Marcus McElhenney

Marcus McElhenney is a six-time world medalist, three-time world champion and an Olympic bronze medalist from Philadelphia. Prior to his career on the national team, he was also a former student athlete at Temple University.

Marcus joined the Sparks team as a counselor and coxing associate in 2010 while still on the national team. He began to develop a coxswain coaching philosophy that he - with some assistance from other national team coxswains - systematized into Sparks' coxswain curriculum. His idea was that coxswains could learn to coach themselves via actively pursuing greater awareness of themselves, their steering, organization, and commands.

In the time since, the curriculum has greatly impacted Sparks campers - resulting in the largest network of coxswain-specific programming in the world. Alumni have now coxed at the majority of collegiate programs and every level of the sport - including the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The curriculum has since been adapted by two other Olympic coxswains and seven national team coxswains.

Marcus left counseling duties at Sparks to practice law in California. He holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Psychology from Temple University and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco.