Yan Vengerovskiy of the Maritime Rowing Club shows memorabilia from current U.S. team members Dan Walsh and Charlie Cole.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

The Maritime Rowing Club’s Yan Vengerovskiy once coached two athletes on the U.S. team that competed in a world meet last month.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

Maritime Rowing Club coach Yan Vengerovskiy was thousands of miles away from last month's World Rowing Championships in New Zealand. But at home in Norwalk, he felt as close to two competitors as if he had been right there rowing with them.

Vengerovskiy recalled with pride the development of Norwalk's Dan Walsh and New Canaan's Charlie Cole, who rowed on the Men's 8 that finished sixth in New Zealand. Although the crew was disappointed with the result, Vengerovskiy beamed at having two of his athletes on the team.

"I wasn't surprised because they show their strength in the trials,'' he said. "They are among the best athletes on the team."

Walsh won a silver medal with the U.S. team in the 2008 Olympics. Cole, who attended Yale, has been a member of the U.S. national team for seven years. On his USRowing biography, Cole lists Vengerovskiy as the most influential person in his career. Walsh sent Yan a message last winter after a successful race. "Charlie and I love you,'' Dan wrote in his text to Yan. "You are the reason we are so fast."

Vengerovskiy could see from the outset that Walsh and Cole could become outstanding rowers. Their desire pushed them to the top. "I worked with them at different times, but they had the desire,'' Yan said. "They worked hard from the start. They were very consistent in their work ethic, and that's what made them so successful."

Walsh and Cole's ascent to the national rowing team helps Vengerovskiy demonstrate to up-and-coming athletes the value of persistence. "That kind of message from athletes that I coached really helps,'' Yan says. "It lets them know that if they work at it hard enough, those dreams are possible."

Cole and Walsh don't frequent the Maritime club much anymore. Cole trains in Princeton, N.J., and Walsh has relocated to California. USRowing announced this month that the men's squad will relocate its training base to Chula Vista, Calif. Visits from the world rowers are rare, but "they're always welcome to come back here,'' Yan says. "They're part of the history of the club."