The Coaches

TC Crew is lucky to have the wealth of experience and talents represented by our coaching staff. Many are leaders in the scholastic rowing world and as a result are well known at the college and masters levels. Many of our coaches are alumni of TC Williams, George Washington High School (pre-1965) and Francis C. Hammond (also pre-1965) crews. The coaches are a dedicated group who spend tremendous amounts of their time with the rowers at the Boathouse, and it shows in the success of our program.

Girls Coaches

Jon Schildknecht
Jon was named TC head girls coach in July 2008.  He has coached TC girls since 1997, coaching novices, freshmen, and juniors. His freshman 8s have medaled twice at Stotesbury, including gold there and at the SRAAs in 2000.  While rowing for Coach Mike Penn at TC Williams, Jon won gold at Stotesbury and silver at the SRAA Nationals in the junior 8. 

Jon rowed and coached at Virginia Tech during his undergraduate years, serving as Women’s Head Coach in 1995.  Jon earned his Masters in Education at Virginia Tech and teaches at Yorktown High School in Arlington.  He holds a Level II USRowing Coaching certificate.

E-mail Jon Schildknecht

Azim Khodjibaev
Another TC Crew alumnus returns to the fold for the 2009 season.  Azim is a 2003 graduate of TC Williams, and rowed for TC Crew for five years and the ODBC crew for three.  His coaching experience includes two years teaching the novice adult rowing program in ACB Summer Crew.

A native of Tajikistan (Central Asia) who's lived in Alexandria since 1994, Azim works in Old Town as a marine transport analyst for the Coast Guard, and his wife Noelle teaches PE and health at GW Middle School. 

E-mail Azim Khodjibaev

Mercedes Kiss
Mercedes was introduced to rowing as an 8th grader in 1998. Her passion for the sport grew while rowing for Coach Jon Schildknecht in her first two seasons, and her freshman 8 boat went undefeated. Mercedes spent the next three years rowing for Coach Steve Weir on the lightweight 8. This boat went undefeated as well during her sophomore season.

Due to rowing with talented crews, Mercedes earned numerous medals and awards, including five golds at the Northern Virginia Championship Regatta, three golds and a bronze at Stotesbury, one gold and one bronze at the SRAA Nationals, and one gold and two bronze at the Canadian National Championships. In her senior year she was Washington Post All-Met, All-Virginia, and was given the TC Williams Coaches Award. 

Mercedes graduated in 2008 from Virginia Tech with a degree in architecture. Though she no longer rows for Steve, she now works with him at a firm in Old Town Alexandria, and considers him her mentor. Mercedes lives in DC with excellent friends, is planning a road trip out west with her brother, wants to run a marathon this year, could do away with winter entirely, is an eternal optimist, and smiles whenever she sees flat water. 

Mercedes is very excited to be back at the boathouse, and will team up with Jon to coach the women's lightweight 8.

E-mail Mercedes Kiss 

Kate Wilson
This is Katy's first full season as a novice girls coach at TC. She coached Fall crew and the novice boys last Spring. Katy was a four year varsity rower at Marietta College and a four year winner of the Women's Open at the Ohio Valley Indoor Rowing Championship. She has participated in races across the country including the NCAA Women's Championships in San Diego, the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, and the Head of the Charles in Boston. Katy is looking forward to a super Spring season.

E-mail Kate Wilson

Boys Coaches

Peter Hearding
Peter is entering his seventh year as a coach for TC boys crew, and his third working with the JV boats. In 2005, he helped guide the freshman 8 to the Virginia State Championship. Peter rowed for TCW in the senior 8 and was a member of the Washington Post All-Met team in 1997. He went on to Syracuse University to row as a freshman. After graduating Pete returned to Alexandria and lost no time getting back into crew.

Peter has also coached the boys side of the Old Dominion Boat Club program during the fall seasons of 2006 and 2007. During the 2007 season, ODBC boys won all three of the local races they entered – Head of the Potomac, Occoquan Chase and the Head of the Occoquan, and placed 10th out of 55 entries at the Head of the Charles. Peter also coaches the Alexandria Community Rowing Men’s Sweep program. 

Peter is married to a fellow TC Crew alum, Lexye (Street) Hearding, works for Homeland Security, adopted a black lab named Toby, isn’t any good at home repair, enjoys reading the Sunday Post, runs a lot but is not particularly fast, incurs icy stares from his darling wife when he acts like a lunatic while watching Redskins football games and Syracuse basketball games, worries about greenhouse gas emissions, thinks much of the decline of western civilization can be attributed to Dr. Phil, believes William Faulkner to be the most overrated American writer and Walt Whitman the most underappreciated, and usually finds it difficult to say anything intelligent about himself.

