Marcel Stiffey - Head Coach

Marcel joins us after being the Newport Aquatic Center’s Novice Coach for the last 6 years as well as an Assistant Coach on the Orange Coast Community College varsity team.

Starting his rowing career in 2005 and quickly falling in love with the sport, Marcel began his collegiate career at OCC where he rowed for two years before joining University of San Diego and finishing out his collegiate eligibility. He has spent the last 10 years coaching rowing at various stops including the aforementioned, NAC and OCC, as well as the Oxford University Boat Club and Long Beach State. His record with the NAC Novice has been impeccable and he looks forward to bringing the same determination that has made him successful at NAC to UCLA.

Marcel prides himself on fostering an environment that requires cooperation, accountability and effort, working with other users of the boathouse space and instilling fundamentals. He comes with great ability to teach the stroke to novices and to help experienced rowers understand the nuances of how to row fast.

Marcel brings energy and an engaging personality to this position that will transition well to on-campus recruitment of athletes and the ability to relate to all athletes on the team. He did a tremendous job of building relationships with parents and supporters of the program at NAC and looks forward to doing the same at UCLA.

Paul Wilkins - Freshman Coach

Coach Wilkins started his collegiate coaching career at George Washington University. While Head Coach from 1981 to 1996 he nurtured the crew from a very small team to one that had almost 100 competitive athletes. During that era, the program developed three Olympians and four national team members – all from a program that had no history of producing any top athletes. We won two major team points trophies, and won three silver medals at the Collegiate National Championships.

From 1999 until 2009 he developed Chapman University's Div. III rowing program. Starting with less than ten athletes rowing in old donated equipment, the program grew in numbers, got a new boathouse, and updated the fleet. In 2009 Coach Wilkins moved to Australia for the year and coached at Canberra Rowing Club. This was followed by a stint at Long Beach State, before becoming the Head Men’s Coach at USC from 2013 to 2017. During his time, USC achieved a Silver medal at the National Championships, and were successful in getting an athlete onto the US National Team.

In 2015 Coach Wilkins was inducted into the George Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Coach Wilkins is also an experienced rowing umpire, and worked for US rowing for many years teaching coaching clinics to coaches.

Brendan McEwan - Assistant Coach

Starting his coaching career in 2016 at UCLA, Coach McEwan had a very successful season leading the Novice squad. During the season the 1st Novice Eight were ranked in the top 10 several times over the season , and at the National Championships in Georgia they confirmed this ranking by winning the B final of the Novice/Freshman Eight to finish the season ranked 8th. As a team of entirely Walk On's this was a great achievement. The program's success in winning the Overall Point Scores at WIRA, Pac12 and the UC Championships were firmly anchored in the depth of talent and success across the entire Novice Squad. These results were mirrored in his second season coaching, the novice squad achieved a string of great results. Bronze Medals at WIRA, Pac-12, UC Champs, San Diego Crew Classic, Head of the American

Coach McEwan grew up in New Canaan, CT. He began rowing in 2002 for New Canaan High School in Norwalk, CT. He rowed in his high school's Varsity Quad and his team had success on the national level, winning the national championship several times. In 2006 Coach McEwan qualified for the Junior World Rowing Championships and raced for the United States in the Youth Double in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Coach McEwan attended Georgetown University and rowed in the Varsity Lightweight Eight. In 2009 he stroked his boat to a third place finished at the Eastern Sprints Regatta and a fourth place finish at the IRA National Championship. In 2010 he qualified for the Under 23 World Rowing Championships and raced for the United States in the Heavyweight Single in Brest, Belarus.

Coach McEwan has continued to row since his graduation. He races several times per year. Most recently, he raced and won the Club Single at the 2015 Head of the Charles Regatta.

Ted Humphrey - Assistant Coach

Coach Humphrey is one of the lead sculling coaches at the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center, a position he has held for over 20 years. His experience at the UCLA boathouse over such a time, has created a vast reservoir of knowledge about rowing at Marina Del Rey, and the history of UCLA rowing. Coach Humphrey is an Adjunct Professor of English Litertaure at Santa Monica College

His patience and teaching experience will help us teach the next generation of UCLA Oarsman the skills to be successful in small boats. He primarily works with the Varsity Squad, and the teams recent success in small boats at regattas can be traced back to his direction and guidance.

Dominic Pardini - Assistant Coach

Dominic Pardini is a proud Bruin. After graduating in 2018 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he immediately returned to help coach the novice crew for the 2018 - 2019 season. This will be his second year coaching collegiately and is enthusiastic to push the team to new heights.

Coach Pardini began rowing in 2010 at the Newport Aquatic Center. He competed nationally as a lightweight at the Junior and U23 level. He continued rowing at UCLA in from 2014 to 2018, where he stroked several Varsity crews and served the as Captain and President for 3 years. He holds several medals from ACRA, WIRA, Club Nationals and more in all boat classes.

He continues to row and train, competing in regattas, triathlons, marathons and more. On top of that, he is passionately building out a UCLA alumni rowing group that we like to call the Ballona Creek Bruins. This group seeks to train and race around the world in support of the UCLA Crew. Finally, Coach Pardini is active on the Friends of UCLA Rowing (FOUR) support organization, where he serves as an Executive Director on the board.