Coaching Team

Head Coach: Sam Waghorn ("Wags")

Coaches: Sam Wilkins, Caleb Meijer, Ari Pálsson.​​​​​​​

Coach Profiles

​​​​​​​Sam Waghorn ("Wags") - Head Coach

Wags is Christchurch born and bred.  He starting his rowing career at Christchurch Boys High School (CBHS) and after finishing school he coached at CBHS for five successful seasons.  During that time CBHS won medals at both South Island Secondary Schools Champs and Maadi.  Wags has also coached at university level, running the Lincoln University programme, as well as assisting at the Southern RPC.  Wags moved to Wellington from Blenheim in 2018 and owns his own wine distribution business - Wag and Co.  Wags started coaching  at Wellingotn College in 2019. Wags can be contacted at [email protected]

​​​​​​​Sam Wilkins

Sam started rowing in 2011 for Wellington College.  He has rowed in 3 Maadi cups and won a silver medal in the U18 Lightweight double sculls.  After Wellington College, Sam went to the University of Otago to study Physiotherapy.  While there, Sam competed successfully in rowing  for Otago University, including travelling to regattas in China and Russia and rowing in the NZ University trans-Tasman team.  Sam is now fully qualified and practices at Action Physiotherapy in Lower Hutt and Whitby.  Sam started coaching at Wellington College in 2020.

​​​​​​​Caleb Meijer

Caleb rowed for Wellington College for four years from 2015 until 2019.  In his final year at Wellington College he became an assistant coach and had a very successful season as an assistant coach with the U15 squad.  

​​​​​​​Ari Pálsson

Ari started rowing for Whakatane high school in 2010,  in 2014 he competed in the under 19 junior world rowing championships winning bronze in the Men's quad.  He spent 2 years rowing for Waikato RPC before moving to Otago University and racing with the New Zealand trans-Tasman university team.  Ari is now working for Statistics New Zealand and started coaching for Wellington Colllege in 2020.