Coaching Staff Set for 2023

Fifth-year head coach Luke McGee has his coaching staff in place for the 2023 season after a promotion and two new hires. Claire Ochal is now Syracuse's associate head coach and director of recruiting, and Michael Siravo and Chris Kerber are assistant coaches. A three-year veteran assistant coach on the Orange staff, Ochal added the responsibility of recruiting coordinator prior to the 2021-22 season. Volunteer assistant coach Steve Sawyer will continue his role with the program, assisting with the third and fourth varsity eights and working with the coxswains.

"The strength of the coaching staff is our communication and the way we get along," McGee said. "We share great ideas and we listen and learn from each other. We have flexibility within the staff to move as we see fit depending on the needs of the boats and the student-athletes."

Ochal works with the varsity eight and second varsity eight with McGee and directs the recruiting operations for the program. During her Syracuse tenure, the Orange have earned NCAA Championship invitations 2021 and 2022. A three-year captain who was the stroke for the varsity eight at Boston University (2012), Ochal has served as the U23 women's head coach at PNRA/Mercer, at Temple University and for the nationally acclaimed Long Beach Junior Crew.

Siravo, who is responsible for coaching the fours, joined the staff in October 2022 after a summer stint with US Rowing where he was an operations assistant and a High Performance Camp coach. In these roles, he assisted in administrative aspects of managing the boathouse, as well as coaching the U23 and U18 High Performance rowing teams. Prior to his stint with US Rowing, Siravo was the program director and head coach at the University of Illinois Rowing Club where he managed a team of more than 70 athletes, developed and ran the men's and women's varsity and novice programs, and managed all logistics of equipment and travel. Under his guidance as the program director and head coach from 2020-22, the Illini had three American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) All Americans, 12 all-academics, three ACRA medals and multiple wins for both the men's and women's squads.

Siravo has more than 10 years of experience at every level of the sport, coaching and mentoring athletes from the junior to senior levels in the United Kingdom, including the Team Keane Sculling School, the Molesey Boat Club, Thames Rowing Club, the London Oratory School, Auriol Kensington Rowing Club, Tideway Scullers School, and the Barn Elms Boat Club. In addition, he supported the Great Britain Paralympic team with their spare pair in 2016 after coaching a junior athlete to make the senior team. The athletes he coached won medals at regional, national, and international levels.

He earned a degree in physical education at the London Oratory School in 2015, an extended diploma in sports and exercise science from Kingston College in 2017. In 2020 he earned degrees in sports and exercise science and sports management from St. Mary's University, where he also served as a full-time coach. He also has certifications in rowing coaching, exercise physiology and strength and conditioning.

An experienced collegiate rowing coach, Kerber came to Syracuse in January 2023. He is responsible for coaching the third and fourth varsity eights. He had served as the Henry E. Bartels '48 Head Coach of Men's Lightweight Rowing at Cornell University from 2008 to 2021, where he was the winningest coach in Cornell men's lightweight crew history. In 14 seasons at the helm, Kerber led the lightweight varsity eight to an impressive record of 55-22, including four undefeated campaigns (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019). During a stretch from May 4, 2013 to April 16, 2016, the Big Red won 17 consecutive head-to-head races. Under Kerber's direction Cornell lightweight won four IRA Regattas (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019), three Eastern Sprints crowns (2014, 2015, 2017), and three Ivy League Championships (2014, 2015, 2017). He led the Big Red lightweight squad to back-to-back Jope Cups, awarded to the school that wins the most lightweight points at the Eastern Sprints, for the first time in more than 50 years. In total, the lightweight rowing program earned 37 Sprints medals, having at least two crews reach the podium in nine of Kerber's 14 seasons, and won 11 medals at IRAs in those same nine seasons.

A four-time IRA Coach of the Year (2014, 15, 17, 19), Kerber also is a three-time EARC Lightweight Coach of the Year (2014, 15, 17) and two-time Ivy League Lightweight Coach of the Year (2015, 17). He also was the assistant coach for the U.S.A. Under-23 National Team in 2016 and Senior USA team coach in 2018.

Kerber rowed nationally and internationally for 14 years, including making the U.S. national team seven times. He was a two-time World Champion and medaled at the Henley Royal Regatta, the Pan-American Games, and the U.S. National Championships. He placed among the top six lightweight men for both the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Games, serving as an alternate for both teams. As an undergraduate at Temple University, Kerber earned four medals at the Dad Vail Regatta.

Since retiring as a competitive athlete in 2000, Kerber has given back to rowing as a coach and administrator. He has developed training plans for university, club, and masters rowing teams, he helped run the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta for four years, and he served as a venue consultant for FISA (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aviron), the governing body of the sport of rowing.

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Syracuse University Athletics

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