ERIE, Pa. – Mercyhurst College head rowing coach Adrian Spracklen has been selected to assist the coaching staff of Rowing Canada with its training and developmental camp held March 26- April 7 in Sacramento, Calif. 

Considered the top sport of Canada's summer Olympics programs, Team Canada won a gold, silver and two bronze medals in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. 

The organization's new high performance director, Peter Cookson, has increased efforts for continued success in the sport and has expanded the coaching staff at training camps, affording Spracklen the opportunity to work with his father Mike Spracklen, who is the head coach of Rowing Canada. 

“It's exciting,” says A. Spracklen. “I've always been with him as an observer at events but never as a coach. This is something that we will be able to look back on at the end of our careers.” 

As a member of the Rowing Canada staff, Spracklen will be working with the head coach and two other assistants to oversee the training programs of 30-40 former Canadian Olympians and potential national team members. The training camp will help prepare members of Team Canada for the World Rowing Championships on October 31 – November 7 in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand and the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

This is the first time that Spracklen will work as a coach for a national training camp after spending time with the U.S. National Team as a member of the medical staff in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

Spracklen, a native of Marlow, England, has been the Mercyhurst women's rowing head coach since 1992 and the men's head coach since 2001. His 2004 women's squad captured the NCAA Division II National Championship while the 2009 men's edition garnered unparalleled success with two gold medals at the Dad Vail Regatta and a runner-up finished at the Henley Royal Regatta Visitors' Challenge Cup.