Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series 2009

Heather Ann Brauer

Heather Ann Brauer is teaching the September 13 session of the Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series. Heather Ann is finishing her doctorate through the University of Washington in a lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She has been coaching the sport of Ultimate since the fall of 2005. She currently resides in Seattle and has coached the Seattle Peeps at Montlake Community Center, Salmon Bay Middle School Ultimate, the DiscNW Fall High School Hat League, and the 2008 and 2009 mixed UPA Youth Club Championship (YCC) teams from Seattle. Other coaching experience includes leading the track workouts for the YCC teams. She has also been involved in the planning of Up Dawg and Elements of Sarah, two youth ultimate hat tournaments.

Heather Ann started her Ultimate career playing pick-up after college in Palo Alto, CA.  Falling in love with the sport, she went on to play for four years at University of Washington with Element (placing 2nd at College Nationals in 2005 and 3rd in 2008). She went on to play mixed at the club level with D’oh in 2008. She is taking this year off from playing as she prepares for the New York City Marathon, though she is still looking forward to coaching at Salmon Bay this fall.

Ben Wiggins

Ben Wiggins is teaching the September 27 session of the Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series.  Ben is in his 6th year with the Seattle Sockeye as a starting offensive handler. He came to the Fish after winning the Callahan Award (College National MVP) at the University of Oregon in '03, where the Ego were Northwest Regional Champs and National Finalists. Ben played in the all-star MLU tournament in '06 and represented the United States with Sockeye at the 2008 World Flying Disc Federation's World Ultimate Championship.

Ben is one of the two founders of www.The-Huddle.org, a world-recognized site for Ultimate Strategy and Tactics. He coached and directed the MoHo program from 2003 to 2006, and was an assistant coach with the World Championship-winning United States Boys' team in Finland in 2004. Ben coached the first Seattle YCC boys' team to the UPA Youth Club Championship (YCC) in 2005. He has been a featured coach at the Ultimate Coaches' and Players' Conference in Boston, MA; taught coaches' clinics in Medellin, Colombia; guest coached in Manila and Boracay (the Philippines); and served as head coach of the Western Washington Men's Ultimate team from 2006 to 2009.

In his non-Ultimate time, Ben received his Master's degree in Molecular Biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He currently coordinates and teaches Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Washington.

Morgan "Barney" Ahouse

Morgan Ahouse is teaching the October 11 session and is one of the experts on the panel in the October 25 session of the Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series.  Barney has coaching experience at the high school and college levels.  His most recent experience was as head coach for the University Preparatory Academy mixed gender team (2004-'09).  Prior to that, he coached the University of California Davis (2003) and the University of Washington (2001-2002) men's teams.  As an athlete, Barney played for 11 years with the men's club team Seattle Sockeye, which he captained in 2004.  He helped lead the team to great success at the national and world levels, including a gold at the national championship in 2004, third place finishes at the national and world championships in 2002, a world championship gold in 1997, and second place finishes at the national championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997.  Barney's most recent playing experience is with the masters' club team Seattle Throwback (2006-2008), which won the national championship in 2006.  Barney is also a former longtime member and President of the DiscNW Board of Directors.

Miranda Roth

Miranda Roth is teaching the October 18 session and is one of the experts on the panel in the October 25 session of the Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series.  Miranda is a teacher by profession and has been coaching the sport of Ultimate year-round since 2004.  She currently resides in Seattle and coaches MoHo, the youth club team Small Fryz, and the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences middle school soccer, basketball, and Ultimate teams. Other coaching experience includes the Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps, the National Ultimate Training Camp, Ultimate Peace in the Middle East, the University of Washington women's team Element, Lakeside High School girls' Ultimate, the 2006 USA Junior Girls (champions!), and the 2005 girls' and 2006 boys' UPA Youth Club Championship teams from Seattle. Many of the players she has coached have gone on to play for top college and adult club teams, capturing world and national championships.

