"Having a conversation with him is a joke, he talks u listen. Everything is always a joke. Only time he shows emotion is for the most irrelevant situations. Losing a race has become normal, he doesn’t address it most of the time. It’s motivational to know ur coach is disappointed because he expects more of you, I don’t think he expects anything of us. Seems like he’s given up. "

"He has no intention of winning it’s all about completing the season. He’s not bringing that dog out of anyone."

"F*****g terrible, wasted our potential "

"Mike Irwin upholds our school’s jesuit values and a nice guy. That’s about all I can say that he carries as positive attributes to being a rowing coach. Mike is unable to take opinion or comprehend that he needs to work with his athletes to create a faster boat. It is his way or the highway. Mike went out of his way to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment without asking either a team member or one of our 2 captains. The equipment given was inefficient and did not mold well to the style of rowing we had adapted and it was clunky and cheaply made. And conveniently the foot stretcher and boat rigging would break in 2 of the 1V’s most important Dad Vail Races due to neglecting to break in new equipment weeks in advance and forcing a new boat and oars in the middle of our spring season. In addition our Lineup changes would not make sense and he would take those with better erg scores who could not row and jam them into the boat all season and give them every possible chance to get faster. UNTIL we got 1 week before our championship race in which he would swap them out with the clearly more technically proficient and better rower. The issue with this is that Mike REFUSED to coach the person he would take out every year and lets the athletes teach themselves. This was extremely was ineffective and wasted MULTIPLE careers over my years at Saint Joes. Mike has also refused to answer Alumni who have reached out with world class talent recruits who have gone on to attend schools like Stanford, Washington, and several other IRA A and B Finalist schools. I could go on and on over the several personal experiences I’ve had with Mike over the years but I’d have to sit down to write that Novel. That being said my experience at Saint Joes was that the athletes continued to fight our coach to improve our team and he continued to hold us back each and every day. I’m very fortunate for the athletes who helped me become the rower I ended up becoming. My head coach did not attribute to my success in my time at Saint Joes. I’m very fortunate that I was capable of taking time to watch film of other successful teams and integrate that technique and apply it to my own stroke. I would have loved to have watched more footage of myself rowing and know what I needed to change but Mike LOVED to not give film to his athletes because he, “didn’t want to let it get to our heads.” or “bully someone because they don’t row well.”. You’d think that as a coach you’d be able to sit down and show your rowers what they are doing and seek to improve their stroke but simply… that was not the case. Our fastest Ergs ended up being our Anchors each year, and the fitness they had would’ve been a major part to our success. But alas, the lack of coaching wasted years of talent and wasted everyone’s time. Thankfully I had awesome teammates every year and wouldn’t have wanted to row anywhere else! That being said, this guy HAS to go if this program ever wants to see any success. #THWND"