Henry Leonardi joined the Old Dominion Rowing team in September of 2024.
Leonardi joined ODU after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach for the Bucknell club rowing team.
Henry Leonardi enters his first season as assistant coach for Old Dominion in 2024-2025.
Before ODU, Leonardi served as the assistant coach for the Bucknell University Men's Rowing team from 2019-2024. During his tenure at Bucknell, Leonardi drove the recruiting process, developed walk-on athletes and assisted in nearly all aspects of day-to-day operations. As the lone assistant on the staff, Leonardi worked alongside the head coach to manage nearly 50 athletes.
Under Leonardi's leadership, Bucknell established itself as one of the fastest club programs in the country, finishing a program-best sixth in team points at the ACRA National Championship in 2022, 2023 & 2024. During this stretch, Bucknell won the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference Championship all three years, scoring more points than any varsity program in attendance. In charge of the bottom half of the roster, Leonardi coached the Bucknell third varsity eight to national titles in 2022 and again in 2024, capping off an undefeated spring. In 2024, Leonardi was voted the ACRA National Assistant Coach of the Year.
While at Bucknell, Leonardi also served as recruiting coordinator. Leonardi recruited at least 12 athletes out of high school every year, culminating in a program-best 17 commits in 2023. By the end of his tenure, the Bucknell roster had grown to its largest size ever.
A 2018 Bucknell graduate with a bachelor's degree in economics, Leonardi coxed for the Bison, spending considerable time at the helm of the top boat. In 2017, Leonardi coxed the varsity eight to a silver medal at the ACRA National Championship. Later that spring, he was selected to the ACRA All-American Team.