CALTAF coaches are trained to instill confidence in their athlete, while racing and training. They also inspire their athletes to be their best and work hard during all of their workouts and competitions.
Kim Cousins – Lead
Speed & Power, Jumps, Throws
Para
Performance and National Development
NCCP 4/5
Kim is an accomplished coach who has trained athletes at the 2002, 2006 and 2014 Winter Olympics in Bobsleigh and Skeleton. She has just returned from the Olympics in Sochi where she coached John Fairbairn (Skeleton). She is currently coaching power speed athletes focusing on jumps and throws has created a primarily high performance group with provincial and nationals medalists. She will be primarily training in South Calgary.
Kim is an NCCP Level 4/5 in power speed. She has coached with Caltaf since 2000 and was a throws athlete with the club before that. Kim has a wealth of coaching experience including:
*Head coach for CALTAF for 6 years.
*Head Coach of the Western Canada Summer Games Team
*Multiple times as the Head Coach of Alberta Legion Team
Kim has coached on many national teams, including throws and jumps and combined events areas all over the world. She was coach at the Francophone Games in 2001, the Junior Pan Am Games, the Combined Events Challenge in Glasgow and many more meets.
Kim has coached athletes to 6 medals from international team Canada experiences for throws, jumps and combined events and to over 20 National Championship medals in Combined events, throws and jumps. In addition she has coached more than 40 Provincial Championship medalists in all power speed event areas.
“What makes me most proud in my coaching record to date is that every athlete that I have worked with has achieved personal bests. No matter the level (provincial, national, or international) all athletes have the ability to work hard and get better.”
“It is about the journey in track and field. If you work hard you will achieve your goals.”
Paul Sze – Assistant Coach
Speed & Power, Jumps, Throws
Para
NCCP Performance Coach Certified
As Head Coach for Dr E.P. Scarlett, Paul’s Track and Field teams have won the Team aggregate City Championships for 10 years in a row and reached provincial A.S.A.A finals on numerous occasions.
Paul Sze was a club (Wirral AC) and college athlete (specializing in javelin) in the UK where he completed a degree in Physical Education at De Montfort University.
His track and field coaching experience began in a Kings Houghton Middle school (Junior High) north of London, England. As Head Coach of Track and Field, he organized sports days for the whole school and coached young athletes in all events. From there he moved to Canada in 2005 where he took over the role of Head Coach at Dr EP Scarlett from Stuart Holton (2007). As Head/Throws coach at Scarlett he has coached numerous provincial high school gold/silver and bronze medalists. Paul has been involved in the Organizing Committee for High School Track and Field Provincial teams. He has also been involved as a Throws coach for several Provincial teams since 2007. In summer of 2009 he was involved in the Legion Camp hosted in Calgary as a Javelin Throws Specialist. More recently Paul has joined Caltaf as a specialist throws coach. Since arriving at the Club, he has taken many athletes to National Legion Finals. He was involved in the Trial-Provinces Alberta team (hosted in Sherwood Park 2022) as a Throws coach. IN terms of Coach Education, he has recently attained the fully “Certified Club Coach” in Throws and is in training as an “Athletics Performance Coach” through Athletics Canada. He is currently competing as a Master thrower in all throws.
Paul says: “Since I first began coaching, it has been a pleasure to coach athletes, help them realize their potential and to give back to a sport that has given me so much.”
Rachel Andres – Assistant Coach
Throws
Performance and National Development
NCCP Performance Coach Certified
Rachel originally hails from the USA and immigrated to Canada in 2012 with her husband. She has competed in track and field since 1998 and continues to compete while also coaching the next generation of throwers. As a college athlete, she earned 2x All-American status as well as several conference titles in multiple throwing events. She was an all event thrower (discus, shot put, javelin, hammer, and weight) throughout college. She competed in the USA Olympic Trials in 2012 before immigrating to Canada. And in 2016 was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame at her college university, Oral Roberts (ORU). She has been top 3 at the Canadian Championships since garnering her citizenship in 2018, including a 2nd place in 2022 8 weeks after giving birth to her 2nd child, and has represented Team Canada on the international stage. She holds the Alberta Provincial Record in the discus throw and has continued to break that record yearly since coming to Canada.
