Harvard University Men's Crew

Charley Butt was named the Bolles-Parker Head Coach for Harvard Men's Heavyweight Crew on August 13, 2013. Butt enters his 41st season with the Harvard rowing program in 2025-26, having previously served as the Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men’s Lightweight Crew for 28 years.  The ninth coach in Harvard heavyweight crew history, Butt assumed his role after the passing of the legendary Harry Parker, who guided the Crimson for 51 seasons. Butt is just the fourth coach to lead the Crimson since 1946.   Butt led the Crimson to an Eastern Sprints victory in 2024-25, the programs first since the 2014 season. The first, second, and third varsity eights claimed victory at Eastern Sprints. The first and second varsity eight earned silver at the IRA Championships, while the third eight claimed the IRA championship title. Butt also led the Crimson to a sweep at the 158th Harvard-Yale Regatta.  The 2023-24 season resulted in a Head of the Charles win, second-place finish at the IRA Championships, and the first win at the Harvard-Yale regatta since 2014.  Following the cancelation of the 2020 and 2021 spring campaigns by the Ivy League, Harvard has posted a combined dual-race record of 11-3 the last two seasons (2022, 2023). From 2015-19, Butt led the Crimson to a 32-6 dual record and five top-5 finishes at the IRA National Championships (2015 - 5th, 2016 - 5th, 2017 - 3rd, 2018 - 4th, 2019 - 3rd). The Crimson posted a perfect 8-0 record in 2014 during its dual season, including a sweep of Yale in the 149th Harvard-Yale Regatta. Harvard also won the EARC Sprints for the fifth time in as many years, as the varsity eight took home the inaugural Harry Parker Cup. Butt led the team to a fifth-place finish at the IRA National Championships. Butt led Harvard’s lightweight program for nearly 30 seasons, steering the Crimson to nine Eastern crowns and nine national championships, including the 2012 and 2013 IRA National Championships. Consistently among the nation’s best, Butt’s crews posted winning dual records in 25 of his 28 seasons at the helm. Harvard also won the Head of the Charles Regatta for the first time since 1975 during the fall of 2012. An outstanding oarsman himself, Butt rowed on the United States lightweight entry in the 1980 world championships, finishing fourth. He was a member of the winning four with coxswain at the 1979 IRA Championship and later that year was selected as an alternate on the national lightweight team. Butt graduated from Rutgers in 1983. In 1985, he was a silver medalist for the lightweight eight at the world championships in Belgium. In 1986, Butt was part of the Wyfold Cup championship crew at Henley. As a coach, Butt's experience extends well beyond Harvard, including four stints as a United States Olympic coach, a position he continues to hold. Andrew Campbell, a junior Harvard oarsman and Butt’s pupil, became the first American to win gold as a single sculler at the 2013 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Butt helped Radcliffe alumna, Michelle Guerette '02, earn a silver medal in the women's single sculls. He served as her coach at the 2005 World Championships, where she won bronze medal in the single sculls. Four years earlier at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Butt and associate heavyweight coach Bill Manning worked with former Crimson rowers Artour Samsonov '02, Henry Nuzum '99 and Greg Ruckman '96 in the pair, double and lightweight double. At the 2000 Games, he coached the men's lightweight double, a boat that included Greg Ruckman '96. He also coached a pair featuring former Crimson oarsman Adam Holland '94 and a bronze-medalist lightweight single sculler at the 2002 world championships in Seville. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he coached the men's pair, a tandem which included Holland. He coached Holland's pair again in 1997 and '98 when they were third and a very close fourth, respectively, at the world championships. Butt previously coached the U.S. men's quad that captured the silver at the 1991 Pan Am Games in Havana, was an assistant coach for men's sweep rowing (4+) at the 1993 world championships in the Czech Republic and coached the coxed four to silver at the 1994 world championships. That boat featured three Harvard oarsmen: Holland, Bill Cooper '93 and Chris Swan '92.

Ian Accomando joined the Harvard lightweight crew staff as an assistant in September 2012 and enters his 14th season in 2025-26. Accomando helped guide the Crimson through a historic, undefeated 2024–25 season, capturing titles at the Head of the Charles, Eastern Sprints, and IRA Championships, and securing the program’s first-ever Temple Challenge Cup victory at the Henley Royal Regatta. He helped coached the All-Ivy 1st Team varsity eight boat, as well as the inaugural Oarsmen Award winner, Brahm Erdmann '25. In 2023-24, Accomando helped coach the the varsity eight to reach it's first IRA Championship and Eastern Sprints win since 2014, going undefeated throughout the regular season and postseason. As the last-ever freshman lightweight coach during the spring season, Accomando led the F8 to an undefeated spring in 2015 before joining forces with the varsity. Returning to the water for the first time in nearly three years, the 2022 Crimson lightweight rowing team posted a pair of dual-race wins with Accomando's help. Accomando also helped guide the Crimson varsity fours boat to an appearance at the IRA National Championships where it finished second overall.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the 2020 and 2021 men's lightweight rowing seasons were canceled by the Ivy League. Under his leadership in 2017, Harvard's coxless four captrued the gold medal at IRAs.  Accomando oversaw the third varsity in 2016, also coaching the coxless four to a bronze medal at the IRA National Championships. With the rookies in the fall of 2015, Accomando won the freshmen lightweight division at the Princeton Chase. Accomando coached Alexander Bonorris ’15 to a fourth-place finish in the lightweight pair at the U23 World Championship (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) in the summer of 2015. It marked the best finish by an American crew ever by two finishing places and 15 seconds. The crew missed a medal by .05 of a second. In 2013, Accomando  coached the 3V to a bronze at the Eastern Sprints. Before coming to Harvard, Accomando served as an assistant coach of the junior men at the Pennsylvania Athletic Club in Philadelphia. Accomando joins the Crimson with a wealth of Ivy League experience. He is a former captain of the Dartmouth lightweight crew, where he helped the Big Green earn a silver medal at the 2012 IRA National Championship and a bronze at the 2011 event. Accomando earned two second team All-Ivy honors during his four years in Hanover, N.H. Originally hailing from Andover, Mass., Accomando earned a B.A. in government from Dartmouth in 2012.

