Anthony Chacon joined the Stetson coaching staff from Colgate University where he served as an assistant coach for the men’s rowing team. He will work with both the men’s and women’s teams at Stetson.
Chacon attended high school in East Haddam, Conn., which is where he first earned attention as a rower. He attended college at Grand Valley State in Michigan with plans to continue as a rower, but he moved quickly after arriving into the Coxswain seat.
Over his career at GVSU, Chacon coxed Canadian Henley for the men’s team, the women’s 2V8 and the men’s and women’s 4V. Standout races from his senior year were winning the Women’s 4V at the Marietta Invitational against then-powerhouse Marietta, and winning the Men’s 4V at the Michigan Invitational against the host Wolverines.
Toward the end of his collegiate rowing career, Chacon coached an intramural squad that won the season-ending races. With his first success at coaching resulting in a win, and his own college career coming to an end, he decided that coaching would be a great way to continue his involvement in a sport he thoroughly enjoyed. His coaches at Grand Valley inspired him through their dedication and love for the sport that he intended to pass on to a future generation of athletes.
Post college, Chacon completed four years as a volunteer assistant coach at Notre Dame. He moved from South Bend to Chicago where he became a highly sought-after coach for local club teams, at one point juggling coaching Lincoln Park Boat Club Men’s Sweep Team, University of Chicago and Chicago Rowing Union. Under his guidance, all three increased in their level of competitiveness.
Lincoln Park medaled at Head of the Charles Club 8, a feat few masters achieve. Chicago Rowing Union became the top Masters team in the Midwest by 2012, taking home Golds at Milwaukee River Challenge, Grand Regatta and Chicago Sprints during his tenure there.
After leaving Masters for a time, Chacon took his first varsity job as Assistant Coach with North Park, a small Christian NCAA Division III school in the heart of Chicago. Around this time, Anthony was asked to cox for an Oklahoma High Performance Training Center lineup composed of National Team athletes in the LTA+ event at the Head of The Charles. The lineup beat and set the event course record by more than 30 seconds and won gold as a USRowing entry. This made Chacon one of only a handful of athletes from Grand Valley to ever row or cox a USRowing entry.
Simultaneous to his rowing career, Chacon rose through the ranks of several prestigious college and universities working in information technology. Starting out at the help desk, he ended up at the University of Chicago as the Manager of Technology for the Biological Science Collegiate Division. Though he found the work satisfying and was very successful, he spent most of his day thinking about rowing. No longer wanting to spend 40 hours a week working a career that paid for his rowing passion, he took the leap, sold his house and condo and car, and returned to college to obtain a master's in Kinesiology in 2015.
While working on his master's degree at Fresno Pacific University, Chacon worked as the Head Men’s Coach at Long Beach State where, in 2018, the novice 4+ brought home the program's first trophy in 14 years at Newport Regatta.
During the past five years, Chacon worked with the Nassau Rowing Club in The Bahamas to help build up rowing as a national level sport by teaching learn-to-row camps to 8-to-18-year old juniors. Two of the boys he taught to row in the second and third year took home gold medals at the 2018 US Club Nationals, and both went on to World Rowing Championships at the U19 and U23 level.
While coaching with CSULB in Long Beach, Chacon continued to cox for Long Beach Rowing Association Masters team and was asked to coach their Masters women’s 8 entry for the 2016 Head of the Charles, where he coxed and set another course event record in a second event. Later that spring, he coached the LBRA Men’s and Women’s Masters 8 lineups for the San Diego Crew Classic, where the women placed first and men placed fourth.
Working at the Long Beach Rowing Association allowed Chacon the honor of coaching former national team and Olympic athletes from the USA, Canada and Denmark, as well as learning from some of the foremost coaches and competitive rowers in sculling. In 2017, Chacon coxed for Toronto Scullers at the 2017 Head of the Charles, taking home his third gold at the regatta against a lineup with former Olympic and national team rowers.
All his successes and challenges, combined with his master's degree and his knowledge gained from 15 years of experience, gave Chacon what he needed to finally fully transition into full-time rowing coaching. He took that experience to Colgate in 2018, helping the Big Red to a Men’s 8+ title at the 2019 Dad Vail as well as back-to-back school record performances at the IRA.
Also in 2018, Chacon took home his fourth Head of the Charles gold in a fourth event, going from bow 38 to first place with Long Beach Rowing Association.
In 2019, he took home another Gold at Head of the Charles coxing Long Beach Rowing Association as well as earning a first-place finish in the Director’s Challenge 8+ and second after a narrow one-second handicap.
He earned his Level 3 High Performance Coach Certification in June 2020, one of 16 coaches out of 39 who applied for admission. Over the course of six months, Chacon completed 11 elite coaching modules designed to advance his skills in fields such as biomechanics, advanced rigging, long-term athlete development and rowing philosophy. All told, Chacon completed more than 100 hours of training to earn his certification.
In 2021 his JV 4+ and Varsity 2- both took home gold at Dad Vail and, at the 2021 IRA National Championship, the Varsity 4+ he coached took 17th overall.
Since the launch of the IRCA Coaches association, he has served as chair of the Legislative Review committee. His mission has been to mentor and guide other coaches, navigate the compliance realm, protect athletes, and encourage everyone to play fair.
In addition to his passion for rowing, Chacon enjoys working on vintage American muscle cars, specifically from General Motors, vintage recreational vehicles and Volkswagons.
