J. D. Bridges is the coach and founder of PSC. He is currently the varsity boys coach at the Shipley School outside of Philadelphia and has coached primarily in the Philadelphia region for the past 10 years. Athletes who have sculled for him in the summer have won multiple medals at the Independence Day Regatta, USRowing Club Nationals, the Philadelphia Youth Regatta, and Canadian Henley; including the 2010 Junior 4x Club National Championships and the Junior 2x Club National and Henley Championships in 2008.

Coach Bridges received his B.A. from Haverford College where he rowed for Margaret Gordon on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia and his M.Ed. from Temple University in Sport and Exercise Psychology, where his Masters Project was the design of a development camp for high school male scullers. He is currently in law school in Philadelphia in addition to working at Shipley. He previously taught middle and high school outside of Philadelphia, as well as weight training to undergraduates at Temple while in graduate school. He also has the highest level of rowing coaching certification offered in the U.S.

Coaching Staff Summer 2012

If you are an experienced coach looking to be part of a program like PSC, or a college student or recent graduate who is looking to break into coaching, contact the director about coaching for PSC in summer 2012. College athletes who may want to both coach and train are also encouraged to get in touch.

Summer and scholastic-season athletes who have rowed for Coach Bridges have gotten official visits from and/or are rowing at the following schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Washington, Wisconsin, United States Naval Academy, Trinity, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Syracuse, Boston University, MIT, Williams, George Washington, University of Pennsylvania, Holy Cross, Temple, St. Josephs, Delaware, Virginia, Bucknell, Bates, Colby, and Lehigh, among others.