Joel Furtek ’90 returned to Yale in 2017 as the Crew Operations Coordinator. He is responsible for the day to day operations of Yale’s rowing teams, including the maintenance, repair, and transportation of rowing shells, safety launches, and training equipment. His work is based out of Gilder Boathouse, Payne Whitney Gymnasium, and the Yale Boathouse at Gales Ferry.
Furtek has previously been the boatman at the University of Virginia and the University of Miami. He has driven Yale’s boats to postseason competitions since 2005, and first worked for Yale Athletics in the Alumni Affairs office from 1987-1989.
Furtek walked on to the lightweight crew as a freshman, earning varsity letters in 1989 and 1990. He racked up a career record of 77-5, leading his crews to three victories at the San Diego Crew Classic, two undefeated regular seasons, two HYP championships, two EARC Sprints championships, a Jope Cup for overall supremacy at EARC Sprints, and the 1990 IRA National Championship, Yale’s first in a varsity eight. That 1990 eight advanced to the quarterfinals at the Henley Royal Regatta by defeating Lea Rowing Club before falling to Notts County, the British lightweight national team. To close his career, Furtek earned All-Ivy status and was awarded the Henry Babcock Award for Outstanding Lightweight Spirit.
Prior to his return to the Housatonic, Furtek was the founding head coach of the Division 1 crew at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, rowing out of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Fontana Boathouse. Furtek led his charges to bronze, silver and gold medals at the MAAC Conference Championships and a 4th place finish among collegiate entries (7th overall) in the Club Eights at the 2013 Head of the Charles Regatta. While in Buffalo, Furtek served as the Vice President for Rowing at the West Side Rowing Club.
Furtek was previously the first head coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, starting the Tar Heel crew and driving it to an NCAA bronze medal in 1998 in the varsity four. The Tar Heels also won SIRA and South-Central championships and polled in the Top 15 nationwide. In 1999 they finished 11th among collegiate crews entered in the Championship Eight at the Head of the Charles. The program sent a number of women on to national team training camps, including Dana Peirce who won gold at the 2002 World Championship in the US Women’s Eight. Furtek owned and operated Chapel Hill Rowing Camps, then the largest in the Nike Rowing Camps system.
Furtek also has served as an assistant coach at the University of Virginia, the University of Miami, and the University of Central Florida. At Virginia, his novices garnered an undefeated season, SIRA and South-Central Championships, and a fourth-place finish at the IRA regatta; his charges went on to win eight national championship gold medals for the Wahoos. At Miami, he led the Canes’ second varsity eight to a best-ever third place finish at the 2009 ACC Championships.
Furtek’s work outside of rowing has included stints in the clandestine service at CIA, at a Ferrari shop, and building cancer treatment systems. He has installed rowing race courses at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, as well as the national team training center in Oklahoma City, the 2017 World Championship site in Sarasota, and in Monterrey, Mexico.
A Utica, NY, native, Furtek was captain and MVP of his soccer team at Notre Dame High School, where he also ran track, was Class President, and served as Commander of the NJROTC Company of Cadets.
Furtek spent the first three years of his life on the island of Adak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Chain; he has since visited 49 states and 8 countries. His hobbies include photography, camping, and restoring old homes and trucks; his 1960 International Harvester pickup won 2nd in class at the 2001 IH Scout Nationals. Furtek lives with his dog, Cash, on the Housatonic just five miles upstream from Gilder Boathouse, and often commutes in “A Boat Named Sue,” his 1967 Gregor aluminum runabout.
