Jaime Velez

Director of Rowing & Varsity Women's Head Coach

A California native, Jaime is the Director of Rowing at Los Gatos Rowing Club.

Jaime began his rowing career at Dartmouth College and was a member of the Varsity Heavyweight Crew. While at Dartmouth, he earned the Marshall A. Robinson Award for most improved rower and 2nd team All Ivy in his 3rd year. Upon graduation, he moved to Philadelphia where he rowed and coached at the famed Vesper Boat Club. He represented Vesper Boat Club at the 2008 Olympic trials in pairs racing.

Email: jaime@lgrc.org

Phone: 408-375-8681

Ava Klash

Ava is a third-year Communication and Philosophy double major at Santa Clara University. She rowed for six years throughout middle and high school for Rose City Rowing Club in Portland, OR. Currently, Ava is a member of the Division I Women’s Crew Team at SCU and has been for the past two years. She stroked a Novice 4+ and won Silver in a Novice 8+ at WIRAs her freshman year of college and during high school competed at regattas up and down the West Coast, including the Brentwood Regatta in Canada and the San Diego Fall Classic.

Email: ava@lgrc.org

TJ LaScola

Novice Men's Head Coach

TJ rowed three years in high school, starting sophomore year at LGRC. He attended the University of Alabama where he walked onto the men’s rowing club team. During his time at Alabama, TJ won gold in his novice 4 and silver in his novice 8. TJ left the University of Alabama after the fall semester of 2017 and started coaching at LGRC in the spring of 2018.

Email: tj@lgrc.org

Morgan Jackson

Morgan started rowing as a walk-on at Santa Clara University. She was apart of the All-WCC team her senior year and transferred to Oregon State University to continue her collegiate rowing career. She has goals of helping diversify and increase access the sport of rowing.

Email: morgan@lgrc.org

Channing Walker

Varsity Men's Head Coach

Email: Channing@lgrc.org

Ian Fitzcharles

Novice Women's Coach

Email: ian@lgrc.org

Ryan Morgan

Middle School Coach

Ryan is a coach for the LGRC middle school program. He began rowing for LGRC in 2017 and rowed varsity 2018 - 2020. Ryan has been coaching since 2022 and works with both beginner and advanced middle school rowers. Ryan has a passion for rowing and coaching.

Email: ryan.e.morgan@icloud.com

Trinity Billingslea

Varsity Women's Assistant Coach

Trinity started her rowing career as a walk-on at Santa Clara University (SCU). During her junior year, she broke both the 2k and 6k records at SCU. Additionally, during the summer of 2020 she was a part of the U23 National Team. Soon after, in 2021, she transferred to the University of Washington where she competed in the 2V. After graduating from the University of Washington in 2022, she moved back to the Bay Area and has been working for the Los Gatos Rowing Club as the Varsity Women’s Assistant Coach.

Email: trinity@lgrc.org

Elysia Smyers

Elysia was a coxswain for 4 years at Los Gatos Rowing Club before being recruited to Stanford University, where she coxed for two years on the women’s team and two years on the men’s team. During her time at Stanford, she contributed to the women’s team placing second at NCAA Championships in 2021 and was the coxswain of the men’s varsity 8+ her sophomore, junior, and senior year. She coxed the men’s varsity 8+ to a 5th place finish at the IRA National Championships in 2021, which was the team’s highest ranking in more than 10 years. She completed her undergraduate degree in Symbolic Systems in Winter 2023 and is now pursuing a masters in Computer Science at Stanford.