USRowing Announces the 2025 Under 23 National Team Coaching staff

USRowing is pleased to announce the 2025 Under 23 National Team coaching staff, which will lead the team that will represent the United States at the 2025 World Rowing Championships this July in Poznan, Poland.

Sergio Espinoza returns as the men's head coach for the U23 program, while Sarah Trowbridge returns as the women's head coach. Under their leadership last summer, the men’s four with coxswain took gold, in addition to the men’s eight, women’s eight, men's lightweight pair, and women’s four with coxswain winning silver. Supporting Espinoza on the men's side will be boat coaches Trevor Michelson and Bryan Volpenhein, while Reilly Dampeer and Gia Doonan will work with Trowbridge as the women's boat coaches. 

"We are very excited for the U23 coaching staff and the consistency we are able to have with Sergio Espinoza and Sarah Trowbridge at the helm," said Brett Gorman, Director of High Performance Pathways. "Our coaches have a strong understanding of the technique and the long term plan for our U23 athletes in the Pathways program."

Meet the Coaches

Sergio Espinoza, Men’s Head Coach

Sergio Espinoza began coaching in the United States system during the summer of 2016 as an intern coach for the U19 national team. He is a three-time U23 medalist coach for the U.S. and Canada, winning gold in the U.S. men’s four with coxswain in 2018, gold in the Canadian four in 2021, and silver in the U.S. men’s eight in 2024.

Espinoza coached at the University of Washington from 2016-2024. He started as a volunteer coach for two years, working his way to a full-time position in his third year. During his time at Washington, the team captured two IRA National Championships, and five Ten Eyck Memorial Trophies.

This year, he has served as an assistant at two of the U.S. senior national team camps. He looks forward to coaching and developing the next generation of American rowers. 

Espinoza graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelors of Science degree in Exercise Science. There he met Carly, who is now his fiancée and was also a rower on the women’s national team.

Sarah Trowbridge, Women’s Head Coach

Olympian Sarah Trowbridge is a six time senior national team member and raced in the women’s double at the 2012 London Olympics. Since 2015, she has coached multiple U.S. national team crews at international regattas. She coached a crew to a sixth-place finish at the 2016 Olympics and to one silver and two bronze medals across five separate World Championships from 2015-2019. In addition, she coached U.S. men's boats at the 2015 Senior and U23 World Championships. She led the Trinidad and Tobago women's single sculls at the 2020 Olympics. In 2023, she coached the U23 women’s eight to gold at the World Championships

Trowbridge has been a collegiate coach since 2012 and is now leading the University of Oklahoma Rowing Team for their national climb. She previously coached at Princeton National Rowing Association and at San Diego for two seasons. From 2012-15, Trowbridge served as an assistant coach on the Yale women's rowing staff and helped guide the Bulldogs to a ninth-place finish at the 2015 NCAA Championships. 

Trevor Michelson, Men’s Assistant Coach

Trevor Michelson is the head coach of lightweight rowing at Dartmouth College. Under his tutelage, the Dartmouth Lightweights have qualified for the IRA National Championship the last two years, after a 10-year hiatus. Six of Michelson’s rowers have gone on to represent the United States at the Under 23 World Championships.

Michelson has spent the last two summers as the coach for the U23 men’s four with coxswain resulting in gold in 2024 and bronze in 2023. Prior to 2023, he coached the U23 lightweight men’s quadruple sculls. He is looking forward to helping select the 2025 U23 men's squad and prepare the men's quadruple sculls for the 2025 U23 World Championships in Poznan.