Miranda herself is a legend on the field, even though she has yet to enter her fourth decade of life. She started her Ultimate career as a youth player at the Paidea School in Atlanta, which has been a powerhouse in youth Ultimate since the 1990s. She went on to play for four years at Carleton College and one year at the University of Washington--two of the strongest and most established college Ultimate programs. Throughout her Ultimate career she has played on a number of women's club teams. Miranda is currently in her sixth year on the Seattle women's team Seattle Riot, where she has served as captain for the last four years. Accolades include a world championship (Team USA, 2005), two national championships (Seattle Riot, 2004 & 2005), and a junior world championship (Team USA Junior Girls, 2000).

Sam Harkness

Sam Harkness is a Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series Mentor and is one of the experts on the panel in the October 25 session. Sam currently coaches the Western Washington University Women's team Chaos. He was the assistant coach of the Seattle Academy boys' team from 2006-2008, as well as the assistant coach for the 2005 and 2007 Seattle boys' Youth Club Championship teams. He has also coached a number of years for the Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps.

Sam is in his second year playing as a defensive utility player on the Seattle men's club team Sockeye. Sam created and captained the Seattle club men's team Voodoo in 2006, continuing as a player in 2007. He represented the USA at the 2004 World Ultimate and Guts Championships (WUGC) as a junior open player and at the 2008 WUGC as a club open player with Seattle Sockeye.  He is a product of the strong Seattle youth Ultimate scene, founding the Nathan Hale boys team, and playing MoHo throughout his high school career. When he is not playing Ultimate, Sam works at Olympic View Elementary as a tutor, childcare counselor, teacher's aid, and classroom supervisor.

Vida Towne

Vida Towne is one of the experts on the panel in the October 25 session of the Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series. Vida is an elementary PE teacher at The Bertschi School and has been teaching PE for 11 years.  She teaches Ultimate in her PE classes, coaches a Bertschi elementary school team, and, for the last 8 years or so, has coached the high school varsity girls at The Northwest School. She was the head coach of the USA junior girls' team that won the Juniors' World Ultimate Club Championship in 2006. Other coaching experience includes middle school girls' basketball at the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Vida started playing club Ultimate with Women on the Verge in 1995, and she and her sister Leah are the founders of Seattle Riot(1999). Vida retired from playing Ultimate in 2006, but not before taking home two World Club Ultimate Championships and two UPA National Championships with Verge and Riot.

Heidi-Marie Clemens

Heidi-Marie is a Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series Mentor.  This summer, Heidi-Marie was assistant coach for the girls' team that represented Seattle and won gold at the UPA Youth Club Championships.  Other experience includes co-coaching one of the girls' teams in the 2009 DiscNW Youth Club Draft Hat League, teaching at clinics in the Philippines (Manila & Boracay) and Austria (Vienna), co-coaching the 2009 Roosevelt/Bellevue high school girls (DiscNW Spring League 2009), and co-coaching the Roosevelt High School Rough Riders mixed and boys' teams (2008-2009); in fact, the Roosevelt boys qualified for their first UPA Western Championship in 2009, and Heidi-Marie coached the team to the second-highest spirit score in the open division.

Heidi-Marie started playing the sport of Ultimate in 1999 at the University of California Berkeley.  The team was a national quarterfinalist at the UPA College Championships in both 2003 and 2004.  Heidi-Marie currently plays for Seattle Underground, and this is her fifth year of playing competitive women's club Ultimate. Previous teams include Seattle Viva (for which she was captain in 2008), the Bay Area's Heroine and Homebrood, and the 2007 Austrian National Team.  Heidi-Marie has played in tournaments around the world, including Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Italy, the Philippines, and Canada.

When she is not playing or training for ultimate, Heidi-Marie works as an administrative assistant at the Cascade Land Conservancy, a land preservation and conservation non-profit. She enjoys reading, baking, cooking, and dancing; dreams about using her MA in Germanics from the University of Washington;
contemplates returning to grad school for a PhD in Comparative Literature; and secretly wants to make a living as a painter.