Welcome MAK to our Coaching Staff

 

We welcome MaKayla to our coaching team!

I grew up in Maine in a very large and athletic family. I, as well as my siblings, were involved in everything and anything “sport”, but eventually I chose just field hockey, basketball and softball. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to play Division I field hockey at Bryant University and loved every part of it. 

I was never the "best" athlete on my teams. I was never the fastest, I wasn't the athlete out breaking many records - I was probably the strongest, but in field hockey that didn't really mean too much.... but something I was good at and that I loved doing was helping, teaching and coaching. I could break down a skill so my teammates or little ones that I would coach could understand, I was good at managing groups, and I enjoyed creating drills and practice plans. Throughout college I started to do more and more of it and upon graduating with my undergrad in psychology I went and started my field hockey collegiate coaching career while getting my Masters in Education. It was not something I thought I would be doing full-time, but I caught the coaching bug and what I thought was just a way for me to give back to the sport, it ended up being my full time career. I coached collegiately for almost 10 years - going up the ranks as an assistant coach and eventually leading to a head coaching position here in Philadelphia at La Salle University. 

My CrossFit journey started when I was coaching up in Boston. I was one of those post-college athletes that struggled figuring out who I was without my sport. I found myself walking into many globo gyms and just walking around. I was very much not productive, missed being coached and missed working out with other people! I saw a facebook ad inviting people to participate in an on ramp program for CrossFit. I had NO idea what it was, but it looked like fun. I immediately fell in love. My competitive drive came back and here I am 5 years later!  

In 2021, after receiving my MBA, I left my collegiate coaching career to work in the corporate world! My new-to-me career checks off a lot of my personal and professional goals, but the helping, teaching, and coaching part of my life I missed greatly. Aimee asked if I was interested in getting my CF-L1 and here we are! 

CrossFit has given me the space to challenge and better myself daily, and the opportunity to not lose my lifelong identity of being an ATHLETE, and for that I am extremely grateful. My hope is that anyone else who comes to CrossFit KOP feels they belong, they are challenged, and that they are bettering themselves one workout at a time.