Her coaching journey began in 2004 in high school and continued throughout college coaching the walk ons to her NCAA Div I team at Oral Roberts University from 2005-2010. In 2010, her college throws coach left the college and she took over coaching the throwing athletes from 2010-2012 along with coaching budding local high school athletes. Upon immigrating to Canada, she started actively coaching the throwers at Olds High School. Her first athlete was Andreas Troschke. The throws program developed from there with many Provincial records and Provincial and National contenders. Many of her throwers have been offered scholarships and competed at the university in both the US and Canada.
She coached and competed for the Airdrie Aces from 2017-2020 and began coaching and competing for CALTAF in 2021.
Rachel recently acquired her Performance Coach certification and is continuing her coaching education with the current goal of becoming High Performance certified. Her specialty is coaching high performance throwers and budding elite athletes into high performance, but will coach throwers of any age and at any level. Her passion is passing on her love for throwing to whoever wants to learn.
Liam Banks – Assistant Coach
Throws
Alister McQueen – Assistant Coach
Throws
Jason Lindsay – Co Head Coach
Sprints/Hurdles
Performance and National Development
NCCP Level 3 Sprints & Hurdles and Distance
Jason’s running career started with Calgary Track West in 1983 where he was an active middle distance runner in events ranging from 400m to 3000m Steeplechase and 400m Hurdles – in fact, he has a retired provincial record in the U16 1500m Steeplechase. He began coaching in 1994 with Calgary Track West and moved to CALTAF in the fall of 1999. In his nearly thirty years as a coach, Jason has been a successful coach across many disciplines ranging from junior development, middle and long distance and most recently as the lead sprints and hurdles coach. Through his program Jason has had the good fortune and opportunity to work with some of the finest people. Jason believes that through athletics, people learn to achieve their goals and objectives in life, while they pursuing excellence in athletics. The key is to learn to balance everything together.
His coaching resume includes the following:
Provincial Team Assignments:
Canada Summer Games: 2022, 2013 – Head Coach, 2005 – Team Coach
Team Alberta, European Tour: 2016 – Head Coach
Western Canada Summer Games: 2011 – Head Coach, 1999, 2003 – Staff Coach
National Youth Championships: 1999 – Head Coach, 1998, 1996 – Team Coach
National Team Assignments:
NACAC XC: 2009 – Team Coach
World XC and FISU XC: 2008 – Personal Coach
2017 – George Gemer, Long Service Award, Athletics Alberta
2006 – Development Coach of the Year, Athletics Alberta
In addition Jason is a dedicated member of the track and field community taking his commitment well beyond the role of coach. Locally, he created the – the New Balance Athletics Series/Gord’s Running Store Athletics Series. In 1997, he co-founded the Youth Athletics League – an introductory track and field league for youth – which the CALTAF Cheetahs are based off of. He was the Meet Director for the Provincial Cross Country Championships in 1998 to 2000 and also 2007. He served as Vice-President and President of the Calgary Track Council from 1996 to 2001. Provincially, Jason was a Member-At-Large of the Board of Directors for Athletics Alberta from 1997 to 2001 and was the Vice-President of Programs until 2009. In 2000, he was the Meet Director for the National Youth Championships and will once again reprise this role for the 2024 and 2025 Championships.
Jason is NCCP certified performance coach. He has a B.Sc. in Geography and a Masters of Teaching Degree from the University of Calgary and is employed with Calgary Academy where is he is the outdoor education lead instructor and physical education teacher. As well, he is an instructor for the Outdoor Council of Canada and apprentice hiking guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. He is married to Tina, and has two beautiful bonus kids – Jordan (23) and Cole (20).
