The Coach

Thirty Years. No Straight Line.

Strength and wellness are not built overnight, and they aren't built the same way twice.

Thirty years in this industry taught me one thing: strength and wellness are not built overnight, and they aren't built the same way twice. I've coached 15-year-old athletes and 83-year-old grandparents chasing their independence back. I've trained swimmers, weight-lifters, and folks just trying to walk up the stairs without pain. No two programs look the same, because no two people are the same.

My path here wasn't a straight line. I started as a competitive swimmer and water polo player, spent years managing fitness facilities as a sales manager and general manager, and picked up group exercise and aquatics along the way, before becoming a personal trainer in 2008. Somewhere in there I also chased a near-medical education — pre-med, nursing school, biology, psychology, nutrition & dietetics — almost 250 college credits worth. I never landed on one focus long enough to finish a degree, but I'll win you any trivia night you invite me to. No matter which direction I was chasing, I always found my way back to fitness — because that's where I saw I could do the most good for others. Chances are, whatever health issue you're dealing with, I've either studied it or worked with a client who's lived it — and either way, we can build a foundation from there that improves your life in meaningful ways.

I'm NASM Certified as both a Personal Trainer and a Nutrition Coach, and I bring all of it to every client I train, wherever they're logging in from. A lot of fitness comes down to learning what your body actually needs and how it responds — not what worked for someone else. When you're dealing with limitations, pain, or a disability, that often means learning how to work around it, not push through it. That's where real progress happens. And if you're navigating perimenopause or menopause — buckle up, buttercup. I am navigating through it myself, and no warning prepares you for when you get here. I can help guide you through it too. If you're taking a GLP-1, we can work together through resistance training and nutrition to maintain your muscle mass during weight loss — a GLP-1 is not a magic bullet on its own, but paired with the right training and nutrition, it can be life changing. I've even trained clients who successfully added muscle mass while losing weight on a GLP-1.

Tennessee is where my grandparents were born and raised, and it's where I've recently planted my own roots — not a native, but coming home all the same. Tennacious is built on that same idea: the Smoky Mountains don't move, and the bedrock under them has been there long before any of us and will be there long after. Right now I train exclusively online — bringing the same personalized, hands-on coaching to your living room, garage gym, or commercial gym, wherever your workout happens. Whatever your starting point, we build from the ground up — solid, tested, made to last.