Head Coach - Varsity Women

Will White began his rowing career on Lake Wheeler in 2001 as a high school student at Raleigh Charter HS.  After rowing all 4 years in high school he attended NC State where he majored in Psychology and English. As an undergrad, he was a cox'n and coach with NC State's rowing club.  Will joined the coaching staff at TRC in 2011 as the novice girl's coach.  In 2013 he took over the Head Coach position.  When he's not at Lake Wheeler, Will can generally be found playing in a few softball leagues or sitting outside at his favorite coffee shop.

Head Coach - Varsity Men

Coach Shaffer has over 23 years of rowing experience and over 20 years of coaching experience.  She began her rowing career at UNC-Chapel Hill.  From there, she went on to row with the US National Team training in California at the Olympic Training Center on Otay Lake and in Princeton, New Jersey.  While with the national team she was able to compete internationally at a World Cup in Seville, Spain and a World Championship in Lucerne, Switzerland.  She also competed in a World Cup at Mercer Lake, New Jersey winning silver behind the Germans in the 4x.  In 2000 Coach Shaffer was 3rd in the single at Olympic trials missing the Olympics by only a few seconds.  In that same year she won the 1x and 2x at the national championships in Oak Ridge, TN.  In March 2022, Coach Shaffer was honored as one of the inaugural inductees in the Carolina Order of the Golden Oar.

On the coaching front, Coach Shaffer spent 1.5 years just after graduating as a volunteer coach at UNC.  After a few years focusing solely on training in CA, she moved to training on Carnegie Lake in Princeton and coaching at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.  She Coached at Rutgers for 2 years.  Finally returning to her home state in 2003, she landed in Raleigh, NC and immediately started looking for coaching opportunities.  Initially at Lake Wheeler, Shaffer coached for Raleigh Charter High School.  After the merger between Raleigh Charter and Wake Rowing to form Triangle Rowing Club, Coach Shaffer became head coach for TRC holding the position from Fall 2008 - Spring 2013.  After taking a few years off from coaching (and missing it a whole lot), she happily returned to coaching for TRC in the Fall of 2015 and now works with the varsity men. 

Coach Shaffer is married with a son and daughter.  When she is not working with TRC, she is spending time with and taking care of her family. 

Assistant Coach - Novice and U17 Women

Coach Kees began rowing at Triangle Rowing Club in 2016. After two years of great competition, he went to NC State where he continued to row and attend regattas. He began coaching TRC in the Summer of 2019, originally working with the middle school girls’ squad. In 2021, Kees started a graduate program at NC State and began coaching TRC’s novice and U17 women, who motivate him every day to keep developing as an athlete and a coach. Coach Kees enjoys teaching skills to athletes who are new to the sport, often coaching at TRC’s Summer learn-to-row camps. He is also co-founder and head coach of St. Augustine’s University Crew, the nation’s first HBCU women’s crew and TRC’s neighbor at Lake Wheeler. When not rowing or coaching, Kees enjoys watching movies of any genre, listening to great music, and traveling.

Assistant Coach - Novice Men

Coach Hayley learned to sweep and scull as a walk-on at Rochester Institute of Technology’s DIII crew team in 2014, where she studied chemical engineering. At RIT, she helped lead her team to top-ten finishes at Head of the Charles, multiple conference and state podiums, and a 5th place finish at the NCAA championship. In her 5th year, she acted as an assistant coach for RIT’s novice women during their Spring training trip and wanted to continue to grow as a coach. In 2019, she moved to Raleigh to start her Ph.D. at NC State and found Triangle Rowing Club. Now, she is the novice men’s coach and believes that novice races are won with good connection and consistency. She’s an active masters rower on Lake Wheeler and has earned several medals rowing with her fellow coaches.