Sparks Consulting : Catch onto college. Spark your potential.

On Rowing and Character Development - Produced at Camp

Coaching Staff

Lisa Schlenker

Sparks Rowing Camp: Lisa Schlenker

Lisa is an Olympian and ten-time national teamer who recently published her first book, Erg: 75 Workouts for the Athlete. She owns her own small business Urban Erg, which is founded off her book and provides training programs and private coaching. In addition, she's coached and designed training programs for pre-elites and Under 23 USA national team members. An avid sculler, Lisa also coaches at Craftsbury sculling center every summer. She is a coach in Portland, Oregon and also is an associate at Sparks.

Olympian and U23 Coach
US National Team

Laura Simon

Sparks Rowing Camp: Laura Simon

Laura Simon has accumulated experience at both the International, National and Division 1 levels of women's rowing. The assistant coach at UMass, Laura also served on the US national team coaching staff. In addition to her coaching duties, she is also a Coxswain Education Coordinator for The Foundation for Rowing Education and the US Junior national team's coxswain coach. From 1997 to 2002, Laura coxed with the US Women's national team. Laura has also co-authored The Coxswain's Encyclopedia. She also presents to her peers at the US Rowing Annual Convention and smaller conferences on coaching the coxswain.

US Nat. Team, US Jr.
Nat. Team Coxswain Coach
Asst. Women's Rowing
Univ. of Massachusetts

Marcus McElhenney

Sparks Rowing Camp: Marcus McElhenney

Marcus is a Philadelphia coxswain who's found victory on the Schuylkill and many places elsewhere. After a successful scholastic career in Philadelphia, he coxed the USA Men to three world championship titles and the Olympic Men's 8+ to a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. Marcus is an experienced junior coach and possesses a personal knowledge of many of the country's former US team members coaching on the junior and collegiate levels. Marcus is completing a JD/MBA and works as a consultant with Sparks.
NB: Pending London 2012 Selection, Marcus may not be at camp.

Men's Olympic Coxswain
US National Team

Brett Sickler

Sparks Rowing Camp: Brett Sickler

Brett Sickler is in her third season as an assistant coach for the Wolverines. U-M's lead assistant, Sickler spearheads the recruiting efforts for the Maize and Blue while also overseeing the novice program. In each of Sickler's two years as an assistant coach Michigan has finished on the medal stand at the Big Ten Championships -- third in 2010, second in 2011. The Wolverines have also qualified for a pair of NCAA Championships.A 2005 U-M graduate, she was a highly decorated student-athlete. Sickler is a three-time member of the USRowing senior national team and served as a Team USA alternate at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Asst. Women's Rowing
University of Michigan

Michiel Bartman

Sparks Rowing Camp: Michiel Bartman

Olympic champion, three-time Olympic medalist and 15-year coaching veteran Michiel Bartman is in his first season as head coach of the Radcliffe lightweight crew. Bartman spent six years as the head coach at Vesper Boat Club, preparing elite athletes to compete at the World Rowing Championships and Olympic Games. He led crews to more than 100 gold medals, recently including a bronze medal in the women’s lightweight quad at the 2008 World Rowing Championships. A native of the Netherlands, Bartman also coached many Dutch national crews during his outstanding competitive career as a rower.

US National Team Coach
Head Coach LWT Women
Harvard University

Mark Davis

Sparks Rowing Camp: Mark Davis

Prior to being head coach at George Washington University, Coach Davis was the heavyweight freshman coach at Yale University. Before that, head coach at University of California - San Diego, recruiting coordinator for the University of Texas, head men's and women's coach at Colby College and novice coach at Hobart and William Smith College. Davis' 16 years of experience transforming club programs into elite Division I, II and II varsity programs has given him a greatly unique appreciation and respect for building teams through effective coaching and recruiting.

Head Coach Men's Rowing
The George Washington University

Stephen Young

Sparks Rowing Camp: Stephen Young

Stephen graduated from MIT where he coxed the heavyweight men to their best season in decades, his senior year, and joins the staff at Sparks after competing for the U.S. in both the lightweight men's eight and the men's pair at the 2010 World Rowing Championships. A mechanical engineer, Stephen worked for Resolute Rowing Shells where he designed the Brown Men's boat that won the Eastern Sprints championship. Before beginning his rowing career, he competed as a sailor on the United States National Team. Stephen has always been a "numbers guy" and brings an analytic approach to coxing and coxswain selection. He is currently training and coaching at the USRowing High Performance center in Oklahoma City, OK.

