Coaches
Brian Comey
Head Coach
Head Varsity Girls Coach
Brian grew up rowing and coxing on the Potomac river starting in 8th grade. As a coxswain at Alexandria City High School, Brian won three Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association Championships as well as dozens of medals with Old Dominion Boat Club and TBC Racing in the Summers and Falls. He continued as a coxswain in college at Mercyhurst University for all four years as the Varsity Coxswain. While in college, Brian got his start in coaching at his high school summer rowing program as well as coaching masters rowers at Alexandria Community Rowing.
Immediately after graduating, Coach Brian was named the Head Men's Crew Coach at The College of William and Mary where he led the Men to one of the best seasons in program history. While in Williamsburg, he also coached the juniors at Williamsburg Boat Club
In 2018 Brian moved back home to the Washington, DC area. Since then he has coached numerous crews to top place finishes at both local and national regattas including Alexandria Community Rowing, Walt Whitman High School, and Bishop O'Connell High School.
Coach Brian was named the Washington Post All-Met Coach of the Year for the 2024 season.
Now entering his third year as Head Coach / Head Women’s Varsity Coach, Brian is excited to carry the momentum of last year into this upcoming season!
Coach Zalyn Bajor
Head Varsity Boys Coach
Zayln is a graduate of Rowan University and earned his law degree from the University of Miami. He learned to row at St. Augustine Prep (New Jersey), then continued at La Salle University (Philadelphia).
Zayln is entering his 2nd year with B-CC as the Head Men's Coach. In Spring 2024, the boys earned the WMIRA team point trophy in the fours with a first place finish in the first, second, and third fours and a second place finish in the freshman four. The first four went on to win a Stotesbury Championship and finished second at the SRAA championship. The second (junior) four placed 5th at both the Stotesbury and SRAA championships.
Before B-CC, he taught and coached at the Pine Crest School in Florida for 4 years until Spring 2023. He served as the Lead Men's coach for 2 years and the freshman coach for 2 years before that. Pine Crest earned 2nd place Florida scholastic overall team finishes 3 years in a row. In 2023, the men advanced 3 boats to SRAA nationals where the 1V8+ advanced and raced in the petite final, finishing 10th overall. At the 2023 Florida State Championship, Pine Crest earned the following scholastic finishes: 1V8+ - 3rd, JV8+ - 1st, LM4+ - 2nd, JV4+ - 4th, M1x - 2nd, JM1x - 1st & 2nd, LM2x - 2nd, M2- - 1st. The M2- went on to finish 10th (2nd in B final) at the USRowing Youth National Championship. Athletes have earned and established new all-time boathouse records and gone on to row at top universities.
Prior to coaching for Pine Crest, Zayln practiced law and served as Assistant Lightweight Men's Rowing Coach at the University of Delaware alongside the legend Chuck Crawford and many other great coaches where he helped lead the team to 2017 & 2018 Dad Vail Overall Points trophies, 2017 Dad Vail Champions in the Lightweight 8+ and Lightweight 4+, 2017 Navy Day Champions in the LM8+, and 2019 ACRA National Champions in the 1st and 2nd 8+. Several of those athletes represented the USA in U23 and open world championships internationally, and others have continued in the sport as coaches. In 2022, those alumni won and set a course record in the alumni M4+ at the Head of the Charles.
Zayln previously taught rowing at Nova Southeastern University (D2 WV4+ - 2nd SSC, 4th Dad Vail), Oakcrest High School (2014 WV8+ - 2nd - NJ State Championship), and Miami Beach Rowing Club.
Coach Dillon Montgomry
Head Novice Boys Coach & Team Conditioning Coach
From 2017 to 2020, Dillon coached the high school program at Sammanish Rowing Association in Sammanish, WA, while also serving as Founder and Head Coach of Endurance Academy, a high performance off-season training camp created to help motivated, committed elite collegiate and high school rowers reach their potential. Most recently Dillon has been Head Rowing Coach at Colorado Junior Rowing in Boulder, CO.
Dillon rowed for Trinity College and studied at the University of Colorado. He is a triathlete who competed in the 2022 Ironman World Championship in St. George, Utah, and was a member of the University of Colorado Men's Triathalon team from 2019-2023.
Coach Mark Parrish
Assistant Coach
Mark is a third-year Computer Science major at The George Washington University as well as an active athlete on the GW Men’s Rowing team. A lifelong athlete, Mark began rowing his freshman year at university and immediately fell in love with the sport, sparking a passion for rowing and coaching at a competitive level. Through the previous years, he has gained experience and success at collegiate regattas across the east coast, including a silver medal at Club Nationals in Oak Ridge, TN in 2023. This summer, he trained at Pocock Rowing Center in Seattle, WA. Outside of rowing, he is inspired by technology and its applications in helping athletes achieve their goals both inside and outside of competition.
Coach Sabrina Paulsen
Assistant Coach
Sabrina rowed four years at Old Dominion University and was named team MVP her senior year. She has been an assistant coach at George Mason University since August 2021.
Prior to coaching at GMU Paulsen served as a rowing coach at Row House, helping clients achieve their cardio and fitness goals on rowing machines. She also worked as a fitness coach at F45 Training, where she taught function training in a group fitness setting.
Paulsen earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Old Dominion in 2017 and just completed her masters in kinesthesiology.
Coaches
Brian Comey
Head Coach
Head Varsity Girls Coach
Coach Brian is entering his third year as B-CC Head Coach and Head Varsity Girls Coach. Following one of the most successful seasons in the program's history, the Washington Post named Brian All-Met Coach of the Year. He is excited to carry the momentum of last year into this upcoming season!
