Contact Gerry Quinlan
Gerry Quinlan is in his 26th season in 2024-25 as head women’s rowing coach at Saint Joseph’s University and has developed the Hawks into one of the East’s most competitive programs.
Quinlan has kept the Hawks among the more competitive programs in the East. In the past nine years, Saint Joseph’s has earned 12 medals in the Atlantic 10 Championships, while winning the 2011 team title. During that time, the Hawks have also captured eight Dad Vail Regatta medals, combined with the Hawks' men's team to win the Dad Vail Overall Points Trophy in 2005, 2006 and 2010 and competed at the Henley Royal Regatta in England.
Navigating through a challenging 2019-20 campaign, Quinlan saw the Hawks capture their first-ever title in pairs at the Small Boat Challenge and place a program-best third place in the 4+ at the Head of the Charles in the fall, before the spring season was abruptly called off as the national landscape paused for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2018, SJU took home Atlantic 10 gold as it captured the Varsity 4, and then picked up a silver medal with its second-place finish in the Third Varsity 8.
The Hawks returned to the medals stand at the Dad Vail Regatta in 2017, winning a bronze in the Varsity 8 for its first medal in that event since 2010. SJU’s Freshman 8 captured wins in all but one regatta last season, while winning gold for the first time ever in that event. It also marked the first time that Saint Joseph’s had won two Dad Vail medals in the same meet since 2011. The 2017 season ended on an even higher note as the Hawks made their second overall trip to the Henley Royal Regatta.
Since his arrival at SJU in 1999, Quinlan has been one of the driving forces behind the growth of both the women's and men's rowing programs, nearly doubling participation during his tenure. the 2012 Matthew Ledwith Coach’s Award recipient has been active in the development of the Robert M. Gillin, Jr. Boathouse, which opened in 2002, while maintaining alumni support and coordinating several local regattas, including the Jesuit Invitational Regatta. All the while, the Hawks have continued to excel on the water including arguable the best seasons in school history in 2011, highlighted by two firsts for the program - a gold medal at the Dad Vail Regatta and the team title in the Atlantic 10 Championships. The Hawks’ Second Varsity 8 captured the program’s first Dad Vail gold medal and the Varsity 4 took home a silver, to help SJU finish second in the team standings. Saint Joseph’s won the Freshman 8 at the conference meet and earned top-three finishes in three other events to give the Hawks the league’s team crown for the first time ever.
Quinlan's résumé includes a six-year stint as the head coach of Northwestern University's men's and women's programs and a three-year stretch as the head women's coach at Notre Dame. His teams have won medals at the Dad Vail Regatta, the Champion International Collegiate Regatta and the Head of the Charles, and have competed in the Henley Royal Regatta and the Mexico City International Championships.
A 1991 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Quinlan spent his prep career rowing at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Linda, a former Hawks' assistant coach, reside in Philadelphia with their daughters Maeve and Tess.
