MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College joins the entire collegiate rowing community in mourning the passing of former Pioneer head coach John Bancheri. Bancheri passed away on Monday.
 
Bancheri served as the Pioneers' head coach from 1994 to 2005. He transformed the program with his performance-driven Flagship Model. Bancheri's Marietta crews won five Dad Vail gold medals and returned the varsity Heavyweight 8 to national prominence. Marietta won the Dad Vail overall points championship in 2002 earning Bancheri Coach of the Year honors.
 
Bancheri finished his coaching career as the head women's coach at Stockton University where he led the Ospreys to their first-ever varsity eight Dad Vail gold medal in 2021.
 
Prior to his arrival at Stockton, Bancheri was the head coach of the men's and women's club teams at Grand Valley State University (Mich.) from 2005-18, winning six consecutive American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) team points championships from 2008-13 and receiving four ACRA Women's National Coach of the Year awards (2009, 12-14).   Bancheri led GVSU to the women's team points title at the Dad Vail Regatta in 2013. His crews won the Women's Collegiate Eights at Dad Vails twice (2010, 13) and his men's teams finished in top three of the Collegiate Eights at Dad Vails five times.
 
Bancheri was the head men's and women's club team coach at Wichita State University (Kan.) from 1987-94 and the women's varsity coach at the University of Charleston (W.V.), his alma mater, from 1984-87. He was inducted into the Golden Eagle Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 for his success as a coach at Charleston.
 
John M. Bancheri obituary.