CASE STUDY
Athlete-Led Success: St. Joseph's Men's Rowing
ABOUT
CREWLAB PLAN
Pro
Saint Joseph’s University Men’s Rowing has established itself as a competitive collegiate program on the Schuylkill River. Under three-time Olympic medalist Michiel Bartman’s leadership since September 2025, the program trains at the historic Gillin Boat Club in Fairmount Park. The Hawks have earned multiple medals at the Dad Vail Regatta and qualified for the IRA Championships, with their Varsity 4+ capturing a Petite Final victory at the 2025 IRA Nationals.
St. Joseph’s Men’s Rowing program transformed athlete engagement through CrewLAB, with adoption driven entirely by the athletes themselves.
The team now uses it daily to track training, share practice video, and build a more supportive team culture. The athlete-led enthusiasm for CrewLAB has created a culture of accountability and motivation extending well beyond practice.
The challenges
With no centralized system to combine team-related messaging, media, and a hub to build team culture, athletes felt disconnected and coaches lacked insight into training consistency. A change in coaching staff added another layer of uncertainty for athletes to manage.
The program needed a solution to:
- Send live updates to the whole team, even on the go at regattas
- Keep athletes motivated and competitive during the off-season
- Share practice videos easily and tag athletes, so coxswains could help coaches with video analysis
- Maintain a consistent log of athlete profiles and training background to give the new head coach a head start
- Provide a constant training log for coaches and athletes
Our solution
CrewLAB gave the team one shared space for training data, communication, and culture. Athletes connected their wearables for easy data collection, giving coaches a comprehensive log of how athletes were handling the training load and team-wide athlete wellness trends.
A shared video folder made uploading videos easy and organized. Coxswains could help out the coaches and each rower got an automatically populated folder with videos they were tagged in.
Coaches gained access to safe, instant messaging for everything team-related. With custom groups, they could send out messages easily for groups at races and those training on campus. Everything training-related now lives on a designated app.
Athletes kept banter alive through posts, comments, and reactions. Coaches gained an engaged and organized team environment without forcing behavior change.
The proof is on the podium
7th place
1V4+
IRA National Championships 2025
4th PLACE
1V8+
Jefferson Dad Vail Regatta 2025
7th place
1V8+
Head of the Charles 2025
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Wearable connections and athlete-managed video analysis lightened coaches’ administrative burden.
Summer and winter break training consistency improved dramatically.
After a semester without CrewLAB, athletes demanded its return. The team self-polices platform usage and engagement.
“The guys were like ‘we’re not getting rid of it, right? And so I’d already upped it and the new head coach is like ‘no, that’s great, we love it.”