Michael Colella joined the Boston University men's rowing coaching staff in July of 2024. The 2024-25 school year marked his first season at the DeWolfe Boathouse.
During his first campaign, Colella helped the Terriers finish 14th overall in the nation at the IRA National Championship Regatta. The Third Varsity 8 made its fourth straight appearance in the Petite Final for the event, placing 12th in the country.
“I am very excited to have Michael join our staff,” said Bohrer at the time of his hiring. “He was a relentless competitor as an athlete, and he knows the competitiveness of the Division I rowing field and the type of athlete that will make our team stronger, while meeting the rigid academic requirements to succeed at BU. Most importantly, he cares about the student-athlete and will bring out the best in each of our Terriers.”
No stranger to the Charles River, Colella arrived to the DeWolfe Boathouse following two seasons at Northeastern under former BU assistant and associate head coach Alex Perkins. During Colella’s tenure, the Huskies finished ninth as a team at the IRA National Championship Regatta in June of 2024. In the previous year, Northeastern capped the spring in sixth at the IRA Championship.
Under Colella’s tutelage, four Huskies garnered Empacher-IRCA All-American accolades. Alexander Abuhoff was recognized on the first team, while Will Dempsey and James Cartwright were chosen for the second team. Braden Porterfield was an honorable mention.
I would like to thank Tom Bohrer and (Associate Head Coach) Alex Dillon for providing me with the amazing opportunity to build upon the elite academic and athletic success of Boston University,” said Colella upon his hire. “As a longtime admirer of their coaching work, I am honored to join their staff and to work with this team. We are chasing big goals this year, and I am excited to hit the ground running this fall.”
Prior to his time at Northeastern, Colella worked full-time while serving as the head novice/U17 coach for the Oakland Strokes Women.
Colella rowed for the U.S. National Team for multiple years, including a fourth-place result in the Men’s 4- at the 2016 U23 World Championships. Colella competed in the Men’s Pair for the 2017 and 2018 World Championships, finishing in 11th and 15th place, respectively.
As a student-athlete at Cornell University, Colella served as Commodore in his senior year, a position that graduate student Maxwell Kreutzelman held twice prior to transferring to BU for the 2023-24 slate. That year, he was part of the Varsity 8 that was fifth in the 2016 Eastern Sprints.
In his junior campaign, he was a member of the Varsity 8 that placed 10th in the nation, beating its seed, at the IRA Championship in 2015. In that year, he helped the Big Red win consecutive Goes Trophies against Navy and Syracuse for the first time since 2009 and 2010.
Colella earned a Bachelor of Science in Labor and Industrial Relations from Cornell in 2016.
