MARTY PARTY: Marty Crotty enjoys the action from the shore during his tenure as the head coach of the Princeton University men’s lightweight rowing program. Earlier this month, Crotty stepped down from the program after guiding it since 2009. Crotty, a 1998 Princeton alum who starred as a men’s heavyweight rower during his college days, guided the Tiger men’s lightweights to a 105-33-1 overall record and the varsity eight to Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships in 2010 and 2023. (Photo by Row2K, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Bill Alden
For Marty Crotty, being around the Princeton University boathouse since the 1990s has been a life-changing experience.
Crotty, a 1998 Princeton alum, starred as a rower during his college days, helping the Tiger men’s heavyweights to national titles in 1996 and 1998. In 2006, Crotty came home to the boathouse to serve as the freshman coach for the Tiger men’s heavyweight team. He went on to become the head coach of the men’s lightweight program in 2009.
“It defines me, it is who I am,” said Crotty reflecting on his time on and around Lake Carnegie. “It is hard to characterize yourself, but if you ask anybody who epitomizes Princeton athletics and orange and black, I think a lot of people would say that guy Marty Crotty over there.”
Earlier this month, Crotty, 49, stunned a lot of people in the rowing world when he announced that he was stepping down from guiding the lightweight program.
“It is just where I am in my life and it is where I am in my commitment, dedication and service to Princeton, like 31 years in some capacity as a coach, as a rower, as a student,” said Crotty. “I have been super fortunate to be at Princeton for 31 years with just a little three or four year break in there but, man, 31 years is a long time to do something. It is time for me to go out and see what else there is.”
Crotty broke the news to his rowers on June 1 when they returned to the boathouse after ending the season by competing in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship on Cooper River in Cherry Hill.
“I am glad I had a chance to do it in person,” said Crotty. “I want to look you in the eye and say this is not because of you, this is not because of you as a roster. There are no individuals in this room that I don’t love”
Reflecting on his Tiger coaching career, Crotty loved the challenge of taking the helm of the men’s lightweight program.
“As a head coach, the buck stops with you,” said Crotty. “When you transition to head coach, you are responsible for 40 guys, a head assistant, and whatever second or third assistant that you have. So right off the bat you are responsible for more personnel. What I remember about that year was definitely being ready for it. I craved being responsible for more personnel.”
With the Tiger men’s lightweight team coming off a season for the ages in 2009 as its varsity eight took first in the Eastern Sprints, IRA, and Henley Royal Regatta, Crotty was under pressure to maintain the program’s standard of excellence.
“We had a lot of guys to replace from the 2009 boat, four or five guys graduated, and right off the bat I was tasked with finding the next group of guys that could have the same level of success,” said Crotty, who led the varsity eight to the IRA National Championship and Eastern Sprints titles in his debut campaign. “I really enjoyed that challenge. We had four or five sophomores in that boat who could not row on the varsity as freshmen. They were pretty green, it was their first year on varsity. I thought they did a great job of matching the success of the ’09 boat.”
Tiger men’s heavyweight head coach Greg Hughes, a 1996 Princeton alum, who knew Crotty during his college years, wasn’t surprised to see him succeed from the start.
“He did a great job with that; he came into it and knocked it out of the park in his first year, winning Sprints and the national championship,” said Hughes, who was Crotty’s predecessor as both the freshman heavyweight coach and men’s lightweight head coach. “That is hard to do, even if nothing changes. It is hard to match that success. I can only imagine what it must have felt like to feel like to know that there is nowhere to go but down. He crushed it.”
Over the years, Crotty grew as a coach, becoming more involved in his rowers’ lives off the water.
“In my early coaching career, I was more of a motivator than I was a coach,” said Crotty. “I just coached what was in front of me. I think I did a good job in my early days getting the most out of a kid. I trained guys well. I never really tried to have an understanding of what was going on in a kid’s life. But as each generation came in, the school evolved a little bit, the athletic department evolved a little bit, and the boathouse evolved a little bit. I just changed to try to understand each individual more as a student athlete and as a person.”
Hughes, for his part, is impressed by how Crotty evolved over the years.
“In rowing, you are not in the sidelines, you are not going to call a timeout and talk about it and send them back out,” said Hughes. “They have to know how to make big decisions. You have to create that environment and Marty did that. He was willing to try new and different things. He didn’t feel like he had some formula. Good coaches are risk takers and it doesn’t always go perfectly.”
In 2023, things went just about perfectly for Crotty and the Tigers as his rowers bounced back from a disappointing 2022 campaign to win an IRA National Championship along with the IRA President’s Cup team title, an Ivy League Championship, and a championship at Eastern Sprints. The Tigers’ varsity eight and second varsity eight were victorious in their grand finals at both the IRAs and Eastern Sprints. Princeton finished the season with an 11-1 overall record and a 5-1 record in Ivy competition.
