"Strengthening our community by promoting the sport and culture of rowing fostering excellence and integrity in our athletes, and growing Saratoga as a premier rowing destination."
Saratoga Rowing Association was founded as a club team by Christopher Chase and a small group of very committed students on October 19, 1996. Mr. Chase had a vision to coach a successful, but an all-inclusive team. The team instantly became one of the largest, fastest growing teams in New York State; in less than twenty years the program has grown dramatically. The current program supports over 160 students year round with indoor winter training, spring, summer and fall sessions on the water.
Founded with the purpose of providing education, training, and participation in the sport of rowing, SRA has developed many programs that offer great opportunities to the entire community. Currently, SRA programs include Scholastic and Community rowing which are held over the course of three seasons, a Learn to Row program for potential rowers, and a Masters Rowing program which allows adults to participate in the sport. In the past five years, SRA has most recently added an adaptive program and Development Camps.
Meet the Staff
The SRA Staff is made up of coaches from around the country, brought to Saratoga, to offer the highest level of coaching we can. Every coach is USRowing Level 2 Certified, CPR/First Aid Certified, SafeSport Certified, and Boating Safety Licenced.
Eric Catalano
Katherine Smith
Mike MacMinn
Kristi Wagner
Mike MacMinn
in progress
Tessa Yurko
Tessa began coaching for SRA in 2020 as an ARION athlete and has since become our Assistant Varsity Boys coach. She began rowing in 7th grade and continued rowing in college at the University of Michigan where she obtained a degree in Women's Studies. She trained post-collegiately for 4 years at Princeton Training center and then for the ARION program. Tessa has coached consistently throughout her rowing career, starting with learn to row camps in high school and college. She was a Novice coach at Mercer Rowing while training in Princeton and then began working with the Freshman boys upon moving to Saratoga.
Abbie Albright
Abbie Albright is moving into the position of Varsity Girls Lead Coach, beginning next week! Our Mod program has made great strides under Abbie's leadership over the past two years, with recent highlights of the U15 boys bringing home a bronze medal in the coxed quad at USRowing Youth Nationals, and the U15 girls coxed quad in back-to-back A finals. This summer she has been an assistant coach with the Varsity Girls team and has previously coached at West Side Rowing Club and USRowing ODP Camps. Abbie is also an SRA alumni rower herself!
Lauren Schall
in progress
Kara Soucek
Kara has been coaching at SRA since 2016 when she joined the ARION program as an elite rower. She was a walk-on rower in college for Gonzaga where she studied biology. Post-collegiately she was a member of the US National Team in 2017 and 2018 and a member of ARION until 2019 when she stepped away from competitive rowing. Kara has worked with all levels of SRA athletes, starting with Learn-to-Row, then moving up to mod girls, freshman girls, and now the varsity girls. She is a cat-lover from Idaho and enjoys anything outdoors, namely swimming, camping, hiking, and cycling.
Donnie Jensen
Donnie has spent the past two years as Boys Head Coach at Port Rowing. He has an extensive background in youth coaching as well as maintaining rowing equipment, docks, and launches. That extra skill set he’s bringing to SRA will be invaluable in keeping our equipment and facilities in good shape! Donnie will also be onboarding new freshmen and novice rowers, and generally be responsible for the development of all U17 boy athletes.
Ronnie Cantrell
Ronnie is joining us from Michigan and has a variety of experience from coaching at both high school and collegiate levels as well as planning and running regattas. He began rowing in high school and continued on to row at Oxford Brookes University Boat Club in England. He has coached at the junior level with Skyline Crew, Pioneer Crew, and Washtenaw Rowing Center. Most recently he was an assistant coach with Michigan State Women's Rowing. He has also coached for Craftsbury Sculling Center, the USRowing Olympic Development Program, and the USRowing U23 Selection Development team.
Bob Tarrant
Jean Tarrant
Abbie Albright
Abbie Albright is moving into the position of Varsity Girls Lead Coach. Our Mod program has made great strides under Abbie's leadership over the past two years, with recent highlights of the U15 boys bringing home a bronze medal in the coxed quad at USRowing Youth Nationals, and the U15 girls coxed quad in back-to-back A finals. This summer she has been an assistant coach with the Varsity Girls team and has previously coached at West Side Rowing Club and USRowing ODP Camps. Abbie is also an SRA alumni rower herself!
Connor Toomey
Connor is a recent Syracuse grad and SRA alum and in addition to the Lead Coach for Mods he is part of the regatta team as Regatta Assistant. He started rowing in 8th grade, rowing at Albany Rowing Center for 4 years, before moving to SRA for his senior year. In college he rowed for Syracuse from 2019-2023 while obtaining a degree in Sports Management. Connor began coaching Learn-to-Row here at SRA and has also worked as an assistant varsity boys coach under Mike MacMinn.
