Q&A with Kevin Gruber

Kevin Gruber was named head coach of the women’s rowing program Aug. 26. Gruber has more than 25 years of coaching experience. Most recently, he was assistant coach at Villanova from 2023 to 2025. Prior to that, Gruber was the head coach at the University of Delaware for 11 seasons, where he led the team to seven top-four finishes at the Coastal Athletic Association Championship. Gruber has also coached at Connecticut, Southern Methodist University, the University of Charleston, West Virginia University and Bates College. The Hawk sat down with Gruber to learn more about what inspired him to get into coaching and what his goals are for his new position. 

How did you get into rowing?

My brother rowed. Watching him do it was my introduction.

What made you want to get into coaching?

I picked it up as an undergraduate, which isn’t atypical in our sport. I had a great academic experience, but a lot of my time was spent talking and thinking about rowing. As I got to the tail end of my undergraduate years, not being exactly sure what direction I wanted to go professionally, and knowing how much time I’d spent talking and thinking about rowing, coaching just seemed interesting.

You have a master’s degree in athletic coaching education from West Virginia University. Did you have any coaching experience before you got that degree, and has that helped you in your coaching career?

I got done undergrad, and I landed my first coaching job coaching freshmen men at Bates College … I had a great mentor who I worked under that first year coaching, which just made me even more into it. I spent one year there, and then from that Bates connection, I had a connection to West Virginia University for that grad assistant position where I pursued my master’s while coaching … It wasn’t just the coursework, but you were with all these other coaches all the time talking about coaching and bouncing around ideas, sharing experiences. I thought that was as valuable as the coursework was.

How would you say your previous experience in coaching has prepared you for this role?

Seeing a lot of different things and different ways of doing it has given me a pretty broad perspective on how this can work … You just pick up a little here and a little there. You end up with a pretty big toolkit from which to pull from.

What new concepts or refreshers do you plan to bring to the team?

I’ve had so much respect for St. Joe’s as a competitor for many, many years. The first time I remember being on the Schuylkill for a scheduled duel against St. Joe’s, I was with UConn in spring of ’09. And then as head coach at Delaware all those years, our season opener traditionally was at St. Joe’s. That was 11 years I was opening against St. Joe’s, so I have so much respect for the program. Part of it is definitely going to be me learning from them about what they’ve done that’s worked well or what they like. Certainly I’m going to have my ideas, the things I’ve done in the past that I’ve liked. It’s going to be some kind of meshing of things they’ve done and some new ideas for me … I told the team on day one, I’m going to keep an open mind, I’m going to learn. You’re going to do the same thing, and, together, we’ll grow and get faster.

After being an assistant coach at Villanova for the past couple of years, what are you looking forward to most about being back in a head coaching role?

I enjoyed my time at Villanova immensely. I’ve been an assistant for many years at many different places. That role is crucial in moving things forward and just getting things done to help the team keep moving in the right direction. The role is so crucial, but it is different. I did miss just driving the culture. You’re supporting the culture as an assistant coach, and that is so important. But as a head coach, you’re really driving the culture. You’re leading the team meetings, you’re the voice.

How do you plan on cultivating a positive team culture here?

I always think it’s a subtle process. Like, how are you walking into the room every day? What kind of body language are you bringing into the room every day? What kind of language are you using every day? What kind of tone are you using every day? I don’t think it’s always got to be these big, epic team meetings or trust falls. Practice is two of my favorite hours of the day, and I try to make it so that athletes can see that, and hopefully they’re feeding off that energy. It’s not a whole big show. I’m happy to see them every day, and I hope they’re happy to see each other, and it starts there.

The team was pretty successful in the A-10 championship last year with Varsity 8 winning bronze. How do you plan to capitalize off of this?

Hopefully carry that momentum. I respected what they’ve done here. They’ve shown a lot of speed. I’m three days in, but clearly we have some fit athletes who like to work hard. You just want to keep building on that, keep the momentum going, keep them enjoying their training and feeling motivated to keep at it. Some of it is just not getting in the way of what they’ve already been doing.