John Squadroni

[JD]

I saw this article from the Cal Women stating that John Squadroni passed last December.

https://calbears.com/news/2023/12/12/fo ... oni-passes

Squad was probably unknown to most everyone on RI.He subbed for Ernst at UW and won a women’s national championship for Washington in ‘88. He coached the Cal Women from 88 to 83 and had a good run. He was a South Philly guy - creative, industrious, and a feisty competitor. We had some great races between our Cal and Stanford teams but the rivalry was always congenial. Despite his rough edges, he was a lovable guy and a good coach. One of the pioneers of women’s rowing.

[fullmetal]

From the Washington Rowing instagram account:

The Washington Rowing community mourns the passing of John Squadroni. (Right side of photo)

John rowed at Washington on the Freshman men’s crew. After which he joined Dick Erickson’s Varsity squad.

In the summer of 1980 Bob Ernst was asked to coach the women’s varsity squad and John asked if he could help coach.

Jan Harville was the Novice coach and the Varsity squad was very large so John helped coach while still taking undergrad courses in forestry.

The rest is history, John developed the athletes that progressed through the 4’s to the JV and on to the Varsity.
The team went on to win the National Championship in 1981,’82,’83,’84,’85 and ‘87.

In 1984 Bob Ernst took a leave of absence to prepare the Olympic VIII that won Gold in Los Angeles.

John coached the UW Varsity that won the National Championship!

After graduating from UW John coached the University of New Hampshire women’s varsity to great results and eventually was asked to Coach California Women’s team.

Since his time at Cal John has run a very successful business which featured skills he acquired as a Forester in Washington.

Rest in peace John.

#washingtonrowing #rowingu #womenofwashington #rowinghistory #rowing #huskylegend

https://www.instagram.com/washingtonrow ... zakB1LPe_/

From the Washington Rowing twitter account:

We mourn the passing of John Squadroni. Right side. Ernst’s asst coach in 1984. He took over, so Bob could focus on Olympics. Went on to win Natl. Champs under John’s leadership. He also asstd Natl. Champs in '81,82,83,84,85,87

#womenofwashington #rowingu #washingtonrowing

https://twitter.com/UW_Rowing/status/17 ... 7848775885

From the Washington Women's Rowing History page:

The 1981 National Champion JV8, the first 2V8 NC in the history of the program, left to right front row: Ellen Pottmeyer, Cindy Spranger, Sharon Ellzey, Penny Craig; back row: Monica Kronlof, Nancy Leppink, Karla Goodwin, Marisa Velling, and Sue Winters.
"The 1981 JV8 was special because a lot of us started out in the last boat," recalled Cindy (Spranger) McCormick. "We worked extremely hard with the help of our coach, John Squadroni. Part of that work was bonding through laughter... I remember looking forward to practice because we had so much fun together, even though we were working our butts off. We did the work and made it into the JV boat and showed what we were made of... the National Championship was so satisfying because our boat was so strong, and we had worked so hard to get that win.

(same photo as the Twitter post)
The 1984 Women's Varsity 8+ National Champions, left to right: Liz White, Kristi Stingl, Chris Campbell, Cherie Gawley, Liese Hendrie, Eleanor McElvaine, Sara Nevin, Gail Stewart (stroke), Jeannie Bucko, coxswain, and interim coach John Squadroni (Bob Ernst took a leave of absence in 1984 to coach the USA Women's National Team to Olympic Gold in Los Angeles). The National Championships were held at Greenlake in Seattle in 1984, the V8 taking the 1,000m race in 3:29.5, with Radcliffe (Harvard) a half length back in 3:31.10.

From the Cal Women's Rowing media guide:

From 1988-93 the Bears were led by John Squadroni, who twice took successful varsity crews to the National Collegiate Rowing Championships, finishing seventh in 1991 and fourth in 1993. In addition, Cal defeated Washington in both the varsity and junior varsity eights in 1990.

https://calberk_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/www.calbears.com/fls/30100/wcrew/08-cal-wcrew-mg.pdf

He was selected as one of the open women's coaches for the 1989 US Olympic Festival regatta held from July 28-30 at Lake Overholser.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/19 ... 608892007/