"Eric has always been a coach that has chosen favorites and I think he's gotten worse about hiding it over the years. As someone who was recruited by him, I was equally as excited as he was about the new experiences and opportunities for growth as he seemed to be coming to UMass. After the first year though, his intentions became more clear. Emphasizing his excitement for the incoming classes have served as a scapegoat for him for the past three years of stagnant conference performance (4th in 2021, 2022, and 2023). He has tried to move past these years of failure by excitedly looking forward to the classes ahead, and in the process ignores the hard work and adversities that the classes he did not recruit have put in. This continues now even with the athletes that he recruited himself, continuing his trend of hypocrisy and lying. As a previous rower, it breaks my heart to watch over and over again as freshmen who are so excited to row well and improve have their dreams and potential ruined by a coach who chooses his favorite athletes not based on how well they move a boat, but by how much they go and talk to him in the office and "build a relationship." While I agree it is important for coaches to have a relationship with their athletes, it starts with how much of a safe, trustworthy, and reliable space a coach provides to there athletes, and Eric provides no such thing. Additionally, after years of being coached by him, my confidence in him as a coach on a technical and athletic level has diminished. Every year, he has switched the type of rowing stroke that he considers the "UMass stroke" around winter time, and then switches back in the fall at the beginning of the next year. By doing this, he creates different strokes within boats and tension between athletes because no one adjusts quickly enough to his drastic changes (ex: pause at the finish changed to fast hands around the back end last year and the year before). There is also tension created between the athletes because of his selection processes. Eric's favorites are put in the top boat, coxswain or rower. They are certainly fast because there is not a lack of speed on the team, but the way in which he selects the top boat inflates the heads of the athletes that he choses and belittles the dedication of all those placed (not ranked-placed) below the 1st Varsity 8+. Eric also has a tendency to inflate egos by making lineups that are requested to him by his favorites, collaborating with them over the training plans, and considering their opinions in selection processes; all things that athletes should essentially have no say in. Overall, Eric is an indecisive man with a love for drama among his teams and I would not recommend him as a coach to any young athletes or any programs looking for a coach."

"he’s an amazing coach that works his hardest to promote team culture and develop the athletes as people"

"He is a great coach, very easy to talk to and accommodating. Very transparent and is willing to have a conversation with anyone if something is unclear. I have never had a single issue with him or his style of coaching. "

"Eric has created a team continuously building for the future and an environment where we all love practices and pushing each other to be better. I completely disagree with some of the other comments but I think it’s because he was still so new in this role and had to set a foundation for the future. Eric is someone who is willing to work with anyone, you just have to go in and ask. He took a lot of our feedback last semester and implemented it into the training plan this year. And the difference is already so noticeable. A level of buy in is necessary for any team and I honestly believe that the negative comments have come from people who didn’t even try to put any trust in the training plan or in the coaches. He is genuinely one of the only coaches in the game who works and has such a close relationships with many of his athletes and genuinely cares about them."

"in my personal experience he uplifts athletes and has created an amazing team culture at umass"

"Definitely the best coach I’ve ever worked with "

"A pleasure to work with!! "

"May come off as a nice guy, but he has no idea how to build a team environment. He is dishonest and combative when athletes bring up real concerns and issues. He wants to be a part of the popular cliques on the team and will overlook bullying of team members. He does not care about mental health, and anything he says when recruiting that may contradict that statement is completely performative. He is only focused on “building” the team with all international girls, big talk about our future as a program but really no action. I would have to guess any of these positive comments on this page came from his favorites athletes - if you don’t fall into that category (which is not based on performance, either), consider your career and all momentum shut down. He also has absolutely no respect for the extreme hard work of our walk-on athletes, anything he says about eventually granting scholarships to walk-ons is a lie. It doesn’t happen. I am also not sure if he knows what he is talking about concerning rowing coaching specifically. His corrections are often confusing and contradictory, and the way he decides upon lineups (at the last minute as well) is nonsensical and not based on numbers or performance. Overall, don’t come here no matter how much he pushes for it or what you see from athletes on officials, unless you want to leave hating the sport of rowing just like me- the team is slow and super fake and unhealthy socially. He lied to me and he will lie to you. I hope you see this if you are considering rowing under him, and that you run the other way. Really, I have no other motive in saying this than to help avoid you having to go through something even remotely similar to what I did. "

"He meant well but was always a little confusing"

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"Eric was my coach for 3 years at GW. He fostered an amazing sense of family and was fair in most of his decisions. He truly cared about his athletes off the water which was super refreshing. "

"Huge on family atmosphere, has a ton of experience, expects a lot from his athletes, wants the best for his athletes in every aspect of their lives"

"Freshman year was rough to say the least. My teammates are what kept me on the team. "

"He totally sold me (and plenty of othere athletes) during my recruiting process and during my freshman year I thought he was amazing until half way through my freshman year. I even ignored advice from older players on the team at first, but then came to realize everything they said was 100% true. Stay away and don't fall for his sales pitches, promises, and overall BS"

"I honestly think some of the positive reviews on here are fake, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't write anything. Eric comes across nice when you meet him, but it's a bait and switch. Once you're on his team, he will be manipulative and at times emotionally abusive. Because of him, I wish I never rowed"

"During recruiting, Eric is such a nice guy. Freshmen year was fine, but it went downhill from there. The team got worse each year, loads of drama, and practices were easier than high school teams. By the end, there was so much team fighting led by Eric that I couldn't wait to graduate. If I could do over, I would stay away from Eric (though GW was great)."

"Eric is a nice guy. Once you get to know him, though, he's like a used car salesmen. I think he truly believes in his "product" but ultimately he's pretty shady. Also, this program is basically walk-ons only. He can't take decent high schoolers and make them fast. So if you are competitive and want to win, go somewhere else. GW has one of the worst rowing programs in the country and I wish I would have rowed somewhere else"

"I don't deny that some girls really like Eric. I did too my freshmen year--I went in optimistic and ready to win A10's. Unfortunately over time, if you disagree with anything Eric/the team does or he doesn't adopt you as a favorite (which is not based on performance) then you are screwed the rest of your career. It's true he kicked off some of my teammates and lied about what happened (saying they quit). It ended up being toxic and I really resent the time I spent on his team even."

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"Lacks experience & cannot relate to the recruiting process or a high level of training. He lies to you - what races we'd attend, how fast he could make you, the team's realistic goals, training plan difficulty. Drama queen. Emotionally abusive. If you want to hate rowing & not go fast, he's your guy. He cannot make a fast girl faster. HS coach & training was better. GW has the talent but he gets in the way"

"Multiple rowers on the team during my time voiced frustration with the recruiting process, having been lied to about 5k and 2k times of the team, races we would be attending and the overall quality of training sessions. Practices are unorganized and there is no real direction of training (I cannot think of any time where we did more than 15 minutes of steady state). Not to mention that Eric kicked off multiple team members due to differences in opinion, including taking away scholarships."

"Eric creates a family like atmosphere within the team on GW women's rowing team which leaves everyone on the team wanting to improve not only for themselves but also for the better of the team, which is all you could ask for in a D1 program like GW. Eric keeps it difficult and keeps it legit while also keeping his relationship with his athletes light and comical- making him more approachable and understandable. A perfect mix."

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