Brendan Cunningham - Assistant Crew Coach - Men's Rowing Coaches

Brendan Cunningham

Title:
Assistant Crew Coach
Email:
bpc55@drexel.edu
Phone:
215-571-3238

Brendan Cunningham is in his fifth season in 2022-23 as an assistant rowing coach after joining Drexel Rowing in August 2018. Cunningham also coordinates recruiting for the men’s team.

He helped to a banner year in 2021-22, winning every major Philadelphia region cup, capped by sweeping the V8+, 2V8+, and 3V8+ at the Dad Vail Regatta to claim both the men’s points title for the first time since 2015 and the overall points title for the first time since 2018. Drexel also won the Murphy Cup, Kerr Cup, and Bergen Cup. The Dragons performed well on the national stage as well, tying their best finish ever at the IRA Nationals and placing second out of 39 boats at the Head of the Charles Regatta where DU was one of only three boats to finish the race in under 15 minutes, rowing in Lois Krall II.

2021 saw the Dragons win two gold medals at the Dad Vail Regatta and the men have their best ever finish at IRA Nationals, coming in 11th overall.

In his first season at Drexel, the men claimed the men’s points title at the Dad Vail Regatta, finished runner-up at the Kerr Cup, earned a varsity eight win at the Murphy Cup and qualified for the IRA National Championships as a team.

Prior to Drexel, Cunningham spent four seasons as an assistant coach of the Penn men’s heavyweight rowing team after joining the staff in the summer of 2014. As the Quakers second assistant, Cunningham worked with the third varsity eight and varsity four boats, while also serving as the Penn Heavyweights Director of Operations.

A 2010 Temple graduate, Cunningham spent the 2013 season prior to arriving at Penn as a volunteer assistant at Yale. The Bulldogs reached the Grand Final at both the IRA National Championships and EARC Sprints that year, finishing sixth overall in the varsity eight at each competition.