Sarasota Crew's success started with a change in culture

The culture of Sarasota Crew was fundamentally flawed. It had long prioritized all-star rowers instead of taking an individualized approach to each and every one of its athletes.

There was more of an emphasis on results than the process of development that made those results possible. Casey Galvanek saw it as “chasing medals.”

In 2009, when Galvanek stepped in as head coach, he realized that culture wouldn’t just need to be adjusted or mended — it had to be changed entirely.

So he promptly went about changing it.

“Individual development instead of chasing medals,” Galvanek said. “That was the vision from the start, making sure that the student-athletes could set their own goals.”

Nearly two decades since he began executing that vision, Sarasota Crew has become the preeminent power on the national youth rowing landscape. It regularly dominates regattas at the state and regional levels, and is plenty active at the national level.

The Osprey-based club will be well-represented — once again — at the USRowing Youth National Championships from June 11-14 at Nathan Benderson Park. It boasts 16 entries, which are tied for second-most among the 236 participating clubs hailing from all over the country.

That’s more entries for Sarasota Crew than in 2025 or 2024, when it featured 13 and 14, respectively. Last year, its U16 Women’s Eight won the junior national title, while the U17 Men’s Eight and Youth Women’s Four also reached the A Finals to race for titles.

But the club’s decorated history dates back much further than that. Ever since 2011, when Galvanek was in his third year as head coach, the championship culture is undeniable.

Image courtesy of Lisa Worthy

Sarasota Crew is the overall team points champion of the USRowing Southeast Youth Championships for 15 years running. It also lays claim to 15 team titles at the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association Sweep Championships and 14 at the FSRA Sculling Championships.

Trophies or medals are not the club’s goal, but they are a frequent byproduct of the real goal being pursued — specialized, rower-by-rower development.

“We’re making sure that everybody's getting what they want out of the program instead of forcing upon them some kind of unrealistic goals that were set by others that had different goals,” Galvanek said. “That’s really the big difference in the program. Over the years, we've had success, and it wasn't because we were chasing that success as a team.”

“Culture” is a modern-day buzz word in the sports world. Coaches speak of it constantly, often advocating for it as the foundation of winning.

Some of them, though, use it ad nauseam to the point where it loses luster. The word is only impactful if actually acted upon and put into practice.

For Sarasota Crew, “culture” carries genuine meaning. Coaches and athletes alike have lived it. They’ve seen what it looks like on a day-to-day, year-to-year basis.

Sebastian Spivey helps carry out the club’s culture, which, as outlined by Galvanek, prioritizes individual development. The lead girls coach pointed to hard work as a crucial component.

“It’s a perpetual motion,” Spivey said. “You work hard and you see good results with it, so it encourages more hard work and then encourages even more good results. It happens in a cycle.”

He’s an alumnus of the club himself. From 2009-15, he rowed for Sarasota Crew, and was co-captain of the Youth Men’s Eight at the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships.

But Spivey also remembers earlier days, like in 2011, when he joined competitive racing for the first time and looked up to the club’s then-Youth Men’s Eight.

He saw the embodiment of a proper, productive culture in them.

“I saw how fast they were, how hard they worked, how they carried themselves around and just their general attitude. (It was a) winning culture, and an entertaining culture, too,” Spivey said. “It was just enjoyable to come into the doors of practice… try to hang with them as much as you possibly can, even though you weren’t (with them).”

Image courtesy of Erik Dresser / Row2K

More than a few rowers over the years have bought into Sarasota Crew’s culture and ran with it. Several eventually competed at the NCAA Division I level, and one in particular did much more.

Clark Dean is perhaps the greatest product of the club. After graduating in 2018, he rowed for Harvard from 2018-23 and took his talents to not one, but two Olympic Games.

He competed for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the Men’s Eight and Men’s Four, respectively. His boat fell short of hardware in 2020, but won bronze in 2024 — the first medal in Men’s Eight for Team USA since 2008.

Dean is the shining example of what Galvanek sought to create nearly two decades ago, but by no means is he the only example. 

“Every single year, there’s a banquet for the graduating seniors,” Galvanek said. “Hearing their stories, and what rowing meant to them in the environment that we created, that — by far — is the most meaningful time of the year.”

Sarasota Crew was founded in 2002. It had existed for seven years before Galvanek took on the role of head coach, and during that span, prioritized medals above all else.

Times have changed. That’s because the culture has changed. It will be in motion, for all to see, from June 11-14 on the waters of Nathan Benderson Park.

A junior national title isn’t Sarasota Crew’s goal, but it would be quite the byproduct.