John Bancheri is among the most notable coaches in Marietta College history. Hired as the institution's 10th head coach for men's rowing, he joined Marietta in the fall of 1994 and served in this role for 13 years — the same tenure as the first head coach for men's rowing, J. Ellis MacDonald, and second only to Ralph Lindamood's impressive 24-year tenure.

"I was a late applicant to the job. All of the previous Marietta rowing coaches had been what I called 'homegrown,' either having rowed for Marietta or had some connection to the college," Bancheri recalled. However, Bancheri had strong connections to Marietta alumni, such as Mike Chippilone '72, John Strotbeck '79, Phil Case '70 and Terry Morris '69, and Coach Lindamood. "During my days at Wichita State, I would always call Ralph and ask a ton of questions on how he coached and tried to get some of his secrets, I was kind of a pest," Bancheri said. His supporters put in a good word on his behalf and Bancheri finally landed his "dream job." Even today, 16 years after leaving his coaching duties on the Muskingum River, Bancheri still considers his time at Marietta the "pinnacle of my coaching career."

When Bancheri arrived on campus, not all the crew members were thrilled. The Lightweight Varsity 8 had just won the 1994 Dad Vail Regatta. Bancheri wanted to focus on the Heavyweight program and brought what would become known as the "Flagship Model" to Marietta. Specifically, he told his crew the eight best oarsmen, regardless of size or class, would row in the Heavyweight Varsity 8. "Some guys challenged my strategy and I lost some guys as a result" Bancheri said. As Jeff Border '96 recalled, "it was pretty rocky during the late fall and into the early part of winter training. Many guys, including me, were not buying into John's approach. I was voted team captain and, I have to admit, I was perhaps the biggest pain in his ass and was resistant to change." Border said that during Spring Break in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, things started turning around. "Coach Bancheri trained us very hard, and we did a great deal of erg work along with intense weight training circuits. When we got down to Tennessee, we starting seeing results and increased speed. And of course, Coach Bancheri was a great motivator and continued to emphasize to us to trust the process."

Surprisingly, Bancheri does not remember coaching much racing cadence until the week leading up to the Purdue race. "The guys were chomping at the bit to go, and while we all expected to defeat Purdue that year, it was a milestone for me and my relationship with the crew." However, he continued to use tactics to motivate his team. As Border recalls, during the SIRA, he told the crew they were on par with Rollins College, a team they were set to face early in the heats. "We didn't even know who Rollins was and Coach was saying they were our equal. We were a little pissed off; his statement gave us extra motivation. As it turned out we crushed Rollins in the heat." The Varsity Heavies placed fifth in the Grand Final at the SIRAs. It was the first time in many years that Marietta made the Varsity heavy final at SIRA. "The first person I called was Ralph Lindamood, Ralph had been a strong supporter of what I was trying to do," Bancheri said. "After he congratulated me in classical Lindamood manner he said 'but you have a lot of hard work ahead of you.' "

Bancheri notes his inaugural season was one of his memorable years of coaching. "To transition to a Varsity Heavyweight program and get the buy-in from the team was personally rewarding for me, not to mention that we made the Dad Vail Varsity Heavyweight Grand Final finishing fifth."

The 1995 season got Marietta back on the map as a contender in Heavyweight 8 racing. From 1998-2006, Marietta's Varsity Heavies rowed in the Grand Final eight out of nine years. In 2002, Bancheri's crew nearly completed a sweep of the Heavyweight 8 Dad Vail finals. Both the Freshman and JV won gold with the Varity claiming a bronze medal, resulting in Marietta capturing the Thomas Kerr Cup Men's Point trophy. One could argue this year, along with the 1966 and 1973, were perhaps the strongest crews top to bottom that Marietta ever fielded.