“That year we were senior laden and we had great leadership with a couple of great captains,” recalled Crotty, noting that the varsity eight had finished a distant sixth in its 2022 IRA grand final. “They just came out and said we are not going out like last year’s seniors had to go out on a real low. We are going to win this whole damn thing. I don’t care what boat I am in, come hell or high water, we are going to come out this season and win every race and they damn near did. That was the seniors putting their foot down. Every senior had a hand in it. What was so cool about that year is how far they came as a group. You could not have a lower low or a higher high in a 24-month span.”
In the view of Hughes, Crotty deserves credit for developing an upbeat feeling around his crew that spring.
“That is not possible without his hard work and leadership,” said Hughes. “He created an environment where those seniors could come off of 2022 and feel like they have ownership of their season and the program in a way that has a positive and lasting impact on the team. Marty creates that kind of group dynamic.”
In Crotty’s final campaign, the group displayed moments of brilliance but the varsity eight ended up finishing fifth in its grand final at the IRA.
“What was good about this year is that I really enjoyed having such a boatload of ability but we just could never make it jell,” said Crotty, who ended up with a 105-33-1 overall record in his tenure guiding the lightweights with his rowers winning 12 medals at the Eastern Sprints and eight at the IRA regatta. “I thought until the very last race that it is going to click, it is going to click. It clearly never clicked but there were some flashes this season. I have never had boats go so fast as this season.”
As the season went on, Crotty began contemplating stepping down.
“It was a combination of things, if I was ever going to leave on my own accord, I definitely wanted to do it at a time where things were good,” said Crotty. “I didn’t want there to be a trigger or a reason that I was leaving. Number one I wanted to leave like John Elway style, win the Super Bowl and retire. Second best was to leave with the roster in a good spot. We have plenty of talent, there are no pieces to pick up. I had only decided in my head with my wife (Regan), the boss. I decided the day before we left for Eastern Sprints. I only told John Mack (Princeton Director of Athletics) the day before we went to IRAs.”
Revealing his decision to his rowers proved to be emotional. “There was no easy way to do it given the timing, it was like ripping off a band aid,” said Crotty. “I was more intent on making it clear that this was not about them. It is not you, it is me. They were not prepared for it. I have to say, I was really moved by their reaction. There were some guys that got pretty emotional and wow I did not expect that. There were some guys that were a little bit angry.”
In the wake of his decision being made public, Crotty has received a flood of positive responses.
“The messages I have received, while it is certainly not even close, it feels like every single guy I have ever coached has texted me,” said Crotty. “Other coaches in the league and guys I coached against who are no longer coaching, and former administrators have reached out. One of the first calls you get is from Gary Walters, he was the guy that hired me in the first place. The reaction has been unexpected but I am really grateful and thankful for that. It has been great week because of that.”
While Hughes understands Crotty’s desire to pursue other opportunities, his exit will leave a huge void in the boathouse.
“He is more than just a co-worker for me, I have known him forever,” said Hughes. “He has been a great friend. It has been very few years of the 34 I have been around here where he hasn’t been a key part of it. It will be tough. I was really sad. I have rarely known the boathouse without him. He is truly at the core of the fabric of the place. He was a key part of the resurgence of heavyweight rowing as an athlete and what happened in that late ’90s window. His impact and success as an athlete is on par with the greatest that we have had as a Princeton athlete. It is the ultimate team sport and he was a part of a strong successful team. He most certainly was a key player in that environment.”
Beyond his success as a rower and a coach, Crotty’s forceful personality has made an impact across the Princeton community.
“His nickname is Marty the one-man party,” said Hughes of Crotty, who has served as the class president for the Princeton Class of 1998, a position into which he was elected by his classmates, from 2003 through 2008. “He is a thousand-watt lightbulb. He walks in and you smile the second you see him. He just brings so much energy and productivity to everything and those people are special.”
Now, Crotty will be putting his energy into a different team, Princeton CarbonWorks.
“I am 49 so I have still got a ton of juice; back in 2015 I founded a carbon fiber bicycle wheel company which has taken off quite a bit,” said Crotty. “We have a worldwide sales network. It is another world of opportunities. I have just been a partner in it, I have accomplished quite a lot despite also being the coach. I am kind of curious to see what I can accomplish if I treat this as my priority because Princeton has been my priority to date. I have been lucky to partner with some guys who could really blow this up properly. I have just sort of been a witness to it. I want to throw myself into the mix.”
While Crotty is leaving the boathouse, he isn’t going far.
“I am walking away but I knew I didn’t have to go anywhere because my wife is a dean at Princeton,” said Crotty, noting that his sons, Jack and Henry, are graduating from Princeton High this week and will be heading off to college this fall. “The timing felt right, you can retire on a high note or if everything is good because this is not something I would ever want to quit. Quitters quit at the worst times when something is bad and you are giving up. I wanted to make sure if I ever left coaching I did it a good time.”
Although Crotty plans to be immersed in Princeton CarbonWorks, he doesn’t rule out a return to the water sometime in the future.
“I will always be a coach,” said Crotty. “I am sure you will find me over at Mercer Junior Rowing coaching the women’s eight some year because I love coaching. I loved coaching until the last day I coached.”