Biography:

Head Coach Sean Thomas started coaching with Stone Bridge Rowing Club in 2016 as an assistant coach. As the parent of one of the athletes, he stepped up and helped out with coaching whenever necessary. He learned the sport and has a love for coaching. When the need for a Head Coach arose in the summer of 2018, he jumped at the opportunity to begin serving as Head Coach.

Coach Thomas has a genuine love for the sport of Rowing and for mentoring young people. It is important to him that he not only helps shape the rowers into the best athletes that they can be, but that he also helps them become the best students and people that they can be.

Biography:

Coach Kittelson was introduced to the sport of rowing in 2018 as a parent helping out coach McCormick. This time renewed his interest in returning to coaching and when the need for an assistant coach arose in the spring of 2019 he was open to the challenge. Watching the success of the JV 4 women last year at states and nationals motivated him to complete the Level 1 and Level 2 US Rowing Coaches certification. Coach Kittelson has 10+ years of experience coaching high school sports in Northern Virginia. He is excited about the upcoming season and looks forward to sharing in the athlete’s success again this year.  

Biography:

Coach Kate Copeland began rowing in Spring of 2011 for Stone Bridge High School. She was part of the very first group of rowers to row all 4 years of high school. After graduating from Stone Bridge in 2015, she went onto continue her collegiate rowing career at Virginia Commonwealth University. She represented VCU at many well-known regattas such as Head of the Charles and ACRA. During her senior year she was elected as Women's Team Captain and awarded Women's Team MVP by the women's coaching staff. In May of 2019, she received her Bachelors degree in Public Relations with a minor in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. 

After graduating college, she is excited to be continuing her rowing career as a coach for her former high school. She wants to encourage teamwork and camaraderie in her rowers both on and off the water. That is what she believes it takes to not only win medals, but to maintain the love of the sport and have fun. Kate became SB Rowing's Assistant Head Coach in Summer 2021.

Biography:

James Zeller grew up on Long Island where, during his high school years in the late 1970s to early 1980s, rowing generally did not exist. So he was introduced to the sport relatively late.

He played football in high school, and continued with it for his freshman year at Marietta College in southeast Ohio. After the season was finished, one of his football teammates suggested crew as a means to keep fit and try something new. With only a vague impression of long, skinny rowboats, he agreed.

First there was the terror of being placed in a four man shell in a swift-flowing river on a cold, windy day in mid November after about fifteen minutes on the rowing machine. Then there was the intimidation with the growing realization that rowing is one of the most physically demanding sports there is. These were gradually replaced with a growing respect for the sport, then pride in overcoming one after another physical or technical challenge. There also developed pride in taking on, and beating, teams from colleges and universities much larger than Marietta College.

But most important were two things: First was the intense satisfaction and joy that was experienced when the crew truly "swung", where the crew was completely synchronized, the rowing became almost effortless, and the boat would literally lift higher in the water. Second was the degree of camaraderie developed among a crew that is above and beyond what is developed by any other team sport.

Coach Zeller medaled in several regattas during his college career, including the West Virginia Governor's Cup, the Head of the Muskingum, the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships (SIRA), the Mid American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships (MACRA), and the Philadelphia Frostbite Regatta. However, his most memorable race was missing the medals stand by less than a half second at the Dad Vail regatta in a "Cinderella Story" JV8. He was co-captain of the Marietta College men's crew and winner of the "Hammer Award" for best erg score in his senior year of 1986.

Other than a brief period in the early 1990s, when he rowed recreationally with some co-workers, crew fell out of his life. Then, one day in 2006, he was cold-called by Kevin Suter, former classmate and teammate, informed that he and his family were relocating to Ashburn, and demanded to know where there was a place to row. This lead to a rekindling of rowing, first for fitness, then for competition at the Master's level; racing in singles, pairs, doubles and fours. As a Master, he has medaled at the Mid-Atlantic Erg Sprints, the Occoquan Masters Sprints and the Capital Sprints. He worked with Kevin to help get the rowing program for Briar Woods HS off the ground in 2011, and again with Stone Bridge HS since 2012. He is also serving as Secretary for the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association (VASRA).

Coach Zeller has lived in Ashburn Farm since 1990 with his wife Sharon, fellow college classmate and coxswain for the Marietta College women's crew, and their children Richard and Margaret. When he isn't doing something rowing related, he develops highway improvement projects for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Sharon teaches 2nd grade at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Ashburn.