Bryan Volpenhein, Men’s Assistant Coach

Bryan Volpenhein is currently the head coach of the men's and women’s rowing team at Oklahoma City University. He moved to Norman, Okla. from New Jersey in 2022. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, he graduated from The Ohio State University, where he learned to row as a walk on their club team. He has coached rowing at the Pocock Rowing Center, Oklahoma High Performance Team, San Diego Rowing Club, University of San Diego, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Volpenhein is a three-time Olympian, winning gold in 2004 and bronze in 2008 in the men’s eight. He went on to serve as the men’s national team coach for six years from 2013-2018, selecting and preparing boats for competition at World Cups, World Championships, and the 2016 Rio Olympics. In addition, he was the national men’s lightweight head coach from 2010-2013, selecting and qualifying the men’s lightweight four for the 2012 London Olympic Games. As the national team coach, three of his boats won medals at the World Rowing Championship and World Rowing Cups.

Bryan is married to Sarah Trowbridge, the head rowing coach at the University of Oklahoma. They have a son and daughter, Otto (8) and Quincy (5).

Reilly Dampeer, Women’s Assistant Coach

Reilly Dampeer is the High Performance Director at the OKC High Performance Center. She has coached national team athletes since 2010 at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games, World Cups, and the Senior, U23 and U19 World Championships. In 2022 and 2023, Dampeer coached the U.S. women’s quadruple sculls at the U23 World Championships. In addition to coaching U.S. athletes, she has coached with the World Rowing Development Team, working with athletes from around the world. 

Dampeer came to Oklahoma in 2016 from Washington, D.C., where she was the coach of a high performance club rowing program for eight years. She has also coached many athletes to the podium at National Championships, National Selection Regattas, and other international events including the Henley Royal Regatta and the Australian National Championships. She is a USRowing Level 3 certified coach and has a master’s degree in sport coaching leadership from Drexel University.

Gia Doonan, Women’s Assistant Coach

Olympian Gia Doonan competed in the women’s eight at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She won a world championship in the women’s eight. She has competed in multiple international regattas in the eight, four, and pair.

As a U23 Athlete, Doonan competed at the 2016 World Championships, where she won gold in the eight and the four and broke the world record in the four at the time. As a rower at the University of Texas, she was part of the rise of Texas Rowing. She played a big role in leading the team to a first ever podium finish at the NCAA National Championships. 

As a coach, Doonan is in her fourth season coaching at the University of Texas. Under the lead of Dave O’Neill, she has coached two NCAA National Championship teams at Texas in 2022 and 2024. In 2023, the team finished fourth overall. With many years of being part of Team USA as an athlete, she is excited to be part of it on the coaches side this time.

Noah Axford, Camp Intern Coach

Noah Axford is currently an Assistant Coach and Boatwright at Columbia University, where he supports all three of the Columbia rowing programs. He has previous experience within the USRowing Pathways system as the 2024 CanAmMex men’s assistant coach and the U19 Men’s intern coach in 2021 and 2022.

Before Columbia, Axford rowed all four years at George Washington University, graduating in May 2023 with a B.A. in political science. At GW, he raced in the third varsity eight at the 2021 IRA National Championship, placing ninth. He raced in the varsity eight in 2022 and 2023, winning the ACRA National Championship in 2022, and placing second in 2023. He began rowing at the San Diego Rowing Club in 2013.

Leah Pearman, Camp Director of Operations

Leah Pearman has been a member of Oklahoma Athletics since August 2021 as a Graduate Assistant Rowing Coach and has served as Rowing Assistant Coach and Director of Operations since June 2023. Prior to this role, she served as a Graduate Assistant Rowing Coach and Interim Director of Operations.

In the Summer of 2023 she served as an intern during USRowing’s Olympic Development Girls Camp in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 2024, she returned to program as a Coach for the camp. Prior to her role as the Graduate Assistant Rowing Coach, she served as a Volunteer Rowing Coach. 

Pearman earned two Bachelor's degrees from the University of Oklahoma – one in international security studies, with a minor in Islamic studies and Arabic, and another in environmental sustainability with an emphasis in science and resources. She holds a graduate certificate from OU in Geographic Information Science, and is progressing toward a Master’s Degree in geography and environmental sustainability.