AMP Rowing

AMP Rowing

AMP Rowing was established in 2018 by three long time members of the rowing community. All 3 principals in AMP Rowing are well known in the international rowing community, having collectively been involved in various capacities at over 45 World Championships and 9 Olympic Games. In total, the 3 partners of AMP rowing have over 100 years of experience in all aspects of rowing from involvement at the community level to Olympic rowing.

At AMP Rowing, we pride ourselves on knowing how to get the job done to our client’s satisfaction. Through out our careers, we have been been tasked with all aspects of developing the sport, from starting, building and administering club programs to boat house design to helping athletes achieve their sporting goals.

Al Morrow – Partner AMP Rowing

Hamilton, Ontario native Al Morrow started rowing at the Leander Boat Club where he rowed for 3 years in high school and 2 summers for the club’s summer teams. He rowed on 2 University team at Western Ontario and The University of British Columbia and 2 Clubs, the St. Catharines RC and Burnaby Lake AC along with being a member of Canada's National Rowing Team on five different occasions.

Al has been coaching rowing since 1976 at all levels including high school, club, University and the Canadian National team. Highlights of his coaching career have been working for Rowing Canada with the Canadian Olympic team. Crews he has coached include 4 Gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medal winning crews at the Olympics. He has been a member of 10 Olympic teams.

In 1999 Al was chosen as the International Coach of then Year by FISA and he is a member of 8 Sports Hall of Fames.
In recent years, Al has been very involved in Coaching Education and he is known for his ability to be a great story teller and source of a wide variety of information on many topics related to rowing.

Michelle Darvill – Partner, AMP Rowing

Introduced to rowing at the Don Rowing Club in her hometown of Mississauga, Michelle Darvill went on to compete successfully for her club, university and countries. While at the University of Toronto she was coached by Peter Cookson and later on the National Team by Al Morrow.
As an athlete, Michelle competed for both Canada and Germany winning multiple titles and medals at World Championships and World Cups. She transitioned to coaching and has since worked with all classes and levels; High School beginner, Development, Para, National Team and masters.
From 2009 to 2016 she led the U23 Canadian Women’s Team, with crews winning 9 medals. In 2007 and 2011 she coached Pan Am crews to 8 medals and in 2017 she was the crew coach of the silver medal Senior Women’s 8+. Michelle was honoured with the Petro-Canada Excellence Award in 2018.
Michelle has recently been named as the Assistant Women’s Coach for the Canadian Rowing Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Peter Cookson – Partner, AMP Rowing

Originally from St. Catharines, Ontario, Peter Cookson has been involved with rowing at all levels for over 40 years. Peter is a member of the International Rowing Federation’s Competitive Commission and President of the Commonwealth Rowing Association. Cookson was the High Performance Director at Rowing Canada Aviron from 2009 to 2016, and Team Leader at 2 Olympic Games and 2 Pan American Games.
Cookson began his coaching career in Canada in 1985 and was a leading coach for several prominent Canadian university programs - University of British Columbia, University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto. He has since coached in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and has been involved with the FISA (the international rowing federation) Development program in Africa. Cookson coached South Africa’s women’s single sculler at the 2008 Olympics. In 2017, Cookson undertook the updating of the FISA Rigging Survey at the 2017 World Championships held in Sarasota.
Cookson, a Western University graduate, has also worked in coach education for many years and produced the 2005 DVD called Effective Sculling Technique. In 2018, Cookson was a co-producer of World Rowing’s Essential Sculling Technique avatar video project.