Director of Rowing & Head Coach

Russ is the director of the club and primarily coaches the morning sweep practices and also serves as the club's boatman. In 2019, he opened Marshall Shell Repair, a boat repair company and works with programs throughout the midwest to keep their fleets up and running.  From Fall of 2011 to Spring of 2021 Russ was the freshman coach at Michigan where he led ten classes of freshmen and served as the lead recruiter for the program. He expanded the program's recruitment of high school athletes to an average of 10 students per class. His crews have earned 31 medals at Dad Vails, ECACs and ACRA.

During the Summer of 2015 he served as an assistant coach for the United States World University Games Team in Chunjui, South Korea. Giacobbe was responsible for the heavy and lightweight singles and the double.

Biz Kurcz

Sweep/Sculling Coach

Biz started her rowing career at Pioneer with top accomplishments in the Men's Senior V4+, finishing 1st at MSRA and 2nd at CSSRA. She continued racing at Michigan State, placing 3rd at Big Tens with her novice crew.  Biz was MSUs Head Manager for the remainder of her undergraduate career. Biz was then an Assistant Coach at OLSM. During that time, the team won three State Championships and finished 1st in the J8+ at SRAA. Biz has been coaching at AARC since 2019 and continues sculling in her spare time. 

Lauren Schmetterling

Sweep Coach

Lauren brings a large breadth of experience to the club. She served as an assistant coach and lead Novice coach with the University of Michigan Women’s rowing team from 2021-2024. Schmetterling joined the staff following a seven-year stint as part of the USRowing roster (2013-19), where she won gold medals at the World Championships, World Rowing Cup and Olympic stages.

A native of Voorheis, N.J., Schmetterling graduated from Moorestown high school in 2006 and went on to Colgate University, where she earned CRCA All-America second team honors, becoming the program's second-ever All-American on the heels of winning the collegiate double sculls (2x) title at the USRowing Collegiate Championships in 2010. She earned a degree in economics from Colgate while lettering from 2007-10. After graduating, Schmetterling trained in Boston at the Riverside Boat Club under Tom Keister. In 2012, she was invited to the national training center for USRowing in Princeton, N.J. In 2012, Schmetterling won the open single sculls and double sculls events at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. She was part of the 2013, 2014, and 2015 World Championship teams, winning gold medals with the 8+. She returned to the World Championships stage as part of the 2017 and 2019 teams, finishing fourth in the former year. She also was an alternate on the 2018 roster. Schmetterling was named U.S. Rowing Fan's Choice National Team Athlete of the Year in 2015. She also has competed in many World Rowing Cup events and was part of a world record-breaking performance in the 8+ at the 2013 World Rowing Cup III.

Schmetterling made her Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janiero, winning a gold medal with the 8+. In doing so, she became Colgate's third-ever Olympic medalist, the first female Olympian from the school, the first gold medalist ever to attend Colgate and the first medalist of any kind since 1972. Schmetterling was inducted into Colgate's Hall of Honor in 2017.

Don Wright

Sweep Coach

 

Sweep Coach

Info coming soon...

Barb will be working with the sculling program this year and learned to row with AARC in 1998. She has previously coached the AARC Learn to Row program. For the last 13 years she served as the Novice Girls' Coach for Huron Rowing. She has also spent summers as a sculling coach at Black Bear Sculling Camps. She is co-owner of RowKraft a company that specializes in rowing related products. Barb has many past lives including as a camp director and buying bacon by the pallet at Zingerman's.