Juniors Coaching Staff
Roger Huffman
Executive Director, Head Coach
rhuffman51@gmail.com - - (714) 661-6172
Roger has been the Head Girl’s Coach at The Milwaukee Rowing Club since August of 2012. Highlights of his MRC tenure include seeing the girls make their first ever USRowing Youth National Championship appearances in the Women’s 8+ (15th in 2013), the Women’s Lwt 4+ (13th in 2014), and the Women's 4+ (15th in 2015). The girls again qualified the Youth Women’s 4+ in 2019 (15th place). Since returning from the Covid lockdown, the girls program has competed at Youth Nationals in the Youth Women’s 8+ in 2021, 2022, 2023 (12th place) and 2024 (16th place), the Youth Women’s 2V8+ in 2023 and 2024 (13th place), and the Youth Womens U17 4+ in 2021 (4th), 2022, and 2023. He was named the Program Director in March of 2014.
Roger began his coaching career in 2010 at the University of Wisconsin. In the spring of 2011 he coached the Men's Second Freshmen Eight to a gold medal at the Eastern Sprints. In the academic year of 2011-2012, Roger served as an assistant coach for the Men's Heavyweight program at Princeton University. In Princeton, he assisted with Princeton University High Performance Camps, Carnegie Lake Rowing Association Masters team, and contributed to the success of the Men’s Varsity program. Prior to joining the MRC staff in 2012, Roger also assisted with the USRowing Men's Development Camp in Madison, WI.
Roger began his rowing career in the fall of 2006 as a freshman at Orange Coast College. In his two years at Coast, he won the Men's Varsity 8+ at the San Diego Crew Classic and won two consecutive gold medals at the WIRA (Conference) Championships. Roger then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for his junior and senior year. In 2009 he earned a silver medal at the Eastern Sprints in the Second Varsity Eight, and in 2010 he rowed in the Varsity Eight which placed 4th at the Eastern Sprints. He also earned medals at Club Nationals and Canadian Henley in 2009, highlighted by a gold medal in the Senior 8+ at Canadian Henley.
Roger lives in Shorewood with his wife, Colleen, and dog, Tucker.
Dan Graham
Director of STEM to Stern, Head Middle School Coach, Assistant Coach
dangraham@mkejuniors.org — (608) 320-4004
Bio coming soon!
John Creighton
Assistant Coach/Girls Coach
John started helping coach the high school girls crews in the fall of 2019
He learned to row as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. He was a 3 year letterman at Penn and selected to the US National team sweep camps in 1981 & 1982. While attending graduate school at Bucknell in 1983-85, he helped start their rowing club and became their first coach. John has been an active member of the MRC since 1987 and raced in numerous regattas including Henley Royal Regatta, Canadian Henley, US National team trials, US Masters Nationals and at least 30 Head of the Charles regattas.
He has 3 daughters and his middle daughter, Meredith, was in Roger’s first women’s 8+ that finished 13th at Youth Nationals in 2013. John works in corporate real estate for CBRE.
Grace D’Souza
Assistant Boys Coach
Grace has been an Assistant Boy’s Coach at the Milwaukee Rowing Club since August 2021. Her experience in rowing ranges from the Milwaukee Rowing Club to the US National Team. As a junior athlete, Grace rowed for the Milwaukee Rowing Club from July 2013 through July 2017. During her time as an athlete at MRC, Grace competed at The Head of the Charles, the San Diego Crew Classic, and most notably, Youth National Championships in the Lightweight 4+. Additionally, Grace served as the team captain during her senior year. In addition to rowing, Grace also competed on the Whitefish Bay Varsity Tennis and Ski Racing teams.
Grace was recruited to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Women’s Lightweight Team where she began her collegiate career as a Division I Athlete. Her notable Collegiate racing experience includes: The Head the Charles, The Head of the Hooch, San Diego Crew Classic, The Knecht Cup, Eastern Sprints, and the IRA. While on the team, Grace set the standing Freshman and All-Time 2000m records for the lightweight team. In addition, Grace served as the Lightweight Team Captain during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons.
During her summers, Grace trained with High Performance groups around the country and competed for the US National Team in 2021 in the Lightweight Womens 4x. In 2018, Grace rowed at Vesper Rowing Club in Philadelphia, competing in US Time Trials (2nd in the LW 1x), Club Nationals, and Canadian Henley. In 2019, Grace was selected for the U23 US National Team Camp in Boston, MA, and again competed at US Time Trials (2nd in the LW 1x). In 2020, after being selected for the U23 US National Team Camp again, which was interrupted by COVID-19, she continued to train virtually with the team. Finally, in 2021, Grace trained at Mission Rowing in Santa Barbara, CA, where she qualified the U23 Lightweight 4x at US Time Trials. Later that summer, she placed 3rd in the LW 4x at U23 World Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.
Grace began Law School in Fall 2021 at Marquette University. In addition to Law school and coaching the Boy’s Team, Grace continues to train for Senior level competitions. At the 2021 Head of the Charles, Grace placed 3rd in the Lightweight Women’s Single. She hopes to continue to compete at a high level and educate the younger athletes on opportunities at a national level.
Danika Holbrook
Assistant Coach/Girls Coach
Bio coming soon…
Rylah Kluck
Assistant Coach/Girls Coach
Bio coming soon…
Micah Whitefeather
Assistant Coach/Boys Coach
Bio coming soon…
Sandy Williams
Assistant Coach/Boys Coach
Sandy has been an assistant coach with the Varsity Boys program since 2014. His rowing experience goes back nearly to the dark ages, having rowed in the 1960s at Harvard College under the watchful eye of coaching legend Harry Parker.
A lifelong resident of Milwaukee, after graduating from Harvard and then Columbia Law and Business schools, he returned to the city to practice corporate law and raise a family of four boys and numerous dogs. Retirement in 2012 led to a brief flirtation with coaching high school football and then a recommitment of his passion for coaching to the sport of rowing, which had become so important to him in college.