Brian grew up rowing and coxing on the Potomac River. As a coxswain at Alexandria City High School, Brian won three Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association Championships, as well as dozens of medals with Old Dominion Boat Club and TBC Racing in the summers and falls. He continued as a 4-year varsity coxswain at Mercyhurst University.
During college summers, Brian coached for Alexandria High School and at Alexandria Community Rowing with the masters program. After graduating, Brian was named the Head Men's Crew Coach at The College of William and Mary where he led them to one of the best seasons in program history. While in Williamsburg, he also coached the juniors at Williamsburg Boat Club. Upon returning to the DC area and prior to joining the B-CC team, he coached at various programs in the area including Alexandria Community Rowing, Walt Whitman High School and Bishop O'Connell High School.
Coach Zalyn Bajor
Head Varsity Boys Coach
Zayln is entering his second year with B-CC as the Head Boys Coach. In the 2024 spring season, his boys earned the WMIRA team points trophy in the fours category with first place finishes in the first, second, and third fours and a second place finish in the freshman four. The first four went on to win the Stotesbury Championship in the senior four category and finished second at the SRAA championship. The second (junior) four placed 5th at both the Stotesbury and SRAA championships.
Zayln is a graduate of Rowan University and earned his law degree from the University of Miami. He learned to row at St. Augustine Prep (New Jersey), then continued at La Salle University (Philadelphia).
Before B-CC, he taught and coached at the Pine Crest School in Florida for 4 years where he served roles as lead men's coach and the freshman coach. During his time at Pine Crest, they earned second place team finishes at Florida scholastics for 3 years in a row. In 2023, the boys advanced 3 boats to SRAA nationals where the 1V8+ advanced and raced in the petite final, finishing 10th overall. At the 2023 Florida State Championship, Pine Crest earned the following scholastic finishes: third place for the 1V8, first place for the JV8, second place for the lightweight M4+, fourth place for the JV4+, second place for the lightweight mens double, and first place for the mens pair. The M2- went on to finish 10th (2nd in B final) at the USRowing Youth National Championship.
Coach Erik Thomas
Head Novice Girls Coach
Coach Erik has a long and successful track record coaching and developing new rowers. He is skilled at working with younger athletes, developing their strength and technique to ready them for competitive future varsity squads.
He joins the team most recently from TBC where he served as the U-17 assistant girls coach in 2023. During the 2023 Spring season, Erik also served as assistant coach for the Bishop O’Connell girls program. Across the past several years he has also coached at National Cathedral School and Yorktown High School, working with both boys and girls rowing programs. Additionally, Erik has served as an assistant coach on the George Washington University men's team. Throughout his coaching career, Erik's boats have medaled in both VASRA and WMIRA championships, made the finals at Stotes, and medaled during the summer and fall regatta schedule.
Erik is from the DMV area and started his rowing career at McLean High School and TBC Racing, where he raced in The Head of the Charles with Coach Comey. After High School, Erik was recruited to row at Lehigh University.
When he is not rowing, Erik has a passion for photography, is an avid DC Area sports fan and loves to spend time with his dog, Whiskey.
Coach Susan Rappold
Head Novice Boys Coach
Susan joins B-CC from the Texas Rowing Center in Austin where she has coached since 2022. At the Texas Rowing Center juniors program she served as an assistant coach to the novice boys before moving on to the recreational and developmental crew, where she focused her time on building and retaining a gaggle of middle school boys to feed into the novice program. She has also provided assistance and support to other programs at TRC, from novice masters to private lessons in the pair and single. Because of all the time spent in novice boats at the various programs she has moved between, she has developed a love for introducing new people to the sport, especially due to the role that rowing has played in providing her a community everywhere that she has gone.
While most athletes can call one team their original home club, Susan has had the opportunity to experience community in the rowing world in many different places. Her journey in rowing began with Pensacola Rowing Club in 2014, where she came into the sport first as a rower, and then as a coxswain one year later. In 2017, she left the sport and did not row or cox again until 2021, when she hopped back into the coxswain seat as a college sophomore while studying abroad in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After transferring to UT Austin in 2021, she spent time on the club mens team for UT before moving on to coxing the Texas Rowing Center masters men and women. Her brief time with Texas Crew brought her a 3rd place finish in the Men's Lightweight Novice 4+ at ACRA, and she has had success at the masters level with an 8th place finish at the Head of the Charles, a 2nd place finish at the San Diego Crew Classic, and two 1st place finishes (among other medaling performances) at Masters Nationals.
Susan is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she earned her degree in Linguistics with a certificate in Creative Writing.
Coach Mark Parrish
Assistant Coach
Returning for his second year with B-CC, Mark is completing his final year at The George Washington University as a computer science major and an active member of the GW Men’s Rowing team.
Hailing from Seattle, he has trained at Pocock Rowing Center on Lake Union. A lifelong athlete, Mark began rowing his freshman year of college and immediately fell in love with the sport, sparking a passion for rowing and coaching at a competitive level. Across his years with the sport, he has gained experience and success at collegiate regattas throughout the eastern U.S., including a silver medal at Club Nationals in Oak Ridge, TN in 2023.
Coach Chloe Palmer
Assistant Coach
Chloe is B-CC Crew's very own. Switching from competitive gymnastics to rowing when she got to high school, she graduated as captain in 2020. In her junior year she took home gold at WMIRA, a bronze at Stotesbury, and won the C final at Youth Nationals.
For the past four years, she has coached the B-CC learn-to-row summer camp, and still holds legendary status on the girls team for holding the B-CC Crew record for novice 2K times!
Recruited to row at Boston University, she graduated in 2024 with a BS in Film & Television. When she’s not coaching, she is a preschool teacher’s aide, a freelance production designer and model.