Head Coach Chuck Crawford
rowcoach@udel.edu
Chuck competed in rowing during the sixties and seventies. As a rower, he rowed in national youth (junior) and elite lightweight championship crews that placed third in world junior championships and first in the lightweight championship.
He has served as an assistant and head coach at the high school, club and collegiate level since 1978. His first major coaching success came in 1980 while he served as Head Coach at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, which won the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Championship and finished second at the Royal Henley Regatta in the Princess Elizabeth Cup Competition.
His successes now include coaching many national champion crews at the high school and club level, along with an earlier stint serving as the first head coach at the University of Delaware from 1991 thru 1996. He built both the Delaware men’s and women’s programs into very competitive teams in a very short time, having both programs finish in the finals at the Dad Vail Regatta before resigning to return as an assistant high school coach at St. Joseph’s Prep and head club coach at Penn AC. In 2000 the athletes he worked with at St. Joseph’s Prep won the Princess Elizabeth Cup at the Royal Henley Regatta.
Since returning to Men’s Head Coaching position at the University of Delaware in 2002, the Blue Hen crews have meteorically risen to a very competitive level. In his first year back, the lightweight varsity 8 finished second at the Dad Vail Regatta and the next year finished first in the same event. The lightweight Varsity eight has qualified and finished in the top ten at the National Championship each of the last five years. The Heavyweight Varsity eight has also been developing into a formidable crew. This year’s Heavyweight Eight will be looking forward to very high aspirations as the influx of last year’s successful frosh eight is integrated with the returning varsity heavyweights.
Varsity Lightweight Coach Joe Federici
Coach Federici began his rowing career at St. Augustine Prep High School where he was a member of varsity lightweight eight in both his junior and senior year. During his high school tenure, Federici was a part of varsity lightweight crews that won the New Jersey State Rowing Championship (junior year) and Philadelphia City Championship (junior and senior year).
In 2001, Federici walked onto the Rutgers Lightweight Crew team. During his freshman year, he was a member of the 1F lightweight eight and later rowed in the varsity eight during his sophomore and senior year. Federici was awarded the “Mason Gross Award” during his junior year for being named the team MVP and during his senior year, he served as team co-Captain with Delaware freshman coach, Joe Kleiman.
In addition to rowing for Rutgers, Federici raced for the Undine Barge Club in 2003-2004 and Penn A.C. in 2005.
Federici earned a B.A., with honors, from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2005 where he majored in both History and Political Science. In 2008, Federici graduated from Rutgers University School of Law-Camden where he earned his juris doctor degree. He is currently admitted to practice law in the State of New Jersey.
Freshman/Novice Coach Joe Kleiman
DelFroshCoach@gmail.com
Joe began his high school rowing career at the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club. Sitting six-seat in CJRC’s heavyweight 8+, Joe and his crew won The USRowing Junior National Championship in spring 2001. He then went on to compete internationally at the Henley Royal Regatta, held in the town of Henley-on-Thames, England, where he won the Marlow Regatta and advanced to the third round in the Thames Cup.
Joe attended Rutgers University and competed in the country’s most prestigious regattas, including the Eastern Sprints and national Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta. During his novice year, Joe was honored with the “Most Outstanding Freshman” award. He was later named “Hardest Working Oarsman” and Team Captain his senior year before graduating with an undergraduate degree from Rutgers in Exercise Science with a minor in Psychology.
Joe began coaching at Delaware in 2005. In 2007, he led his freshman heavyweight 8+ to a silver medal finish at the Dad Vail Regatta and an invitation to the esteemed national IRA Championship Regatta. The following year he was promoted to head freshman coach of both the heavyweight and lightweight divisions. His 2008 lightweight 8+ and undefeated heavyweight 8+ both won gold medals at the Dad Vails and finished notably at IRAs. This past year, his frosh 8+ won the Southern Intercollegiate Association Regatta and earned a silver medal at Vails.
Coach John Williams
John L. Williams came to the UD program in 2001 after two years of coaching while in law school at Emory University. He has coached primarily the heavyweight freshman since, both as head-freshman coach and assistant, all his crews have made the finals of the Dad Vail regatta.
From 1990 to 1994, John Williams rowed for the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association. He then rowed for Williams College, where he won the New England Championship in 1996, finished third in the ECAC regatta, competed twice at Henley-on-Thames, as a spare-pair and in the Temple Challenge Cup. Notably, in 1997, his eight set the course record at the Head of the Charles regatta in the Club Eight event, that is still standing, ten years later. In 2003 he won the Head of the Charles again, this time in the Club Single event after starting 44th in a field of 57. He still competes with the Wilmington Rowing Center master's crew.
When he is not rowing, he practices law and manages The Williams Law Firm, P.A. and incorporates and forms LLCs in Delaware through Agents and Corporations, Inc. He is licensed to practice law in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He is on the board of the Christina Navy, Ltd, an organization that promotes safe boating and is on the board of the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association.
Coach Pete Seymour
Pete Seymour began rowing at Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, PA. Pete rowed in the varsity quad at Chestnut Hill and captained the team in his junior and senior seasons. He placed second and third at the S.R.A. National Championships in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
After high school Pete continued to row for Marietta College in Ohio, and in his freshmen year he placed third at the Dad Vail Regatta and second at Southern Intercollegiate Regatta Association Championship. After his freshmen season, Pete transfered to the University of Delaware and rowed in the varsity heavyweight eight for three years, winning the Colonial Athletic Association Championship in 2006 and 2007.
Pete completed his last year of collegiate rowing eligibility after the spring of 2008, and will assist the coaching staff this year while continuing his Bachelors of Civil Engineering at UD. He also races competitively in his single scull on the Christina river in Wilmington.
Coach Phil Kleiman
Phil Kleiman started rowing in high school for the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club. Phil sat bow in CJRC’s heavyweight eight in 2004 that finished the season undefeated and won the USRowing Junior National Championship.
Phil began rowing for the University of Delaware in the fall of 2004. He raced in the Varsity Lightweight 8 for two years and competed at Eastern Sprints for four years and the IRA National Championship for three. Phil graduated in the spring of 2008 with a degree in Criminal Justice.
Phil is in his first year of coaching and will be assisting with the freshmen/novice squads this year.
Coach John Flynn
John Flynn has been coaching since he was an undergrad at Cornell, and joins the Delaware Crew to assist the Head Coaches with the varsity heavyweight and lightweight crews. Flynn has also coached with the New York Athletic Club since 1998, and currently works with the Club’s pre-elite lightweight men. He spent the past six years as the novice coach of the University of Minnesota’s women’s program. During his time at Minnesota, the Novice squad earned four titles at the Big Ten Championships, medaled six times, and recorded two undefeated seasons. The Golden Gophers also earned two NCAA bids and a Big Ten Conference title in his time with the program.
Flynn gained his international coaching experience with the New York Athletic Club. He coached the Lightweight Men's 4 at the 2003 Pan American Games, and worked as the assistant coach for the U.S. Lightweight Men's 8 for three years, when the US won bronze (2002) and silver (2003) medals in the event. He has also coached at Fairfield University (2002-03), where the Novice Four won a silver medal at the Dad Vail Regatta, Manhattan College (1997-98), and was the freshmen coach at the College of William and Mary in 1994-95.
Flynn, a member of the Cornell Heavyweight Crew, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Cornell in 1994, studied Literature at Oxford University, and received his Master of Arts degree in English Literature in 2000. Flynn was also an English teacher at Regis High School (N.Y.) from 1996 to 2002.
Flynn and his wife, Jill, a professor at UD, live in Newark with their son, J.J.