US High Performance Coach
Men's Lightweight Coxswain
US National Team

Spencer Washburn

Sparks Rowing Camp: Spencer Washburn

Spencer Washburn is responsible for heavyweight men's recruiting at Princeton. Prior to serving as the Tigers' heavyweight freshman coach, Spencer served as the lightweight freshman coach for three years, recruiting and working with the 2009 undefeated Henley championship Princeton lightweight varsity. Spencer graduated from Princeton in 2005, and served as the heavyweight men's captain in his senior year.

Freshman Coach
Men's Heavyweight Crew
Princeton University

Kevin Macdermott

Sparks Rowing Camp: Kevin Macdermott

In Kevin's first year leading Trinity's men's program, the team won the men's team title at the ECAC Rowing Championship and the New England Rowing Championships. In the 2010-2011 season, the team finished 2nd in both the New England Championships and in the ECAC National Invitational Regatta. Before coming to Trinity, he worked for four years as assistant coach of men's rowing at his alma mater, Wesleyan University. Kevin also served as head coach for the Junior Men's National Team in 2011. MacDermott also serves as senior associate director of the Craftsbury Sculling Center in Craftsbury, Vt. He has been a head coach at the Center since 2004 and first began coaching at CSC in 2002.

Former USA Junior National Team Coach, Head Coach
Men's Rowing
Trinity College

Libby Peters

Sparks Rowing Camp: Libby Peters

Libby Peters is responsible for women's recruiting at Columbia University. A former United States National Team member, Peters most recently founded and was the executive director of Philadelphia City Rowing, the first free competitive rowing program open to any public school student in Philadelphia. Peters also has coaching experience with the Vesper Boat Club and at the The Shipley School and The Gunnery. Peters was the stroke of the lightweight quad, which won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Championships. In 2010, Peters completed the Business Essentials Certificate Program at Penn's Wharton School of Business.

Asst. Coach Women's Rowing
Columbia University

Gregg Hartsuff

Sparks Rowing Camp: Gregg Hartsuff

Gregg Hartsuff begins his 20th season with the University of Michigan Men’s Rowing Team, and his 19th as the Head Coach. Michigan has won two IRA medals during his tenure. Michigan Crews coached by Hartsuff have won over 60 Dad Vail and ECAC medals, with 28 of them being gold. He is only one of two coaches to ever win the Dad Vail and ECAC Varsity 8 titles in the same year (2005), and has won the second most varsity eight titles in the history of the Dad Vail.

Head Coach Men's Rowing
University of Michigan

Pat Tynan

Sparks Rowing Camp: Pat Tynan

A 1999 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Patrick began his coaching career as a men's assistant at his alma mater for two seasons before heading to Colby College. As interim head women's crew coach at Williams College in 2006-07, Patrick directed the Ephs to a New England and NCAA Division III title before joining the Yale Lightweight Men's staff in 2008 to act as the freshman coach there. Pat was then offered the Head Women's coaching position at Wesleyan. He has also enjoyed coaching at most of the popular east coast rowing camps, and thus we're happy to capitalize on the benefit of his experiences with smaller ratios at Sparks.

Head Coach Women's Rowing
Wesleyan University

Kim Cupini

Sparks Rowing Camp: Kim Cupini

After leading the Toreros to their first-ever West Coast Conference championship in 2010, Cupini's squad followed it up with their second-consecutive WCC crown in 2011 after sweeping all three events.Cupini has garnered WCC Coach of the Year honors the past three seasons, while also taking home WIRA Coach of the Year recognition in 2009 and 2010. Before Cupini's arrival to the University of San Diego as Head Coach in 2007, she was the Varsity Assistant Coach at the University of Central Florida. Cupini has also served as an assistant coach with the United States Junior National Team.

Head Coach Women's Rowing
University of San Diego

Wesley Ng

Sparks Rowing Camp: Wesley Ng

Wesley Ng is in his seventh year at Trinity College. Ng guided the 2011 Bantam varsity eight to win its second NCAA Division III Varsity Eight National Championship crown in 2008 as the fastest boat in all of Division III rowing.The Bantam first varsity eight is 60-10 over the past five springs, including a best-ever, 15-0 varsity eight dual record in 2008. In his first two years at Trinity as men's novice coach, Ng's first and second novice crews at Trinity posted a 19-0 record with New England and ECAC National Invitational Championship titles in both 2005 and 2006. Prior to Trinity, Ng assisted with the women's team then coached the freshmen lightweights at Yale University.