Jason believes that through balance, consistency, patience and hard work, personal growth is possible in all aspects of life. “Success in the sport of Athletics is built upon the day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month habits we create. In the end, we remember that no one rep/workout will make a season, but one can certainly ruin a season! Less is often more!”
Brad McCuaig – Sprint Development Coach
Sprints/Hurdles
NCCP Club Coach
Brad is originally from the local Calgary area where he competed for Caltaf and holds several age class provincial and national records while representing Canada at Junior U/20 World Championships and Pan Am Games. He later attended the University of Alabama where he became a National Champion as a member of the 4X100 relay and earning All American honors in both indoor and outdoor. He then went on to compete for Team Canada at the Olympics, World Championships, Commonwealth Games (Silver Medal 4X100), Pan Am Games (Silver Medal 4X100), and Goodwill Games (Silver Medal 4X100), and was honored to lead off the relay at the World Cup as a member of the Americas Team.
Brad then became a coach with Caltaf following years of assisting local high schools during track season, coaching the Calgary Falcons Football organization, and providing guest coaching appearances at the request of Team Canada Speed Skating. “It is my responsibility to provide to my young athletes, what I didn’t have as a developing athlete. It is also my responsibility to recognize and develop those that have the want to, and desire to compete at the highest level, to arrive at their destination prepared.”
Samantha Read
Endurance – The Crew
Co Head Coach
Junior Development
Performance and National Development
Samantha Read competed for CALTAF in the sprints and middle distance events. She competed for the U of C Dinos (1988 -1993), and was a member of the 1991 National Championship team, earning All Canadian status that year. She then moved to the United States and competed for the Nike Farm Team (1996-2001) in the middle distance events.
While living in the United States she was the Head Track and Field and Cross Country Coach at Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California (1996- 2006). In her time there she was named the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Honor Coach in 2001 (Girls Cross Country), 2005 (Girls Cross Country) and 2006 (Girls & Boys Track and Field).
Between 2014 and 2016 Sam and her Cheetah coaching staff had great success. In 2015 Sam was named Grassroots Coach of the Year by Athletics Alberta. She is very proud of the growth of the Cheetahs program and seeing the sea of Red Cheetah t-shirts at all the Meets. She is also very proud that there were 12 Cheetahs Nominated for the 2015 Athletics Alberta Awards.
Sam was most recently named the Head Coach for the Zone 3 Summer Games Team. Sam continues on with her coach’s education and has now attained her NCCP Level 2 and is currently working on her Level 3.
Joel Senick – Co Head Coach
Junior Development
Joel Senick is the speed and power coach with the Caltaf Junior Development group. He has been with the club since the 2017-2018 season.
Before joining Caltaf, Joel spent four seasons coaching with Riversdale Athletics in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He led the club’s senior sprints, jumps and hurdles training group for two of those seasons.
Joel’s first coaching position was at Los Altos High School in California. For one season he served as an assistant coach and led the school’s long-sprints training group.
As an athlete, Joel was a 400m-focused sprinter who competed for five seasons with Boston University in the NCAA.
Amonn Nelson – Assistant Coach
Junior Development
NCCP Sport Coach (Level 1)
Amonn started coaching because of an eagerness to continue to learn, to share knowledge, and to remain involved in the sport of track and field. She has been focused ever since on helping athletes hone their skills and reach their performance goals.
A former athlete herself, Amonn competed with University of Calgary Dinos and the Canadian National Team. As a university athlete, she dominated the indoor 300-metre race, winning it four straight years at the Canadian Interuniversity Championships.
Amonn has spent time in her athletics career training in Clermont Florida, and Phoenix AZ, and has achieved success at the Canadian Championships as a medalist.
