University of San Diego
NCAA DI • WCC
Date: November 23, 2025
Would Recommend
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The USD Mens Rowing program CAME THROUGH! Ultimate respect for USD's Athletic Director. He personally spent weeks interviewing rowers past and present. This is amazing. Prior summary: This site is not for people to lie about Bart Thompson it is for sharing the actual truth. It is not a debate site. Bart Thompson is an incompetent coach athletically and there is no argument against this fact. Bart Thompson is a toxic leader and there is no argument against this fact. Good athletic coaches know how to train. Good leaders dont create teams that run on secrecy. No one is allowed to talk about what it is really like? that's because the team knows its toxic. Sad when subjects defend there tyrant but that is what happens. This post is not about tearing Bart Thompson down it is about telling truths about someone who is an absolutely toxic leader. This is not a problem with a coach that talks a little too much. Bart Thompson forces his team to be his audience and his subjects and his slaves or best friends depending on how he feels that day. Coaches need there own life and friends and Bart has none of this. Disorganized and rude and defensive and frustrated. Expects devotion and loyalty beyond reason and fairness, rages when he doesnt get it. Yah he help you erg at 7 in the morning because he has no priorities and no life and no boundaries. Try to quit the team and you will be called weak by THE COACH, Try to question or confront Bart and you will be called a backstabber by THE COACH. Thats bad leadership. No actual knowledge: didn't even row for one year in college. Bart Thompson does not know what he is doing as an actual athlete because he is not one and never was. He covers this up by talking constantly and moving rowers around like chess pieces playing games. It is sad to see incoming freshmen fall for his show because yah, he should be in sales because he sells the whole program and team culture so they are excited. He seems like he cares about mental health but actually what he wants is control in everyones lives. Get your own friends Coach Bart. Bart yells and insults his rowers to "motivate" them. Completely unnecessary because they dont need to be beat into submission to work hard. So yah he will be overtly abusive. But mostly Bart Thompson plays games. He is good at this and knows how to dog whistle by using what youre insecure about to control you so it looks like nothing and you end up questiooning your own reality. You can create something that looks like a close team that is really sick which is what Bart Thompson has done. This coach is incompetent and never shuts up and I do mean that you will be sitting listening to him bask in the glory of his own sermons and you will want to die because he will not stop talking and this is because he finally got an audience that cant walk away. Thought you were done with practice at 3 PM so you could study for that midterm? Suprise, your going to listen to Bart lecture until 6. Thought you would have time to run back to the dorm and grab a shower? Suprise your now going to a unshceduled rowing meeting. 14 hour days during your break? Yah that will build team coherence because you have no time for anything or anyone else which is how Bart likes it. Row under him and you will eventually hate rowing unless you are chosen to be one of his golden boys and I would not count on it. Yes Bart picks a favorite but he also picks a scapegoat and will just wreck him from the inside out and thats what everyone is afraid of, ending up that guy. It's not tough coaching it is abuse and people have complained but he is a con and punishes anyone who tells the truth. He is always angry because we are ungrateful and he is trying to be our father figure? Guess what a lot of us already have fathers and were not looking for a father or a best friend or a BIBLE STUDY TEACHER we are looking for a ROWING COACH. I hope this site does not get flooded with a bunch of rowing team desperate posts. This site is to warn people and tell the truth. That is what i have done here. On this site I would guess positive comments especially posted recently on this page come from his favorites athletes-if you don’t fall into that category consider your rowing career and all movement towards achieving your rowing potential shut down. Have you heard the phrase even a broken clock is right twice a day. Same with this team. The team might get some periodic traction because once in a while Bart lucks out and gets a few talented athletes on the team but even great athletes CANNOT compensate for consistently bad technical and interpersonal leadership. Last I am not posting this because I have a personal grind against Bart Thompson because he is not the only guy with personality issues looking to be in control for once. This post is for people who cant OR WONT fight back because they have too much invested or just do not know what good coaching is. Fighting back does not mean trying to take Bart down personally. It means facing the truth and being willing to speak up.