Meet the Coaches

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Joe Connelly - Head Coach for Dayton Boat Club

Cincinnati native Joe Connelly comes to Dayton Boat Club from perennial rowing powerhouse Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club. His top novice boys’ and girls’ crews went undefeated in spring sprint racing from 2000 to 2003, and in the late 1990s, when he was an assistant varsity coach, the team took first in several high-profile events of the prestigious Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. After serving as an US Marine from 2003-2012, Joe joined DBC in 2016 as the Head Novice Team Coach and transitioned to the Varsity Team in the spring 2018. Coaches Joe, Mitch, and Mike qualified 3 women's boats for 2018 USRowing Youth National Championships and the DBC women's open 4+ went on to win the bronze medal. In Dec 2018, Joe was chosen as a coach representing the Midwest by USRowing for the Youth Regional Challenge.


Ben Sobiech - Head Coach for Varsity Boys

Coach Ben grew up in Westerville, Ohio where he competed in wrestling for Westerville North High School and rowing for Westerville Rowing Club.  He rowed for four years for Westerville then continued his rowing career at Mercyhurst College for two years.  After Mercyhurst, Ben joined the Navy and went to boot camp.  Upon completion of boot camp, Ben coached rowing for Westerville Rowing Club and Denison University as well as coaching wrestling for Westerville North High School.  After a deployment with the Navy, Ben coached for two years at GDRA.  Ben joined the coaching staff of Dayton Boat Club in the fall of 2018.  He currently lives in Huber Heights with his wife Candi, stepson Tyler, and three dogs.  He works as a contractor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Mike Miles - Juniors Varsity Coach

Mike Miles served as head coach of the University of Dayton Crew since its inception in 1991, and continued in that same capacity as it moved to the varsity level in 1996. He retired from the UD in 2003, after leading the NCAA Division 1 crew to be one of the top non-scholarship programs in the country.

Miles was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2002 after guiding the Flyers varsity eight to a 2nd place finish at the A-10 Championships, finishing seconds behind the nationally-ranked UMass Minutemen, and ahead of the ranked GWU Varsity 8.  In the effort to develop rowing as a varsity sport at UD, Mike contacted the Atlantic 10 Rowing Coaches in 1996 to initiate the A-10 Rowing Championships.
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A two-time letterman as a rower at Cornell University, Mike is an engineer and executive with Booz Allen Hamilton.  He has coached two world champions, members of the US National Team (Bernadette Marten and Molly Bruggeman). He has coached at the USRowing Junior National Team Development Camp, and has coached approximately ten DBC crews that have medaled and/or finished in the Grand Finals at US National competitions.

​Mitch Vossler - Juniors Varsity Coach

Mitch rowed competitively in college for the University of Dayton from 2000-2004, and went on to coach the Flyers after graduation until 2012.  He was the UD Men's Head Coach, serving in that role from 2008-2012, and led the Flyers to the medal stand twice at the Dad Vail Regatta, the nation’s largest collegiate rowing competition.  Although he coached the DBC juniors in the summers prior to 2012, he has since moved into a leadership role with the junior program, focusing primarily on the varsity women and has coached a number of crews to the grand finals at Youth Nationals.  Mitch has also served as the U-23 coach for DBC, coaching the returning college rowers during the summer, and leading the Women’s 4 to a silver medal at the 2014 Club National Championships.  Coaches Mitch, Joe, and Mike qualified 3 women's boats for 2018 USRowing Youth National Championships and the DBC women's open 4+ went on to win the bronze medal.  Mitch is a Project Manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  ​


Gina Lucia - Novice Head Coach

While growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, Gina Lucia rowed for 5 years during her middle school and high school years at the Three Rivers Rowing Association, medaling at Midwest Junior Champs in the Women’s 8+.  During her senior year of high school, she then transitioned into coaching the novices at TRJR and now at DBC, both of which medaled at Midwest. She has since coached every level of rowing under the sun.  From learn-to-rows for 3rd-12th graders, to novice and varsity junior rowers, to college club teams, to adult corporate and competitive teams; she has seen it all. She primarily coaches novices because she loves working with the new rowers to build a solid foundation of athleticism with the right mentality and teaching them about the incredible sport of rowing! She has recently finished her degree in Physics and Education at the University of Dayton, where she served as a coach for the UD Men’s Novice team during her freshman year. Gina currently teaches high school physics in the Dayton area.  She loves to teach and coach kids not only academics and athletics, but also to teach them to develop their individual strengths.


Paolo Raimondi - Novice Coach

Paolo began rowing in 2007 as a freshman with the Central Catholic Rowing team in Pittsburgh, medaling in several SRAA Midwest and National championships. After high school, Paolo attended the University of Dayton School of Engineering and rowed for UD Men’s Freshman and Varsity Rowing for several semesters.
While participating in an engineering co-op program through UD, Paolo returned to Pittsburgh and joined the coaching staff at Central Catholic as an Assistant Varsity coach, as well as coached the UD Men’s Novice team upon returning senior year.
After graduation in 2016, Paolo became an engineer at Inteva Products, an automotive manufacturing supplier, living in Birmingham, AL and  Metro Detroit before returning to Dayton in 2020.

Katherine Ashton - Novice Coach

While she was born and raised in Texas playing lots of basketball, Katherine first started rowing in Annapolis, Maryland at the US Naval Academy, where she rowed for 4 years from 2010-2014. During her time there, the team won the Patriot League Championship in 2013 which allowed Navy to take their first ever trip to the NCAA Championships. She also had the great privilege of competing in the 4- at U23 Worlds in 2013 as apart of the National team.
In 2014, Katherine commissioned into the US Marine Corps and serves as a helicopter (CH-53E) pilot. Still on active duty, she is currently stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB attending the Air Force Institute of Technology working towards a graduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering. She loves having the opportunity to be apart of the rowing community here in Dayton and helps coach the juniors novice and varsity teams. 

Scott Braum - U14 Head Coach

Scott comes to the U14 staff as the parent of a former DBC rower who is now rowing in college, and he has spent a lifetime involved in every aspect of youth sports from athlete to parent to coach to booster to administrator.  While he has a passion for youth sports in general, he has seen firsthand the impact that rowing can have on a child’s life, whether he or she is a gifted natural athlete or a scrappy kid with a big heart who just won’t quit.  He believes that rowing offers each athlete an opportunity to learn things about themselves and others both on and off the water.  When his daughter came home from Learn To Row years ago, she told him she wanted to quit everything she was doing in order to row.  That, of course, sounded crazy.  Now, however, after several years, countless thousands of miles, who knows how many scorching, freezing, and storming races, and his own inglorious rowing career, he is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue the craziness by giving something back to the sport that has impacted his family in so many ways.         

Danny Raimondi - Masters Head Coach

Danny Raimondi joined DBC as the head coach of the masters (adult) team in February 2022. A Pittsburgh native, he rowed for Central Catholic High School before coming to the University of Dayton earn his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. He’s now working toward a master’s in additive manufacturing and design at Pennsylvania State University. In his coaching role, he focuses on developing all athletes to their fullest potential, cultivating a sense of community and building the team’s reputation as a strong competitor in regattas across the Midwest.

Jane Wittmann - Masters Novice Coach

Jane Wittmann is a founding member of the Dayton Boat Club and its masters rowing program. In addition to rowing on the competitive masters team, she teaches adult learn-to-row courses and coaches the novice/recreational team. A lifelong Daytonian, she has a degree from California State University, Long Beach. As a coach, she focuses on developing new rowers’ technique, strength, endurance, speed, confidence and muscle memory to prepare them for competition.