started working as an assistant coach for RowLA in Los Angeles at the beginning of 2017. He rapidly progressed to become their head coach in 2018. His coaching at RowLA focuses on introducing rowing to young women who would not normally have the opportunity to row. His coaching philosophy emphasizes the values of self-discipline and hard work, while placing strong importance on the role of the team. Motta does not evaluate his athletes on their size or physical preparation prior to joining the team but rather supports and encourages the athletes to achieve beyond their expectations. He teaches the girls the highest level of technical rowing skills, but also the important life skills necessary to personally succeed. Besides coaching, he is also involved as a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and sports nutritionist. He is an enthusiastic coach, passionate about the sport of rowing and always looking to grow, learn and improve himself as an individual and as a coach.

Jonathan Near

Jonathan Near Head ShotSince 2017, Jonathan Near has been the assistant director of rowing at Riverfront Recapture in Hartford, Conn., where he heads up the youth program, coaching the varsity boys as well as the men's masters racing team. In addition to coaching, Near helps to manage and run one of the largest community rowing programs in the Northeast. Following the director's lead, Near enthusiastically sets his sights on growing each of the programs, building and learning off past successes and failures, always with the goal of connecting people to the river. Heading into his ninth year coaching the men's racing team, Riverfront Recapture has consistently placed in the top eight at the USRowing Masters National Championships every year, most often placing in the top three. In 2017 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., his boats won the men's points trophy exactly 10 years after the team's Masters National's debut in Oak Ridge. Emphasizing a collaborative coaching style, Near relies on his two assistant coaches and his captains to constantly hold each other accountable, furthering the mission of pushing boundaries in the pursuit of being better than the day before -- both as a rower and as a human being. Together, the team medals at every race they attend, including Club Nationals and the Head of the Charles. On the youth side, Near heads up a roster of 80-100 athletes with the help of the girls head coach and multiple assistant coaches on both sides. He works passionately to instill the values of hard work, discipline and teamwork to guide the kids to be something greater than themselves. An athlete and competitor himself, Near firmly believes that in order to go fast, you must have fun doing so. Heading into his 21st year of coaching, evermore focused on the journey and not the results, Near wants everyone to fall in love with this amazing sport.

Marc Oria, Ph.D.

Marc Oria Head ShotMarc Oria is the rowing head coach for the Great Miami Crew (GMC) (2021), based in Hamilton, Ohio. This winter, he began this new, exciting project, working on the development of young athletes with the goal to create a successful and recognized rowing program. Oria is a member of the research faculty at Cincinnati Children's Hospital (CCHMC) and a leading expert in congenital malformations. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, he graduated in with a degree in biological science from the University of Barcelona and earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He started rowing at the Reial Club Maritim de Barcelona, where he earned numerous medals at the regionals and nationals in Spain (1994-2012). His experience also includes rowing for the Catalunya National Team (1998-2007) and Spanish National Team (1999-2002). He continues rowing for the Cincinnati Rowing Club, winning several medals at the USRowing Masters National Championships. Oria's coaching career started in 2001 as an instructor, growing to director and head coach at the Reial Club Maritim de Barcelona (2001-2008). He continued coaching at Club Rem Badalona (2010-2012). His coaching resume includes experience as a Catalunya National Team coach in 2006. During his rowing coaching career, several athletes reached the Catalunya and Spanish National Team and competed at the World Rowing Junior Championships, World Rowing Championships, medaling there and becoming finalists at the Olympic Games in Brazil. Oria and his family moved to Cincinnati in 2013, where he served as assistant coach for the University of Cincinnati varsity women's team (2016) and as a varsity women's head coach (2017-19). Under his leadership, the team earned medals every year at ACRA, winning the small boat trophy three years in a row. Oria also continues assisting coach Reilly Dampeer at the USRowing High Performance Center in Oklahoma City, continuing to advance his career as a high-performance rowing coach.

Matthew Owyang

Matthew Owyang Head ShotMatt Owyang currently works as a production leader and assistant coach at Hydrow, Inc., a connected fitness