Head Coach: John L. Williams
John L. Williams has been the UDMC head coach since the fall of 2022. He has been a volunteer coach of UDMC for more than two decades, after a couple years of coaching Emory Crew while in law school. The Blue Hen crews he has coached have won Eastern Sprints in the lightweight four, numerous team-points championships at the Dad Vail Regatta and were national champions at the 2019 ACRA regatta. Numerous athletes he coached have gone on to row with the US National Team and one Blue Hen crew won the Alumni 4+ at the Head of the Charles Regatta in 2022, setting a course record.
As a rower in 1997, he won and set a course record in the Club 8+ event at the Head of the Charles Regatta in the Williams College first varsity 8+, finishing ahead of Syracuse University 1V8+. This course record stood for 14 years. His Williams College crew also won the New England Championship Regatta and medaled at the ECAC “Champion Regatta.” He competed twice at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1995 and 1998. After taking up sculling, in 2003 he again won the Head of the Charles Regatta in a Club Single field of 57 competitors. Over the next decade, he competed with the Wilmington Rowing Center master’s crew winning multiple first-place medals at USRowing Master’s Nationals over the summers. His WRC crew have won 3 rd , 4 th , and 5 th place medals in the Club Four event at the Head of the Charles Regatta, despite his boat having an average age about twice that of the other crews in the event.
Professionally, he practices business and estate law as the President of The Williams Law Firm, P.A. (www.trustwilliams.com). He is also President of Agents and Corporations, Inc. (www.incnow.com), which is an online e-commerce incorporation service. It was awarded “Best for the World” as the first certified B Corporation in Delaware. Over the past 20 years, IncNow has provided 30+ jobs to rowers, coaches and recent graduates from the University of Delaware Men’s Crew.
He is active in the community leading boards for Wilmington Rowing Center, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation (Official Tall Ship of Delaware), Christina Conservancy, Delaware Natural Areas Advisory Council (dedicating nature preserves in Delaware), Delaware’s Chapter of the Society of Colonial Wars, One Commerce Center Condo Council (office tower owners association), numerous professional and entrepreneurial committees. Delaware Business Times in 2015 named him “40 Under 40” for leaders and innovators; he invented a registered US Patent in Series LLC automation technology; in 2019 was an Honorary Commander of the Delaware National Guard; and in 2020 Technically Media named him a “RealLIST Connector” building Delaware’s innovation community.
He lives in Newark, Delaware in a house with boat access to the Christina River.
Lightweight Coach: Tristan Snow
Tristan is running the Varsity Lightweight Squad under the direction of Coach Crawford.
He came to Delaware in the fall of 2014 as the freshman lightweight coxswain and eventually made his way to the 1V Lights for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.
In the Fall of 2018, Tristan coached the Freshman Lights to a 3rd place overall and 1st among lightweights at the Princeton Chase, before moving into the role of assistant the next spring. As assistant he helped Chuck bring the 1st and 2nd Varsity to win Gold at ACRA in a first for the team.
Tristan has gained some international experience in coaching by taking two alumni -Cooper Hurley ’18 and Jim McCullough ’19- through the 2019 PanAmerican Games in Lima as the USA Men’s Light Double.
Tristan has also began his career with D150 Fueling as Vice President of Accounts, working with many former teammates
Heavyweight Coach: Jim Harker
Jim learned to row years ago under the tutelage of legendary coaches Joe Burke and Ted Nash at
the University of Pennsylvania and has continued to row in the masters category.
He was one of the first members of the Wilmington Rowing Center serving as equipment chair,
house chair, and president. At WRC he coached master and novice high school rowers.
Jim is on the Board of the Diamond State Masters Regatta committee and has worked at more
than 30 annual regattas held on Noxontown Pond, St. Andrews School, Middletown, DE. as
marshal, dispatcher, launch driver and most every other job needed to run one of the best masters
regatta in the country. The DSM regatta is now the US Rowing Northeast Mid-Atlantic Masters
Regional Championship event.
He has rowed competitively in many masters sprint and head races including the Royal Canadian
Henley, Head of the Charles, Head of the Connecticut, Head of the Schuylkill, Head of the
Potomac, Wye island, the US Nationals and the World Nationals.
Coach Emeritus: Chuck Crawford
Chuck has resided in Delaware since his graduation from Rutgers in 1973 where his business is headquartered. He serves as President/CEO of ACW Corporation which owns and operates twenty Arby’s Restaurants. He is married with three grown children and three grandchildren.
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.
Chuck 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.
Chuck successes 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 coached the US Junior Men’s 8 in 1980 and 1982, which won a silver medal. He also coached the US Men’s pairs at the 1983 Pan American and Men’s fours at the 1991 games. 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.
Chuck returned to Delaware in the 2001-02 season and the Blue Hen crews quickly rose 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 Heavyweight Varsity has also been developing into a formidable crew. The Delaware Men’s Crew has consistently been among the top finishers at the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta winning the men’s overall point trophy in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2017. The Lightweight Eight Varsity Crew has finished first or second in all of the Dad Vail Regattas that it has competed at since 2002.
Chuck also pays attention to the Heavyweight squad with his direction and counsel. The Heavyweight squad races in many of the same Regattas including the Dad Vail Regatta, where the Varsity 8 and 2nd Varsity 8 both finished third in 2017. Additionally, Chuck earned the USRA Peoples’ Choice Collegiate Coach of the year in 2016.
Associate Coach: Nic Pereira
Associate Coach: Ryan Hurley
Ryan brings to Delaware Men 23 years of sport-specific coaching experience to the Blue Hen coaching staff with experience with high school, club, and division 1 varsity rowing. Most recently he served as the associate head coach for the Delaware Women’s Rowing team. While coaching for Delaware Women, Ryan worked with both varsity and novice squads. When working with the novice women, they reached the grand finals of Dad Vails every year he coached that squad and a silver medal in 2016.
Before that he was the head coach of Liberty University in 2012-13, working primarily with the women’s varsity and novice squads during his tenure with the Flames. Among the highlights during his time with Liberty were two appearances in two grand finals at the SIRA Regatta, resulting in a silver medal for the Women’s Lightweight Four, both of which were a program first.
Before the move to Liberty University, Hurley coached at Virginia Tech from 2005-2012. The team saw some of its best success in program history under his direction with the team ranking in the national top ten for Club Women’s Eights in 2008 and 2009.
With the Hokies, Hurley guided the program to a silver medal at the 2008 Dad Vail Regatta in the Lightweight Women’s Eight while the Lightweight Women’s Eight also finished the season ranked No. 8 in the nation. He also spent time coaching varsity men who earned a Bronze Medal at SIRA in 2007 in the heavyweight men’s four.
Before his tenure at Virginia Tech, Hurley served as the head coach of the UMass-Lowell women’s team while also coaching the Lowell High School varsity men. He led the Lowell High School men’s eight to a silver medal in the 2004 Fall State Championship.
Hurley started his coaching in the spring of 2001, serving as the assistant novice coach for two years with Brandeis University in Boston.
He is a 2001 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating with a degree in psychology and competing as a four-year member of the club rowing team. During his rowing career at UMass, Hurley earned a bronze medal in the Men’s Lightweight Eight at the 2000 Champion International Regatta. He capped off his collegiate rowing experience by winning a gold medal at the 2001 Avaya Collegiate Championships (now ECAC National Invitational Collegiate Regatta) in the Men’s Heavyweight Four.
He has his Level III US Rowing Coaching Certification and is an AFAA-certified personal trainer.