Personal Bests
Outdoor
- 100m – 12.13
- 200m – 23.32
- 300m – 37.64
- 400m – 52.51
- 4x400m – 3:30.20
Indoor
- 50m – 6.59
- 60m – 7.51
- 200m – 24.44
- 300m – 37.89
- 500m – 1:11.27
- 4x200m – 1:38.62
- 4x400m – 3:48.04
Jasmyn McCulloch – Assistant Coach
Junior Development
Field Event Lead
Cheetah’s Head Coach
Jasmyn has been coaching with Caltaf since the Fall of 2018 as Head coach of Cheetahs. She currently has her NCCP for run, jump, throws, wheels and working towards her Throwing, Jumps, and Para certifications.
Jasmyn started her track and field journey in high school, where she fell in love with throwing. She took some time away from the track to focus on school. In 2017 while completing her education degree at St.Mary’s Univerity in Calgary, Jasmyn started competing again with Caltaf in throws.
Jasmyn is a Para Athlete, meaning she had a physical disability. Her classification of F46 has allowed her to compete at a whole new level. Jasmyn currently holds four Canadian records outdoor Javelin, Discus, Shot put and indoor shot put.
“Coaching is one of the best feelings. Watching your athletes achieve greatness is the best gift a coach could ask for.” – Jasmyn.
Calli Obrien – Assistant Coach
Junior Development
Sport Coach – Certified
Run, Jump, Throw, Wheel – Certified
Club Coach – Throws – Trained
Club Coach – Endurance – Trained
Calli grew up in Colorado Springs, CO, and attended high school with many future Olympians who lived at the Olympic Training Centre located there. The focus in high school was on how to incorporate many different sports throughout the day in a natural and playful way. A common after-school activity would be to race her bike to the OTC compound, wait for aspiring elite cyclists to exit, then chase them all the way to a local rock climbing hangout, where the group would go rock climbing for an hour or two before heading home for supper. She also threw discus and shot put for the high school track and field team.
Calli’s love of running and sport/athlete development was not fully realized until her own kids started competing in their respective sports: her daughter was a swimmer and triathlete, while her son was a nationally-ranked rock climber. Her emphasis in physical training for younger athletes is to build up their aerobic capacities, body strength, and mental toughness so they can excel in whatever sport they decide to specialize in later on, whether it’s track, cross-country, throwing, or something completely different. She focuses also on play, meaningful social interactions, and allowing each child to develop at his or her own pace.
Calli is an NCCP-trained Level 1 Triathlon Coach, Level 1 Sport Coach in Athletics, and has her Level 1 in Cycling as well. She has completed all of the NCCP Multi-Sport modules in both the Level 2 (Introduction to Competition) and Level 3 (Competition Development) contexts. She is also certified in Run, Jump, Throw, Wheel and Fundamental Movement Skills. Outside of the NCCP framework, Calli is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer.
Her previous and current coaching roles include as the lead for the Provincial Elite Junior Development program with Alberta Triathlon, Junior Development and Junior Cross-Country Coach with the St. Albert Mustangs, current Head Coach with SOGO Adventure Running, and coach-in-residence at Chestermere Lake CrossFit.
Off the track, Calli enjoys backcountry hiking and camping, orienteering, trail running, kayaking and CrossFit.
Favorite Quote: “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
– Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49’ers Wide Receiver from 1985-2005.
Christine Laverty – Head Coach
Middle/Long Distance
NCCP 4/5
Christine was the Honored Athletic Leader for Cross Country and Athletics (Calgary Booster Club, 2012), Volunteer of the Year (Athletics Alberta, 2012), Coach of the Year (Athletics Alberta, 2001 and 2006), George Gemer Award for service to Athletics in Alberta (2008).
Christine Laverty’s track career began in 1969 where she raced competitively on the Quebec provincial team in events ranging from the 400m through to the Mile for over five years. Christine began coaching with CALTAF in 1999 and is currently coaching with the Caltaf distance group.
Christine’s track and field coaching experience and general sporting involvement is extensive. After over 16 years of coaching track and field, soccer, volleyball and basketball at a regional and High School level in Quebec and Ontario Christine moved to Alberta where she began concentrating on coaching track and field.
