Club Leadership
Michael Rousseas
Michael started rowing later in life. A college rugby player (who should have been a rower) at Berkeley, he learned to row in San Francisco at the Dolphin Club and South End Rowing Club. Naturally talented, in his brief career he has won several notable races, including the men’s single in the inaugural USRowing San Francisco Coastal Championship and the men’s double (with Wyatt) at the 2019 Petaluma Half Marathon.
Michael loves long “expedition” rows, often covering 25-30 miles in a single day. A Bay Area native, he splits his time between his homes in Tiburon and South Lake Tahoe.
Co-Founder and Vice President
Head Coach
Wyatt Nordstrom
Wyatt has over thirty years of experience in rowing, having made the journey from 13-year-old coxswain to lightweight scholastic rower to heavyweight collegiate rower to competitive masters open water sculler.
His rowing career started in the Fall of 1990 as a founding member of the crew at The McCallie School in Chattanooga, TN, where he was the team’s original varsity coxswain (yup, that’s him being held up by the rowers after coxing the McCallie 4+ to victory at Midwest Scholastics in 1991). Midway through high school, a major growth spurt ejected him from the coxswain’s seat, so he turned around and grabbed an oar, eventually landing a seat in the heavyweight 8 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After college, Wyatt got involved with the open water rowing scene in San Francisco, becoming a masters sculler at the South End Rowing Club and the Dolphin Club, where he led the rowing program for two years (he’s the guy in the stroke seat of the coastal quad out on SF Bay).
An all-around rower, Wyatt has rowed every seat in almost every type of boat (including both modern shells and traditional craft) and in all types of conditions (including flat water, open water, and coastal). More importantly, he has taught and coached hundreds of rowers of all ages, and is happiest when he is helping new rowers discover the joy of our sport and experienced rowers develop new skills. He is a USRowing Certified Coach with up-to-date First Aid, CPR, Boating Safety, and SafeSport training.
Wyatt lives in Incline Village with his wife, Linda, 4-year-old son, Alex, and German Shepherd, Dixie.
Founder and President
Michael Janis
Michael began his rowing career at Northeastern University under head coach Walter Congram. After Northeastern, Michael began competing in the single scull, and served as an assistant coach to Tuft’s University men’s lightweight program under Gary Caldwell. Following his move to California, Michael rowed out of the Stanford Rowing Center (known now as an elite development club named Redwood Scullers), competing in various races along the west coast.
Michael remains passionate about the sport, rowing his single scull on the blue waters of Tahoe. He enjoys teaching aspiring athletes to develop a competitive mindset, is a USRowing certified level 2 coach, and has studied sports medicine and physiology.
A native of Vermont, Michael spent his first year in California as a ski patrolman at Kirkwood. He returned full-time to Tahoe in recent years, where he lives in Tahoe City with his wife and stays active, competing on the Palisades Tahoe Ski Team during the winter, coaching elite and developing rowers, and participating in sail races in the Tahoe area during the summer. Michael has a Ph.D. from UCLA, earned his MBA, and studied business strategy at Harvard Business School. He currently leads mergers & acquisitions at a Fortune 500 company.
