Meet the Coaches

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Joe Connelly - Head Coach for Dayton Boat Club and Women's Head Coach

Joe Connelly discovered rowing as a high school freshman after a very brief, failed attempt at a football career.  He found a home at the Cincinnati Juniors Rowing Club (CJRC) throughout high school and began coaching there as a freshman in college. During his time with CJRC, Joe coached both Novice Boys and Girls to numerous regional championships and served on the staff for Development Camps which won consecutive Royal Canadian Henleys.

Joe joined the Dayton Boat Club (DBC) in 2016 as the Head Novice Coach before transitioning to Girls Varsity Coach in 2018 and then DBC Head Coach in 2019. He has coached many girls’ crews to both regional championships and the grand finals at Youth Nationals. Recently, Joe has also served as a staff and assistant coach for several Youth Regional Challenges and a Selection Development Camp.

​Joe is a veteran who served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003 until 2012 and deployed twice to Iraq. He has traveled the world and held various instructor and team leadership roles while in the service. He currently lives in Dayton with his son and enjoys wrestling with small outboard motors. taking over gym classes to teach rowing, devising creative shell repairs, obsessing over weather and river conditions, and all the other little things rowing coaches do to keep their clubs afloat.

Joe is a USRowing Level 3 Certified Coach.


Ben Sobiech - Head Men's Coach

Coach Ben grew up in Westerville, Ohio where he competed in wrestling for Westerville North High School and rowing for Westerville Rowing Club.   After high school, Ben rowed for Mercyhurst College and joined the US Navy.  Following college, Ben moved home to Westerville and spent a couple of years coaching rowing for Westerville Crew and Denison University, and coaching wrestling for Westerville North.  After a deployment with the Navy, Ben moved to Dayton where he met his wife Candi, and restarted his coaching career at GDRA.  He joined the Dayton Boat Club coaching staff in the fall of 2018 and began coaching the DBC boys in the fall of 2020.  Ben and Candi live in Englewood with their three dogs, and Ben works as a contractor on Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Ben is a USRowing Level 2 Certified Coach.

Rachel McNutt - Women's Coach

Rachel started rowing in 7th grade in 2014 with DBC. She raced at Youth Nationals three times in her high school career. She stroked the varsity four in her sophomore and junior year, placing 4th in 2017 and 3rd in 2018 in the Grand Finals. Her senior year, she raced in the varsity eight as part of the first DBC eight to qualify for Youth Nats. After graduating from Beavercreek in 2019, Rachel was recruited by Duke University and continued her rowing career there while studying Mechanical Engineering. Her freshman season was cut short by COVID, but in her sophomore year she was stroke of the Duke 2V8+ that finished 3rd at ACCs and 13th at NCAAs. In her junior year, she raced in the 3V8+ that placed second at ACCs before having to medically retire in her senior year. Rachel returned to the Dayton area upon graduation in 2023 to work as a contractor for Wright Patt. She's very excited to get back out on the water and return to DBC to give back to the club that inspired a lifelong passion for the sport and provided so many opportunities. 

Rachel is a USRowing Level 1 Certified Coach.


Nate Kaval - Men's Coach

Nate grew up as a military brat and went from Florida, Maryland, Ohio, and Arizona, back to Ohio and began rowing in 2015 as a freshman in high school at GDRA. He attended Oakwood High School and graduated with the class of 2019. He primarily sculled in the quad and lightweight doubles events. In the summer of 2018 when GDRA Juniors disbanded he joined Dayton Boat Club. By the end of that summer starting his senior year he was asked to be a team captain. He went on to qualify for Nationals in the quad event in the spring of 2019. Nate focused more on his studies and graduated from Penn State in May of 2023. Wanting to give back to the club that welcomed him in with open arms and his joy for rowing, Nate joined the coaching staff of Dayton Boat Club in the Fall of 2023. He resides in Oakwood and works as a software engineer for a defense contractor in Beavercreek.

Nate is a USRowing Level 1 Certified Coach.

Trish Miles - DBC Co-Founder and Men's Coach

Trish Miles brings more than 30 years of rowing and coaching experience at the junior, college, and masters levels to Dayton Boat Club

She and her husband Mike Miles started the UD rowing program in 1991 and were instrumental in starting the Atlantic 10 Championships in the sport. Trish and Mike also co-founded Dayton Boat Club in 2003

Miles has won multiple medals in lightweight events at club and elite National championships. In 1999 she was a finalist for the U.S Trials of the World Championships. That same season, Miles was the national champion in the lightweight single (club) and the lightweight double (elite). She also won the master’s single division at the Head of the Charles, and has medaled multiple times in the lightweight and masters single events there.  In 1999 she was 3rd at the C.R.A.S.H. - B's World Indoor Rowing Championships. 
 
From 2004-06 she was the masters/adult women’s coach for Dayton Boat Club, and from 2006-20 she was the high school rowing coach for the novice boys, novice girls, and varsity boys. She coached the novice boys 4+ and novice girls 8+ to medals at the Midwest Championships.

​Most recently she was the novice women's coach at the University of Dayton from 2021 -2024, where she coached crews that competed against varsity crews and finished fourth at the A-10 Championships in the varsity events.

​Trish is a USRowing Level 1 Certified Coach.

Spencer Mullins - Men's Coach

Spencer began rowing in 2012 as an 8th grader at GDRA. He sculled through high school at GDRA while attending Chaminade Julienne and  qualified for youth nationals 3 times in the lightweight double, winning the event at Midwest in 2016 and helping GDRA secure the boy’s sculling team points trophy that year. Spencer continued his rowing career at Purdue University for their club team for 2 years before retiring from competitive rowing to focus on his studies. Spencer joined DBC as a coach in the late winter of 2023. 
Spencer resides in Dayton and works as a test engineer for Leonardo DRS in Beavercreek and focuses on testing and troubleshooting EW systems and Naval Link-11/22 radio modems.

Spencer is a USRowing Level 2 Certified Coach.

Scott Braum - Women's Coach

Scott comes to the DBC staff as the parent of a former DBC rower who has graduated from college and is now coaching in Ann Arbor.  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.     

Scott is a USRowing Level 1 Certified Coach.   

Sara Bauersfeld - Women's Coach

Danny Raimondi - Masters Head Coach

Danny Raimondi joined DBC as the masters head coach in February 2022. A Pittsburgh native, he rowed for Central Catholic High School and Three Rivers Rowing Association, where he took second in the USRowing Youth Nationals Men's 8. He earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton and a master's in additive manufacturing and design from Penn State and is a civilian employee at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
As a coach, Raimondi is focused on fully realizing the potential of adult athletes of all ages, cultivating a supportive team environment, and building the team's reputation as a competitive force across the Midwest and beyond. In 2023, the Masters qualified for their first national final in the women's 4+ event.

Kyle Kallmeyer - Masters Novice Coach

Kyle Kallmeyer joined the coaching staff in 2023. He teaches the masters team's learn-to-row classes and coaches novice practices. He also rows on the masters team.