Head Coach Scott Armstrong
Scott Armstrong enters his 3rd year leading the Minnesota Men’s Crew. The 2024 season showed that Minnesota had arrived as one of the top programs in the country. The varsity eight defeated Notre Dame, Michigan, Rutgers and George Washington in April racing, and was ranked as high as 3rd in the country. A collision in the warmup area at the ACRA National Championship injured two oarsmen, yet they still placed 8th overall. With two strong novice classes in 2023 and 2024, Minnesota will be contending for medals in the near future. Armstrong was named Plains Region Coach of the Year and has been elected Treasurer of the ACRA board.
Scott returns to the Midwest and college coaching, bringing over 20 years of coaching experience. He was grabbed out of the freshman registration line at Brown University by the freshman coach and convinced to try rowing. It was a good thing that coach was so persistent, as Scott ended up winning championships in the Brown varsity, including the Eastern Sprints, IRAs and the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Scott brings the same persistence to the rowers at Minnesota.
When civil engineering seemed a dull career after college, Scott took the job as freshman coach at Dartmouth College. Four years later, he was coaching the varsity to their first Eastern Sprints and IRA championships. Over the next 14 years, Dartmouth heavyweight crews were consistently top 10 in the country, winning more medals and a victory at the Henley Royal Regatta. He was named EARC Coach of the Year two times.
Scott stepped away from college coaching in 2005 to move to northern Wisconsin to raise his 4 children. When his last kid went off to college, Scott got back into coaching as the masters coach at Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport, CT. He led the team through the pandemic and won the women's points trophy at the 2022 US Masters National Championships.
To reach out directly, email scott@coacharmstrong.com
Novice Coach Steve Whicher
Steve’s first year as novice coach was a smashing success, with his top eight finishing 4th at the ACRA National Championships, just 0.25 seconds from a bronze medal. His lightweight novice four won the bronze. Steve combines outstanding technical and physiological knowledge to train a team of walk-ons to race at the highest level in one year.
Steve has been involved in the competitive sport of rowing since being a high-school freshman in St. Catherines, Canada. During the 1980s Steve competed with the Thunder Bay Rowing Club, University of Victoria, and Ridley Grad Boat Club. Competitive highlights include winning the Men’s Single, Dash Single, and Cox 4 at the Canadian Club Championship. Steve was a perennial winner of the Men’s Sculling events at the Northwestern International Regatta. Canadian Henley victories include the Men’s Double and Men’s Quad. As a Master’s rower Steve found success again competing for the Minneapolis Rowing Club.
Steve has coached since 1990 in the Twin Cities - at the Minnesota Boat Club (MBC), Minneapolis Rowing Club, and at St. Thomas University. Last summer he returned to MBC as a competitive program coach. Over the years, under his supervision, crews and athletes have won medals at the NWIRA, US Club Nationals, Canadian Henley, US Olympic Festival, Head of the Charles, and at the Dad Vail regatta. An undergraduate degree in Physical Education, and a PhD in Exercise Science provides a strong foundation to help guide young rowers to achieve their highest potential.
Steve is excited to be joining the University of Minnesota as their new Freshman/Novice Coach and looks forward to building a strong freshman rowing foundation that can help expand the University of Minnesota’s Men’s Crew’s winning tradition/
Assistant Coach Martin Hyndman
Martin Hyndman coached the Novice Four that won the National Championship last spring 2023. Two of the oarsmen had never rowed before arriving at Minnesota. Martin will assist both the varsity and novice teams for the 2023-24 season.
Originally from the UK he started coaching 'Bumps' crews during Oxford University Eights Week (Oriel and Wadham colleges) but after completing a British Rowing Coaching Program subsequently focused on 2,000m multi-lane racing.
Hyndman is a graduate from Nottingham Trent University and spent four seasons with the Great Britain Lightweight team under GBR Olympic Head Coach, Mark Lees.
He moved to Minnesota in 2001 and founded the Cimarron Rowing Club (Lake Elmo), coaching Junior and Masters scullers. As a Master's athlete he competes in the single scull, at events such as the World Masters Games, Head of the Charles and the Silver Skiff.
After a rewarding career with Thomson Reuters he now feels the time is right to give something back to the sport and use the benefit of 40+ years as an athlete/coach to pass on what he has learned.