Weston Cole – Girls Head Coach

Weston@newportaquaticcenter.com

Weston began rowing as a high school freshman at Long Beach. He had a successful junior rowing career culminating in a 1st place finish in the Varsity 8+ at youth nationals in 2014. After high school, he spent two years rowing at Orange Coast and coaching the Novice Men at Sea Base. In his first year at Coast, he had a successful freshman boat that won the ACRA National Championships. After Coast, Weston transferred to UCSD where he graduated in 2018. Upon graduation, Weston returned to coaching heading up the Novice Men for a year before being asked to take over the Varsity Women’s program in 2019. In 2021, Weston joined the UCLA men’s staff coaching the Freshman, where they medaled both of the Novice 8s at the ACRA National Championship. He comes to Newport after spending the summer in Sarasota Florida coaching the US Rowing Olympic Development Program and is excited with the direction the Women’s Program is going.

Marcel Stiffey – Boys Head Coach

Marcel@NewportAquaticCenter.com

Marcel Stiffey began coaching the Boy’s Novice Squad in 2013. Marcel began his rowing career at Orange Coast College with Pat Gleason as his novice coach. While at Orange Coast College, Marcel won the WIRA championships, and then went on to compete at the IRA National Championships where his crew finished 9th. Post Orange Coast College, Marcel began training with friends and would compete in a club crew called the Little Knights. From there, he was invited to row for the famous Leander Club in the UK. While training at Leander, he was coached by the GB Olympic Coach Mark Banks and Chris Collerton, while training alongside members of the Olympic squad. As an added bonus, he was offered a position to begin coaching at the University of Oxford. While coaching there, he led his lightweights to an early season victory at the head of the Thames Regatta. Marcel brings coaching experience from an international perspective as well as having experience coaching at Orange Coast College and with the Long Beach Junior Crew. His enthusiasm and passion for the sport of rowing is what motivates him to give back to the juniors as they reach for their potential. Marcel is happy to help all who come through the program and looks forward to another successful season with your children.

Janet Cheung – Girls Assistant Coach/ Team Admin

Janet@newportaquaticcenter.com

Janet comes to the NAC by way of UCI Rowing. From 2014 to 2018, she coached Novice and Lightweight Men’s crews. Her involvement directly contributed to the increased retention of high-caliber participants with the most entries, most grand final contestants and most medals awarded to-date at regionals (WIRA) and nationals (ACRA) by UCI in its 50+ year history.

Her experience in club varsity rowing first began at the University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA) where she joined the fledgling team as a walk-on coxswain. During her five years with Pacific Rowing and its community program, Deep Water Rowing Association, she wore many hats as an Assistant Coach for middle school, junior and master rowing, as well as Regatta Director and Recruitment Coordinator.

Fostering a passion for the sport of rowing has always been the focus of her coaching philosophy, including applying the skills and lessons learned to face any of life’s obstacles. Alongside the talented coaching staff, she hopes to continue to build and grow NAC Women’s Rowing.

Jordan Teisan – Boys Assistant Coach

Jordan Teisan began rowing at the NAC in 2013 in as apart of Pat Glesson and Marcel Stiffey’s first crop of novice boys. From there he continued onto the Varsity team rowing under Nick D’Antoni, competing at Nationals both years on the team. Jordan then moved on to the next level competing at Orange Coast College for two seasons and finishing his rowing career racing in the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. In 2017,  during his sophomore year in college, Jordan began coaching at the NAC as a Novice Girls Assistant. The following year Jordan was asked to continue coaching as a Varsity Men’s Assistant and jumped at the opportunity. Jordan looks forward to another exciting year on the water with the guys! 

Ethan Ruiz – Boys Assistant Coach

Erich Hanxleden – Boys Assistant Coach

Erich has been coaching at The Newport Aquatic Center since 2017. He first began rowing at Orange Coast College and then at The University of Wisconsin where he competed on the United States U23 squad at the 2010 U23 World Championships in the 2X. With the persuasion of his friend, Coach Nick D’Antoni, Erich started coaching competitively for 5 years for Long Beach Jr. Crew. Erich coached multiple Southwest Regional Championships and multiple US Rowing Youth National Championship with winning squads on both men’s and women’s programs. Erich continues to row and train here at The NAC when he is not coaching he loves to surf and ride horses.

Trevor Phillips – Girls Assistant Coach

Trevor began his rowing career in 2013 at the Newport Aquatic Center under the guidance of Coach Marcel and Coach Nick. Trevor came into the program unathletic, confused, and naive. With four years in the program and under the leadership of his coaches, Trevor helped propel the NAC to a national championship in the Men’s Youth Heavyweight 8+ in 2017, for the first time since 2009. Since then Trevor has helped lead his recent alma mater UCLA this past year to their best performance in program history as a club sport. The result of his five years of commitment as leader and captain of the program has resulted in the best overall finish of any team at the ACRA National Championships with three medals— one of which being a second place finish for his boat in the Varsity 8+. The culmination of his athletic success and leadership ability has helped to guide the UCLA team to a higher tier of excellence and ability. The team is currently poised to continue to grow in this trajectory. Before coming back onto the team this year, Trevor helped lead the novice boys with Coach Marcel during the tremulous season of COVID in 2020/2021. Now he comes back to the NAC again this season as a new coach for the women’s program; excited to instill his passion and life values that the sport of rowing has imprinted upon him to the next generation.

Mo Guild – Girls Assistant Coach

Mo comes back to Newport Aquatic Center for her second season. She enjoys spending her time on the water whether it’s with the Junior Competitive Team or her collegiate crew.  Mo  started her rowing career at NAC. She is currently an athlete for the Men’s Crew team at Orange Coast College.

Madison Byrd – Girls Assistant Coach

Davis Schroeder – Boys Assistant Coach