The Coaches

J.D. Bridges

Head Coach

Head Coach J. D. Bridges brings over 20 years of experience to Shaker Heights. His most recent accomplishments include starting a rowing program at Holy Ghost Prep (outside of Philadelphia). Starting from scratch, Coach Bridges built a team of 25 athletes and within four years they had regional medals and national appearances with multiple student-athletes going on to row for Division I colleges.

Prior to Holy Ghost Prep, Coach Bridges coached at the Shipley School (Bryn Mawr, PA) where his athletes consistently medaled at the Stotesbury Cup and SRAA National Championships. He has also held coaching positions at Lower Merion High School and Moorestown High School, two large public schools in the Philadelphia region. In 2013, he coached a duo from Hawken who went on to win gold at Midwest regionals, silver at Midwest juniors, and bronze at Scholastic Nationals. His scholastic athletes have gone on to row at schools such as Cornell, MIT, George Washington, Bates, Penn, Trinity, Jacksonville, Temple, LaSalle, and more.

Coach Bridges also founded and ran high-performance summer development programs for both U-19 and U-23 athletes, winning six summer national championships with athletes from across the country. Alumni of his camps went on to row for Yale, University of Washington, Cornell, Wisconsin, the US Naval Academy, Syracuse, and some have gone on to represent the United States at the World Under-23 and Senior World Rowing Championships. Numerous athletes he has has coached have become rowing coaches at high schools, colleges, and clubs across the country.

Coach Bridges has a Masters in Kinesiology with a concentration in Sport and Exercise Psychology and a law degree from Temple University. He rowed on the club team at Haverford College as an undergrad. He lives in Shaker with his wife and two kids.

You can learn more about J.D. in this article from Haverford Magazine, and read about his success at Holy Ghost Prep here.

Lincoln Luzar

Assistant Coach

Lincoln is a proud Shaker Heights graduate (Class of 2019) where he was a 4-year rower and a captain of the men’s crew team. When he was captain the men’s team had their best finish in team history at the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championships. Lincoln is also the former team record holder in 1k and 2k.

He briefly rowed at the University of Wisconsin and is passionate about all things sports and fitness-related. Coach Luzar is graduate of Ohio State University.

Charles A. Richardson

Assistant Coach

Born in Washington, DC, Charles's coaching experience spans 15 years with Illinois clubs including coaching juniors & masters at North Suburban Crew, Lincoln Park Boat Club (LPBC), Chicago Rowing Union, Chicago Training Center, and New Trier High School. In over 13 years at New Trier, Charles has taken boats to Youth Nationals and SRRAs. At SRAAs, his boats consistently made grand finals, medaling 6 times spanning the Lightweight 8+, Freshman 8+, Junior 8+, and Junior 4+ categories.

Charles learned to row in high school and reunited with the sport as a masters rower in Boston and later Chicago. Charles is an original member of the Black Coaches and Rowers Association which was formed to increase access, participation, and inclusion of black people within the sport of rowing on all levels. Coach Richardson has a BS in Computer Science from Northeastern University and lives in Shaker Heights.