Derek Stek '96 remembers Bancheri as a collaborator. "Collaborative is the best word I can think of to describe Coach John Bancheri's coaching style. John has a time tested and proven approach of combining his extensive wealth of rowing and training techniques, with his abilities to observe, listen and understand his athletes' capabilities...leading to fast and always competitive boats." Bancheri elaborated on this. "When I first met with the guys, I told them that when they are on the water, it's done my way, when we are on the land, I am open to discussion." Stek continued: "An important lesson I have learned from coach Bancheri is a bit of a cliché but is a life lesson than has stuck with me for years. Don't judge a book by its cover. When I first met coach, he was not what I expected. A large and imposing Italian man from New Jersey (by way of Kansas) who looked more like a football defensive line coach than an elite rowing coach. My misread was made evident in his first few weeks at Marietta. He may not have been the 'picture' of a rowing coach I had developed in my head but he proved to be way more than I could have imagined. In under two years, I learned so much under John and am proud to say that even after 20 years I still consider him my coach and more importantly, a trusted friend I can turn to in times of support and guidance."

Bancheri was also a ferocious recruiter and was not afraid to go the extra mile to convince Marietta was the best fit for the rower. Andrew Bolton '02 talked about how he came to Marietta. "As the spring season of my high school senior year of rowing was ending, I was not planning to row in college. While I was racing at the Stotesbury that spring my dad happened to talk to Coach Bancheri who was at the regatta doing some recruiting. My dad and John started talking and coach said that we should watch the race together. As I came rowing down the course, I guess coach liked what he saw. At that point my dad also liked what he heard from coach about the college and Marietta's rowing program. Coach just happened to have an application with him. After my race when I saw my dad, he handed the application to me and said you should apply to Marietta. I vividly remember filling out the application on top of coach's cooler and gave it to the coach." Bancheri added, "When the regatta was over and had Andrew's application and a few others in hand, I did a wheelie out of the parking lot and got back to Marietta as fast as I could so I could have admissions read his application. Two days later I called Andrew and told him he was accepted to the College." On his freshmen year Dad Vail winning crew Bolton remembered, "Our freshman boat in 1999 was a pretty special group of guys, we were pretty deep and won the Dad Vail over RIT by three seconds. Coach had an uncanny way to bond a team to be fiercely competitive and race with the proverbial 'chip on your shoulder.' We decided to stay at Marietta and accept the invitation to race at the IRA. We had three weeks to train in Marietta before the IRA. We moved out of our dorm and moved into the boathouse. We were on a shoestring budget, nothing fancy but it was all about the workouts and listening to music. We adopted the song Hurricane by Bob Dylan which seemed to be on at all times during the day. There was a line-up change between the Vail and IRA as two freshmen, Luke Agnini and Shawn Work, who were in the varsity joined the frosh boat for the IRAs. Perhaps our best race of the year was the Repechage at the IRA. It would determine what final we were going to. We were up against Penn and Princeton; it was a 'barn burner' the entire way down the race course. We hung with them for the entire race eventually losing to both of the crews by less than two seconds. Both of those crews made the Grand Final and placed fourth and fifth, respectively. That was a seminal moment as it gave us the confidence for the next three years that we could compete with anyone in the nation."

Joe Palmer '02 remembers the infamous House of Wines Pairs competition during the fall. "Bancheri was a big believer in small boats, He re-instituted a fall training tradition that Ralph Lindamood started in the early '70s: intersquad pair races. This race broke up the monotony of fall practices and allowed us to have some really competitive intersquad competitions." Bancheri was a true believer that miles on the water led to championships. Luke Agnini '02, current coach at Georgetown, remembers the coach taking crews up river for 25 miles through all of the locks. "One day we rowed to Parkersburg and he also had thoughts to figure out how to row the boats up to the Head of the Ohio river which was 130 miles away. Luckily, he never figured out a way to do this but it was that type of thinking that resonated with me. He was always trying to make it fun in his own way. He would never compromise on miles or conditioning and he always found ways to make the challenges fun and taking our minds off the immense work he was requiring of us."

Bancheri helped bring men's rowing back to the medal stand at the Dad Vail. His leadership played a role in leading Marietta to its most recent Varsity Heavyweight 8 Dad Vail Gold in 2006. All expectations point to another run by the Marietta Navy to get back to Dad Vail Grand Finals and capturing medals.