Billy Boyce was announced as the Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men's Lightweight Crew on July 22, 2016. Prior to his hiring as head lightweight coach, Boyce spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the men's heavyweight staff. Boyce guided the Crimson through a historic, undefeated 2024–25 season, capturing titles at the Head of the Charles, Eastern Sprints, and IRA Championships, and securing the program’s first-ever Temple Challenge Cup victory at the Henley Royal Regatta. He coached the All-Ivy 1st Team varsity eight boat, as well as the inaugural Oarsmen Award winner, Brahm Erdmann '25. Boyce led the Crimson to an undefeated season in the 1V8 in 2023-4, winning Eastern Sprints and the IRA Championship for the first time since 2014. The 2V also was victorious at IRAs. He coached four 2024 Empacher IRCA All-Americans, as well as won the 2024 Men's Lightweight Rowing Coach of the Year Award. In August 2024, he was named a Harvard Athletics Coach Excellence: The James Herscot '58 Coach of Excellence Award. He coached back-to-back gold medals for the Crimson at the Head of the Charles in the 1V8 Men;s lightweight division.  In the 2023 spring season, Boyce led the Crimson to a second place finish in both the Eastern Sprinsta and IRA Championship Regattas.  Returning to action for the first time in three years in 2022, Boyce led the Crimson to a pair of wins during the dual-race season. The Harvard varsity fours boat made an appearance at the IRA National Championships and finished second in the grand final under Boyce's mentorship.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the 2020 and 2021 men's lightweight rowing seasons were canceled by the Ivy League. In his first season leading the lightweight team, Boyce and Harvard won the points title at the IRA National Championships. The varsity four with no coxswain took home the gold medal, while the varsity four grabbed the silver, and the varsity eight placed fourth. The Crimson also won the Jope Cup at Eastern Sprints and posted a 9-1 dual record on the season. The last freshman coach of heavyweight crew at Harvard, Boyce took over the second varsity boat in 2016, leading the Crimson to an undefeated dual season, an Eastern Sprints title and the first Crimson IRA National title since 2006. The crew went on to make the final of the Temple Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. The 2015 freshman crew won the EARC Sprints, besting Wisconsin by over two seconds with its finishing time of 5:46.604. It marked the third time over four years that the freshman eight had won the Sprints title. Boyce coached Crimson student-athletes to a quarterfinal finish in the Visitors Challenge at Henley and were semifinalists in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup. In 2014, Boyce helped guide the Crimson to a silver-medal finish at the EARC Sprints after a neck-and-neck race the entire 2,000 meters. The crew was Henley finalists in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup. Under Boyce, the Crimson won back-to-back Sprints championships in 2012 and 2013. Harvard posted an undefeated dual season in 2012, finishing in the quarter finals at Henley in the Temple Challenge. In 2013, the Crimson boat was a finalist at Henley in the Temple Challenge. Before heading to Cambridge, Boyce spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Yale. He coached the freshman eight in 2009-10 and the third and fourth varsity eights in 2010-11, while overseeing domestic and international recruiting during both seasons. His third varsity posted a 4-0 record in dual competition in spring 2010. A 2008 Cornell graduate, Boyce previously served as a coaching intern at his alma mater. He assisted the heavyweight varsity staff in the fall of 2009 and coached the lightweight third varsity eight in the previous season. He led the lightweight third varsity eight to a runner-up finish at Eastern Sprints. At Cornell, Boyce rowed the six seat of the lightweight varsity eight as a senior and won gold at both the Eastern Sprints and IRA National Championships, as the Big Red pulled off a stunning come-from-behind victory in the last 500 meters to claim the national title. The crew went on to reach the quarterfinals of the Temple Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. Boyce was named to the All-Ivy League first team in 2008 and won the highly coveted Captains Award at Cornell for "outstanding performance by an oarsman as selected by the captain."  He was a three-year varsity letterwinner and graduated with a degree in film. He was also part of the Sprints-winning Cornell lightweight second varsity as a sophomore and the silver-medal lightweight varsity as a junior. Boyce stroked the Mercer Junior Rowing Club Varsity 8 that finished fourth at the Youth National Championships. Boyce and his wife, Naomi Bocarsly, reside in Framingham, Massachusetts with their son, James.