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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
Stramese
Peter Stramese
is in his third year as head coach of TC boys rowing. The Titans were
2006 lightweight champions in Virginia, and the heavies placed third
at the Virginia Championships. The heavyweights would continue on to make
the finals in the senior 8 at the Canadian Championships for the first
time.
Stramese has been the head women’s coach of Alexandria Community Rowing
for twelve years, with his crews winning multiple national titles and
several Head of the Charles performances, most often placing in the top
10 clubs in the US at this prestigious event. He has also coached Old
Dominion Boat Club, Walt Whitman HS, Notre Dame Academy, and Craftsbury
Sculling Center. He is the Mid-Atlantic USRowing Coaching Education Clinician
along with former TC boys coach, Mike Penn.
A UMass and Virginia Tech Graduate, Stramese holds degrees in Electrical
Engineering. He rowed for UMass as a lightweight for three years, earning
medals at the New England Championships. With coaching two teams taking
up most of his time, he competes in marathons (14), enjoys skiing and
kickboxing, and works as an aerospace engineer. He lives in Alexandria.
E-mail Pete
Stramese
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.
Steve
began rowing lightweight 8 at F.C. Hammond
High School in 1968, and coxed the Championship junior
four at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta that year.
He
began coaching at TC Williams in 1975, Dee Campbell’s first year as head
coach for the TC Girls' Crew Team. He started coaching the lightweight
women’s team in 1978, and became the head women’s coach for TC Williams
in 1994. His crews won 12 Stotesbury Cup and SRAA Championships
and five Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association Championships.
The
trophy for the Women’s Lightweight Eight at Stotesbury Cup Regatta is
named “The Steven T. Weir Cup”
Updated
March 12, 2010
Copyright 2007 Alexandria Crew Boosters Club, Inc.
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