I grew up in Hooksett, NH and was a competitive baseball and soccer player throughout my youth, but also a saxophonist with a love of music. When it came time to choose a college and a major, I decided to follow the path of jazz musician and music teacher, continuing with this career from 2004 – 2016. In 2017, I was hired as the full-time Masters Swim and Multi-Sport Coach at the University Club in Boston. It seems like quite the leap, but actually, how I went from musician to full-time coach transpired over a seven-year period.

I became interested in triathlon after watching my father-in-law compete in a sprint distance race in 2009. I just ran my first marathon, and thought, “hey that looked fun, maybe I should challenge myself to learn to swim and start cycling.” After many humbling attempts at swimming laps in a pool, (I couldn’t swim two consecutive laps without stopping!), I decided to get adult swim lessons and purchased my first ever road bike. In 2010, I entered my first sprint distance race, and have been hooked ever since. In 2013, I competed in my first Ironman at Lake Placid and finished with a respectable 11:55. After seeing what can happen through hard work over the course of 3 short years, I was all in! I didn’t realize how much I would love all aspects of the sport – the training, the racing, and most of all, the community.

Through my coach, I developed a better sense of what it is like to train and race smart, but also be challenged. This is where the teacher in me took over and I started helping others. This led to me becoming a coach with Peak Triathlon Coaching, and ultimately, my full-time role at the University Club.