Matthew Pearce
Rowing Director, New Jersey
Head Coach, New Jersey
Matt Pearce, a graduate of the University of Sydney, Australia, comes to the New York Rowing most recently from Durham University, England where he coached in the Men's High Performance program for Great Britain rowing. He has been involved in rowing for 17 years, 11 as a coach. As a coach Matt is a strong believer that by challenging the athlete to be the best rower they can be, you empower them to excel on and off the water. Over his years of coaching Matt has coached crews to win 5 national titles in 4 different countries (Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, and the United States), won the Head of the Charles, and recently had athletes represent the Great Britain U23 team while winning bronze at the 2010 world championships. Matt is a Level III certified coach in the Rowing Australia Coaching Program. This certification is of a higher standard than the highest certification offered by the United States Rowing Association. He also is part of the US rowing junior development coaching staff.
Isa Abdur-Rahman
Novice Men's Coach, New Jersey
Isa has recently graduated from Brown University and will attended Fordham university next summer for his post-graduate degree. While at Brown he rowed as a senior heavyweight oarsman. He was a member of the Brown team that won the Rowe Cup at Eastern Sprints with a perfect 41 points in 2009. He not only has rowed at the top collegiate level, but is a qualified rowing coach and a much valued asset to our new coaching team. Prior to Brown, Isa attended Tabor Academy. Isa is a native New Yorker who is keen to join the New York Rowing team.
Kate Mullan
Head Coach, New York City
Kate is a Yale University graduate. At Yale, Kate was a member of the Women's Varsity Crew, winning two Ivy League Championships and going undefeated her freshman year. She stroked the boat that won the Collegiate Eights event at the 2006 Head of the Charles Regatta. Her Yale Women's Crew 2010 class was named the "Class of the Decade" by Rowing News. Before Yale, Kate rowed at West Side Rowing Club in Buffalo, NY. There she was the team captain for the 2005/2006 season as well as named the team's Most Valuable Rower. She won gold medals at the New York State Rowing Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2004, she won a gold medal at the U.S. National Championships in the Junior 4+ race. Kate started coaching at West Side Rowing Club and is now excited to be part of the New York Rowing team.
Lee Roman
Varsity Men’s Coach, New York City
Lee Roman coxed for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) from 2003 to 2007 while earning a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and a B.S. in Geography and Environmental Systems. She continued on in her studies to receive her M.A. in Applied Sociology. From 2007 through 2010, Lee coached for the Institute of Notre Dame where her Novice Women placed at the Maryland State Championships in Spring 2010. Lee coached the Novice Men and Novice Women at Annapolis Junior Rowing Association from 2008 through 2009. Her Novices assisted in claiming the Honeywell Cup, the team points trophy, at the Baltimore Championships in 2009. Lee served as Assistant Coach and then Head Coach for the University of Maryland, College Park's Varsity Women from 2009 through 2011, and in 2011, they placed at the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships. Currently, Lee also coaches the Freshman/Novice Women at Fordham University.
Jen Methvin
Novice Coach, New York City
Jen Methvin graduated from James Madison University where she was a founding member of the JMU Club Crew team in 2007. She served as Treasurer from 07-08, Regatta Coordinator from 08-10, and Women’s Team Captain from 07-10. She was also a founding member of the rowing team at Oakton High School in 2004. She lettered all three years, was Varsity Women’s captain in 2006, and won the coaches award for excellence.
Ivan Lys-Dobradin
Novice Men's Coach, New York City
Ivan Lys-Dobradin is studying Philosophy and Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Ivan started rowing his freshman year at Winter Park High School in Florida. Throughout his high school rowing career, he won multiple state championships and medaled multiple times at the SRA national regatta and Stotesbury. He participated in the Royal Henley Regatta in England and earned bronze medals at the US Rowing Nationals in Cincinnati and the World Championships in Austria representing the US in the Junior 8. As a freshman rower at the University of Pennsylvania, Ivan led the Freshman 8 to victories over Yale, Columbia, Northeastern, and George Washington University. Due to a back injury, Ivan stopped competing his sophomore year at Penn. Ivan is excited to start his coaching career with the New York Rowing Association.
Thomas Curry
Executive Director
Thomas has over 20 years of experience in rowing. He co-founded the Nereid Boat Club where he was President from 1995 until 2003. During his tenure, Nereid won 9 National Championships and 8 Royal Canadian Henley Championships. Thomas also established junior rowing programs at several local high schools. At New York Rowing, Tom coached a 2- to a National Championship and they qualified to participate in the World Trials in 2008. During Tom’s tenure New York Rowing juniors have been recruited to several prestigious rowing programs including ; Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, UVA, USNA, Wisconsin, Dartmouth, Columbia, Georgetown, MIT, Northeastern Stanford, Mercyhurst, Rutgers and Wesleyan. Tom started his rowing career at St. Joseph’s University where he rowed on the men’s varsity heavyweight team as well as Penn A.C.
Rebecca Lam
Director of Administration
Rebecca directs all operations from the Manhattan office communicating with the staff of coaches, parents, and rowers. She manages the daily logistics of each program while providing support for long-term development and stability of the organization. Rebecca is a lifelong Manhattanite who attended Stuyvesant High School and continued on to graduate from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.