In Alberta Christine has held many coaching positions for both provincial and national track and field teams. In 1999 Christine started her relationship with the Royal Canadian Legion as the distance coach for the Alberta provincial team of that year. This was followed with her being named Head Coach for the same Alberta provincial team in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2012. Through Athletics Alberta Christine has worked with a number of provincial teams including the Midget Dual team as coach (1999 – 2001), the senior Tri-Province team as distance coach (1999-2001), the senior Espoir team as distance coach (2002 – 2003), the senior Espoir team as Head Coach (2004) and Western Canada Summer Games as Team Manager (1999).
On a national team level, Christine was Team Canada’s distance coach for the World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke in 2003 and the Czech Republic in 2007, the NACAC Championships in 2004, World Cross Country Championships in both 2005 in St. Etienne, France and 2006 in Fukuoka, Japan, World Junior Championships in Poland in 2008 , Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India in October 2008 and Head Coach for the Youth Commonwealth Games team in Isle of Man 2011. Her last team assignment was with the Commonwealth Games, in 2010, in Delhi, India where she had the chance to work our Senior and Future Olympians.
Christine holds a level 4/5 National Coaching Certification in Athletics. She also has a BSC in Biology and Physical Education and a Bachelor of Education all from Concordia University, Montreal, PQ.
Besides her coaching involvement, Christine has held many meet management positions including Track Meet Director for the Greater Montreal Interscholastic Athletic Association (1976-1987), Meet Director for the Jurassic Classic Gymnastics meet (1995-present) and Chair for the Canadian National Championships for Canada in 2011 and 2012, which were the Trials for the World Championships and Olympics respectively.
Christine loves working with young athletes and believes that sport offers every athlete an opportunity to perform and improve him or herself. Christine’s coaching philosophy also demonstrates her belief that an athlete’s only true opposition is themselves and that what an athlete puts into sport determines what the athlete will get out of it. These simple principles of sport carry over into the life skills of each and every athlete Christine works with.
Trent Ratzlaff – Assistant Coach
Middle/Long Distance
Personal Bests
Outdoor
- 150m – 17.18
- 400m – 47.40
- 800m – 1:49.95
- 110mH – 15.36
- 400mH – 51.67
- 400mH(84cm) – 55.58
Indoor
- 300m – 34.50
- 600m – 1:18.49
Tara Dressler – Assistant Coach
Combined Events
NCCP Sport Coach (Level 1)
Tara is a two time National medalist in the 3k Steeple Chase.
Tara Dressler joined CALTAF in 1997, trained with Jason Lindsay and Christine Laverty until retiring from racing in 2011. She attended a Div. 1 university in North Carolina, on a full ride scholarship.
Tara is an assistant coach with the Combined Events group, mentored by Juerg Meister. Tara provides weekly mobility focused training sessions on a club-wide level. Tara organizes and coaches the Track Attack summer camp with more than 200 athletes going through her program each summer. She has coached on various Alberta teams, including Alberta Summer Games 2014 as Head Coach, Legions 2013, Midget Youth championship 2013, Legions 2012, and Western Summer Games 2011.
The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to someone else, the only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.
Education:
National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) Sport Coach 2011
NCCP Intro to Competition Part A 2011
NCCP Intro to Competition Part B 2011
Learn more about the CALTAF Summer Camps.
Nikhil Shah – Head Coach
Cheetah
NCCP Sport coach.
NCCP Club coach in sprints and hurdles trained but working towards certification.
Speed and power assist coach for Junior Development
In charge of Sprints and Hurdles at Henry Wise Wood high school.
I have been competing in sprints and hurdles since junior high and after stopping competing, I focused on coaching and schooling where I started coaching with Caltaf in 2018 with the Cheetahs program. It is my love for athletics and helping young athletes learn to love the sport and teach them the fundamentals of track and field, while also making it fun!
Besides track and field, I am the co-president for the largest organization at the University of Calgary and First year orientation leader.
