The Independent Rowing News

Photo: John Parker (right) with his 1997 UW freshman crew, by Sportgraphics.com

Earlier this fall, USRowing announced that John Parker, previously in charge of the lightweight men’s and women’s national teams, would move to Oklahoma to become the director and head coach of the Oklahoma City High Performance Center. Parker’s move did two things. First, and almost instantly, it gave the training center the credibility that comes with a world-class coach. And in the days and weeks following the announcement of Parker’s move, the absence of another announcement on who would replace him raised questions about how USRowing would handle elite lightweight rowing in the future.

USRowing executive director Glenn Merry sees Parker’s arrival in Oklahoma City as perhaps the final step in allowing the training center to fulfill its purpose. “The role that we see John filling in Oklahoma is one that we haven’t addressed in developing past athletes,” Merry said. “We have limited resources at Princeton and at the California Rowing Center and in the past if an athlete had gone there and hadn’t succeeded immediately, people had to go back to where they came from. And in many cases, they lacked real training centers for development. The training center in Oklahoma City is an opportunity for us to serve the development tier of athletes.”

Parker will work with head men’s and women’s coaches Tim McLaren and Tom Terhaar to develop athletes they deem worthy, expand relationships with clubs and typically underrepresented colleges to add to USRowing’s talent base, and develop the prospects who make themselves known to him. This will happen over what Merry calls “the short-long term,” one or two years of residency at the training center.

While Parker will work with McLaren and Terhaar to develop heavyweight and lightweight men and women, the way in which USRowing manages the elite lightweight crews will change slightly. Responsibility for the lightweight men will return to McLaren and Terhaar will handle the trials-only lightweight women’s crews. USRowing will hire an assistant coach to work out of its Princeton Training Center to assist McLaren specifically with the lightweights, according to Merry. No announcement of that hire was imminent at press time.

By Chip Davis