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John Slattery, who coached the Holy Spirit High School girls varsity eight to the Henley Women's Regatta championship in 2004, is now the boys crew coach at Atlantic City High School.

Slattery takes over a program that had The Press area's top boys varsity eight in the mid-1990s but has more recently been overshadowed by Holy Spirit, St. Augustine Prep and Mainland Regional.

"It's a great opportunity," said Slattery, who declined to give his age. "I'm looking forward to taking the program to the position where it was in the past. They've been to Henley, and they've been to other places, so we'll just take it back to where it used to be.

"I'm looking forward to teaching young men to not only be rowing winners, but teaching them life lessons so they can be great individuals."

Slattery started the girls crew program at Holy Spirit in 1983 but only coached one year. He returned as a girls assistant coach in 1997. He became the head girls coach in 2004 and the Spartans' varsity eight won the Peabody Cup, the high school championship, at Henley in England for the second year in a row.

Crew followers consider the Henley Regatta to be the world championship. He continued to coach the Holy Spirit girls team until 2008, when he joined the Spartans boys program as an assistant to Stan Bergman.

"We're looking forward to working with him," said Frank Campo, the Atlantic City athletic director. "I know he brings a lot to the sport and he has an excellent reputation. He resume was impressive. We received a lot of calls talking about his character and his abilty to enhance the crew program. That came from past rowers, community people and college coaches."

The Atlantic City boys crew program was coached by Pat Scherbin from 2003-2007, and then John Dattalo coached the team in 2008 and Steve Nagiewicz in 2009.

The program's most renowned coach is Bob Garbutt, who coached for 24 years, retiring after the 1996 season. Under Garbutt, the Vikings' varsity eight won the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Regatta in 1994 and 1996 and went to the Henley Royal Regatta both years. Sean Duffy is the girls crew coach at Atlantic City.

Contact Guy Gargan:

609-272-7210

ggargan@pressofac.com

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