Row Ontario Announces Coaching Staff for Canada Summer Games

Following a province-wide search, Row Ontario is pleased to announce the coaching staff for the Ontario rowing team at the 2022 Canada Summer Games.

Mary Rao, John Ruscitti, and Dereck Schwandt were named as coaches of the Ontario rowing team on Thursday. The trio will join Caitlin Beresford on the coaching staff, who was named as an apprentice coach in April of 2020. Row Ontario High Performance Manager Grant Boyd rounds out the staff and will serve as the team manager throughout the event.

“We are very excited to add these three coaches to the Canada Summer Games staff,” said Boyd. “Mary, John and Dereck are all exceptional coaches, and their knowledge and experience will be a huge asset to the Team Ontario rowers as they prepare for the Games as well as during the competition. Along with Caitlin as the apprentice coach, we have a well-rounded coaching staff that will help the Team Ontario rowers to achieve their best performances at the Games in August.”

The rowing competition for the Games will held in St. Catharines from Aug. 17-21 on the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta course, Martindale Pond. Team Ontario will be comprised of 26 athletes, 13 female and 13 male, including two coxswains. The team will compete in 14 rowing events in 12 open weight and two lightweight disciplines.

Rao is a current coach with the Brock Badgers rowing team and last summer represented Canada as a coach with the Junior World Championship team in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She got her start in coaching in 2008 and has coached with the Badgers since 2017. Her coaching experience also includes being the lead coach of competitive programs at the South Niagara Rowing Club and stints coaching at the St. Catharines Rowing Club, Leander Boat Club, Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School and with the Row Ontario Shells and Sails program.

Long-time Ontario coach Ruscitti has served in numerous roles throughout his coaching career, including several coaching roles with Rowing Canada Aviron from 1999-2014. He served as junior national team coach/coordinator from 2002-2007, a period that saw the team win eight World Championship medals. He has been the head coach of the E.L. Crossley Rowing Team, one of the largest high school rowing teams in the country since 1994 and has coached at several different clubs in the Niagara region including the South Niagara Rowing Club, Niagara Rowing School, Notre Dame Rowing Club, Niagara Falls Rowing Club and the St. Catharines Rowing Club.

Schwandt’s coaching career spans across the country as he got his start in coaching with the Vancouver College Rowing program in 1999. He would serve as both a lead coach and head coach during his 16 years at the school, during which time he also spent stints as a coach at the Thunderbird Rowing Centre and as a junior team leader with Rowing Canada Aviron. He is the current men’s head coach at Ridley College, a role he has held since 2015.

Beresford was chosen for the apprentice coach role through the Canada Games Apprentice Coach Program. This innovative coaching program, which is led by Coaching Association of Canada, in partnership with the Canada Games Council and Provincial/Territorial Coaching Representatives, provides the opportunity for each province and territory to send two female coaches and two aboriginal coaches to the 2022 Canada Summer Games in apprenticeship roles.

Beresford has been active in the Ontario rowing community since 2000, when she got her start as a competitive athlete before transitioning into coaching in 2004. She began coaching at Western University and has coached at the competitive level at several rowing clubs, including the Orillia Rowing Club, Kingston Rowing Club, the Durham Rowing Club, and the Barrie Rowing Club.

The Canada Summer Games are a major sporting event in Canada and serve as a steppingstone for rowers and all athletes towards representing Canada in sporting events on the international stage. At previous editions of the event, Ontario athletes have been a dominant force and rowers have played a large role in Team Ontario’s overall success at the Games. In 2017, Ontario led the overall medal standings with 210 medals (86 gold, 65 silver, 59 bronze) while Ontario rowers brought home a total of ten medals (7 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) Their seven gold medals were the most in the nation.