E-mail Peter Hearding

Matt Holland
Matt Holland is in his third year of coaching for T.C. Williams. He is a veteran of the Potomac, in Alexandria and Washington, DC. In the 1990s he rowed for TC Williams under coaches Phil Yeich, Sarah Washington, Ed Cannon, and Mike Penn. He also competed out of Thompson's Boat Center racing in the 8 and 4, medalling in both events at Mid-Atlantic Championships. Matt went on to James Madison University, where the Shenandoah's unpredictability prevented him from continuing to row (that and JMUs lack of a rowing program). Matt continues to row competatively, mostly on the erg against the fish game. 

Matt is also a 3rd grade teacher in Alexandria and is busy working hard to recruit future Titan rowers, starting with his current 8 and 9 year old students. They have come to love the erg and are accustomed to completing 20-30 burpees for late and incomplete homework assignments. Matt plans to have them weighing in at 225lbs and standing 6'4" tall by the time they reach 8th grade. 

When he is not teaching and coaching he enjoys photography, traveling, and doing anything he can find to spend time outdoors. In 2003, Matt biked 4,300 miles from the east coast to the west coast and most recently completed a 2,300 mile bike ride from Seattle to Chicago to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. While long distance bike treks are not in Matt's future plans, he is searching for a challenge for this upcoming summer. 

E-mail Matt Holland

Patrick Marquardt
Patrick is a native to Alexandria and fellow TC Titan. In 1998, he rowed his way to a bronze metal at Stotes under Freshman 8 Coach Jaime Rubini. In 2000, Patrick was a member of the TC Junior 8 ("we rowed like…") for Coach Ed Cannon, that won the Canadian National Gold Medal.

After graduating in 2001, Patrick went on to James Madison University where he majored in math and economics. As an active member of the JMU econ department his senior year, he taught elementary macroeconomics to entering students. He worked as an analyst for Systems Planning and Analysis before deciding to return to the world of academia. In 2006, he began the pursuit of a master's degree in economics at George Mason University. The following semester he was given the opportunity to take a brief sojourn to Central America and spent eight months teaching English at the San Mateo Bilingual School in Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Honduras. 

Patrick is currently working to complete his masters, and is focusing his efforts on a study on the economics of anarchy in the Sengoku Period of feudal Japan and an analysis of the impact of U.S. monetary policy on Latin American growth.  He looks forward to study breaks out on the Potomac and inspiring new Titans to succeed in the crew program.

E-mail Patrick Marquardt

Adam Soller
Adam returns for his second year as a coach for T.C. boys crew after coaching the third varsity eight in Spring 2009 and assisting with ACR’s Youth Sculling Program over the summer.

Prior to coaching out of the Dee Campbell Rowing Center, he was assistant coach of the Men’s Junior team for San Diego Rowing Club. During his year in “America’s Finest City” he assisted with the coaching of the team's sweep and sculling boats that culminated in two of the team's entries qualifying for US Rowing's Youth Nationals where the Lightweight 4+ earned silver. Prior to this, Adam coached the girls crew at Sidwell Friends (DC) for two years.

Adam began rowing competitively during high school in the DC area, initially with Gonzaga and later with West Potomac. Following graduation, Adam attended the Virginia Military Institute and was forced to take a break from rowing as the narrowness of the Maury River precluded VMI from fielding a team. Upon his return to the DC area in 2003, he joined Capital Rowing Club and has since raced in sweep and sculling events up and down the East Coast.

An avid sports fan, who is also the oldest of five boys, Adam works in Old Town where he provides venture debt to biotech companies. Outside of work he can be found trying to keep his golf shots out of the rough, learning how to fly fish or heading to the closest resort to snowboard on recently fallen snow.

E-mail Adam Soller

Enoch Cleckley
This is Enoch’s first year coaching at TC. He coaches the novice boys and coached last fall.
Enoch graduated from TC in 2007 and rowed for 3 years.

In 2004, with Jaime Rubini as coach, Enoch and the boy’s 2nd eight placed third at States. In 2006, with Pete Stramese as coach, Enoch and the boy’s lightweight eight won States. His senior year, Enoch was awarded the Coach’s Award and in Canada that year, won a Purple Sea Horse award.

Currently, Enoch attends NOVA. Future plans include attending Virginia Tech and studying mechanical engineering. Enoch is a fan of MTV, the beach, traveling, hanging with friends and you should have seen him row at the MidAtlantic Erg Sprints. Fabulous.

E-mail Enoch Cleckley

Steve Weir 
Steve retired as girls head coach at the end of the 2008 season, after 33 years of coaching at TC Williams, but will stay on ias rigger and substitute coach.