Head Coach
Women's Rowing
Trinity College

Phil Carney

Sparks Rowing Camp: Phil Carney

A graduate of Trinity College where he was a co-captain of the Bantams varsity heavyweight crew and later freshman coach, Phil is in his 23rd year as Head Coach Wesleyan and holds the rank of adjunct professor of physical education. He has also served as a U.S. Rowing lightweight development coach, and coached sculling at Craftsbury sculling center. Phil founded the Riverfront Recapture Rowing Club in 1993, a community rowing program in the Hartford area which has won multiple state and national awards and serves hundreds.

Head Coach Men's Rowing
Wesleyan University

We'd like to flaunt the best coach-to-camper ratio in the country.

Extending our guidance and college counseling mission, Sparks Rowing Camp was created for high school student-athletes who wanted an opportunity to grow and connect with our sport. Our rowing camp approach implements the largest number of hours of one-on-one coaching time with our campers in the US. Given the differing needs of young athletes coming to camp, and our short time together, we see this as the most effective path to excitement and results. This ratio gives young athletes access to a large selection of educators who coach large, top-ranked nationally and internationally competitive teams.

The camp serves as our flagship alongside our winter advanced camp in San Diego, our development camp in New Zealand, and advanced coxswains only camp. Our camps provide us with an ideal way to fulfill our mission of connecting young athletes with high-end exposure in terms of rowing development. The goal of the camp at Wesleyan is to 'spark' (forgive us) more passion for the sport and increase each student's ability to pursue rowing with all-star coaching and education.

A Coxswain Development Camp

So many coxswains have come to us looking for college help and for hands-on coaching that we also employ Olympic-medal-winning and National Team coxswains as associates. There's a real need in our community for coxswain education; therefore, we have created the first coxswain-specific development camp and have interlaced it with our rowing camp.

With a curriculum created by US Men's coxswains Marcus McElhenney and Steven Young, we work to give coxswains the standards and tools they need to consciously evaluate their skills and to improve dramatically. Coxswains will cox, spend time with an 8 point system of one-on-one technical evaluations with our coxing staff, and will attend small group seminars to discuss tapes, calls, steering, drills, and recruiting as they relate to their specific level.

Rowing camp that produces fun and results.

Coaches at our camp have an incentive to educate at the highest level possible, which makes a significant difference in terms of kindling an atmosphere where the focus is on our campers, first and foremost.

Each of our staff has made rowing the focus of their lives, and each has enjoyed and been successful at it. And each one also understands how important it is to pass the torch. Thanks to our structure, they are able to do exactly that on a very real level.

From mandatory fun time to private coaching and from work in teams to downtime in the dorms, we see our rowing camp as a place where campers can find their place in rowing and be challenged to grow as athletes and as individuals.

Camp Specifics

• Who: A coed camp for high school rowers and coxswains ages 14-19
• Duration: 5 days per session
• Cost: $1,275
• Where: Middletown, CT on the campus of Wesleyan University: in Clark Dormitory (confirmed air-conditioning) and on-campus boathouse with sweep and sculling shells. Shuttles will run between Hartford Airport and camp (25 minutes) on Monday and Saturday.
• Questions: Email camp@sparksconsult.com
• Registration: See our availability table below.
• Supervision: The staff lives amongst the student athletes, and has oversight 24 hours a day. Unhealthy substances and/or behaviors are strictly prohibited.
• Payment: May be made in full at RegattaCentral.com. If you choose to pay only the non-refundable $500 deposit at this point, email camp@sparksconsult.com for coupon code. Payment in full is due by June 1, 2012.
• Refunds: Refunds minus a $500 deposit are available until July 1.
• Parents' Learn to Row: A day long parents' Learn To Row class on the Fridays during camp will be made available to parents of registered campers a few weeks before camp.
• Staffing: Coaches are not guaranteed for both weeks. To find out about a particular coach, shoot us an e-mail.

Availability

Camp Schedule: July 23rd - 28th & July 30 - August 4th, 2012