By Connor Iadevaia ’26
Larry Muri, the newest varsity crew head coach, returned to Chaminade this year and is excited about the future of the crew team! Muri said, “Coming back was like never leaving and the best thing about this is how welcoming and helpful the community is here.”
Before starting his coaching career that has now been ongoing for more than 20 years, Coach Muri began rowing during his freshman year at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Muri explains how he was talked into going to a crew practice by some friends who needed someone to fill in for a teammate. Muri stated that he “went down, had a lot of fun on the water and never looked back.” Even though he started rowing for a Division I program and trained constantly, competing with this team was one of the best parts of his college experience, which is what drove Muri to continue this passion past graduation.
Muri left Holy Cross with a degree in political science and graduated from DePaul Law School. Later, he was the head coach of both men’s and women’s teams for over twelve years at Iona College, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Manhattan College, and Sarah Lawrence. In the early 2000’s Muri found his way to Chaminade High School, staying for eight years. With the team just starting out, Muri helped to win over 15 New York State Championships and multiple silver and bronze medals. A Varsity Eight had even won the Head of the Charles Youth Eight twice and finished top five in three other races!
More recently, Muri coached at RowAmerica Rye for five years where his most notable coaching moment was winning the Youth National Championship in the Varsity Eight for the second time this year. “Although winning feels great,” explained Murray, “the most memorable parts of that experience, as well as the other years, are not the results themselves, but rather the hundreds of moments with the teams I have coached on the way to wins.” Muri won’t remember how every single race went, win or lose, but he does recall all the moments, serious or goofy, when a team works together towards one goal. He sees this especially at Chaminade, stating, “There is no difference between the quality of all these other teams now and us; because of our sense of unity and helping each other out, we can do as well as anyone else in the country.”
Since coming back, Muri has reunited with numerous rowers he has coached over the years, which is one of the enjoyable parts about coaching for him. Muri gets to watch the “kids” he has coached have kids of their own and grow into awesome adults and rowers.
While being away for a decade, Muri missed the Chaminade environment where all student-athletes can succeed both on and out of the water. Muri wants all his guys to have an awesome experience by pushing them above their limits and teaching much more than just how to move a boat. He wants them to learn how to be a great teammate and how to follow through on their commitments.
Now that the fall season has come to an end, Muri reflected on how everyone has been getting faster and cooperating to do so. Focusing on the spring season ahead, Muri is especially excited about how fast the team can be and how rewarding it is to coach them.
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