Josh Pineda
Josh is the current Head Coach and Equipment Manager of Boulder Community Rowing, coaching for BCR since 2007. He has also served on BCR’s Board of Directors from 2007-2010.
Josh began rowing at Ithaca College in 1990 and was hooked immediately. After graduating with a BA in Sociology, a BA in Fine Arts, and several successful seasons in various Ithaca College boats, Josh moved back to his home town of Baltimore and rowed for Baltimore Rowing Club.
Josh started coaching in 1996 for Towson University and Baltimore Rowing Club. Over the next few years, he became Head Coach at Towson as well as Head Coach and Boat House Manager for Baltimore Rowing Club. Over the course of his coaching career, Josh has coached male and female rowers of all ages, from juniors to Masters J (80 and over), sculling and sweep, novice and beyond.
In addition to coaching, Josh works for REI as a District Visual Manager, overseeing remodels and new store openings throughout the country, including 14 stores in the Southwest. He enjoys hiking, camping, backpacking, cycling, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing as often as he can with his wife, Jaye, and son, Ethan.
Ala Crockett
Ala comes to BCR from the U.S National Team. She represented the United States in the Double in 2007, stroking the boat to earn a berth in the 2008 Olympics at the Munich World Championships. That year she also earned 5th and 4th place finishes in the Double at the Lucerne and Linz World Cups. In 2006, she was in the Quad that won 5th place in the Eton World Championships and was 4th at the Lucerne World Cup. In 2005, she was in the Eight that placed 3rd at the Munich World Cup, and in 2004 won the Olympic Trials to represent the U.S. in the Double, and missed qualifying for Athens by a half-second. She retired from the National Team in 2008, and joined her husband in Oakland, CA, and moved to Boulder in 2011.
Ala began rowing in 1993 at the University of New Hampshire, where she majored in English, minored in Philosophy, rowed for 4 years, broke school records for ergometer tests, and won “the hammer” for the open collegiate women’s event at the C.R.A.S.H.-B’s as a Junior in 1996.
Upon graduating, she began her pursuit of making the National Team. She began coaching in 1998 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and moved all over the country looking for the best scullers and coaches to train with while coaching to support her habit. She coached the Lincoln Park Juniors in Chicago, Masters at the Lincoln Park Boat Club, Saugatuck Juniors in Ct., and helped to create a program (Concord Crew) in NH.
Apart from rowing and coaching, Ala spends her time with her son and tries to get outside as much as possible to enjoy the awesome beauty of Boulder. “The sunrises at the Res,” she says, “are a pretty great way to begin the days.”
Alex Berlin
Alex is in his first year with BCR. He spent 2010 in Philadelphia with the Saint Joseph’s Men’s Rowing Team as the varsity assistant, working with the JV and Lightweight 8’s throughout the spring.
Prior to that, Alex was for 5 years the director of rowing and the Men’s Head coach at the University of Colorado. In his first year at CU, the men’s team set a program first by having every member finish the WIRA league championships with a medal. Alex worked hard to raise the competitive level of the program by growing the team and introducing better training methods. He also worked with the alumni to update both the men’s and women’s equipment.
Alex’s resume also includes two years with the University of Michigan Men’s Team, Advanced Competitive Head Coach for Ann Arbor Rowing Club, and Summer ’07 Penn AC Intermediate Senior program coach. His crews at Penn AC swept the Canadian Henley Senior sweep events (8+, 4-, 2-) and won the Senior B 8+. The only non-gold performance of the regatta for Penn AC crews was a 2nd place in the Champ 8+. Alex has coached under Gregg Hartsuff and John Riley, both of whom have coached for the US National Team. Alex began rowing at Harriton High School in Lower Merion, PA.
Alex received a bachelors in history from the University of Colorado in 2004. As the Varsity 8+ stroke for both his junior and senior years, as well as a Team Captain, Alex led the University of Colorado Rowing Team to a number of program firsts, including a Head of the Charles medal. Alex and his wife, Fran, currently live in Boulder.
Brian Scanlon
Brian began rowing in 2002 for Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Florida, and later went on to row and coach for the University of Florida. He coached the Novice Women for three seasons, earning two bronze medals at the Head of the Hooch Regatta, consecutively making finals at SIRA, and a FIRA gold. He graduated in 2010 with a BS in Building Construction, moved to Boulder in May 2011, and, in addition to coaching, and working for a construction company, he enjoys running, cycling, anything to do with music, and being outside with his dog, Hudson.
Lisa Dirth
Lisa began her rowing career in high school, rowing whitewater. When she was growing up in Denver there were no rowing programs in the state, but she learned to coach and scull when her son was rowing for his high school. Her son went on to row for Oregon State University so it is a family affair. The school ended up short coached and she volunteered to help out after 2 years of riding in the launch with the head coach. She learned to coach on the job from an outstanding rowing coach. In the fall of 2004, she became Head Coach in charge of the team of 50 very successful high school rowers (boys and girls) at a private college prep day school in Manchester, New Hampshire (The Derryfield School). She was involved in coaching both the fall and spring seasons as part of the Northeast Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) league. In addition to the head coach responsibilities, Lisa coached all the novice crews to come into the program for 8 years from 2002 to 2010. She loves coaching and especially loves novices. Leaving the Derryfield School program broke her heart and she is delighted to have the opportunity to work with Boulder Rowing.
Sarah Canfield
Bio Coming Soon!
Victor Tagliavia
Victor was born just south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1979 in a sleepy town called Bethel Park. Through junior high and high school, he dabbled at hockey, baseball and one disastrous quarter season of football, and was also founder and president of the computer club and co-president of the chess club.
In his senior year of high school, after finding no sports involving a ball that he got along with, Vic got involved, mostly against his will, with an outdoor program that required paddling hundreds of miles in an aluminum canoe – and discovered that he was strangely great at this sport. When he got to Pittsburgh University, the obvious follow-up was to join the rowing team, which he did. After four grueling-yet-wonderful years of college rowing, he supplemented his nearly non-existent graduate student income by coaching both collegiate and high school rowing programs.
With the ink still wet on an engineering masters degree, $500 in the bank, and a car that started most of the time, he moved to Philadelphia on an open invite to join a club called Undine on historic boathouse row and took a job working for the department of defense.
For the next three years, Vic gave sculling at the elite level his best shot and, in his own words, “I had some pretty major victories and correspondingly crushing defeats. My goal was to see how far I could get and I got a lot further than I ever thought I would. Unfortunately, age and a sore shoulder eventually got the better of me. I resigned myself to focusing on my career rowing recreationally and coaching when I can.”
Vic relocated to Colorado in January of 2011 on a notional 12 month engineering rotation program and has loved every minute of it since.
