Northwest Ultimate Association PO Box 85112 Seattle WA 98145-1112

Coaches' Biographies

Here are biographies on some of our regular coaches. Visit the "MoHo Practices" or "Mini MoHo Practices" pages linked at the bottom of this page to find out who is coaching this season.

Ben Wiggins

Ben Wiggins has coached MoHo since 2003. Ben was an assistant coach with the World Championship-winning United States Boys' team in Finland in 2004 and 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.  Ben is one of the two founders of The Huddle, a world-recognized resource for Ultimate strategy and tactics.

Ben is a starting offensive handler on Seattle Sockeye, where he has played since 2004. 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 and 2010 World Flying Disc Federation's World Ultimate Championships.

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.

Doug Sumi

A Seattle native, Doug played for both Franklin and Garfield High Schools before moving on to college to become a University of Washington Sundodger. Doug is currently one of the coaches at Franklin and has previously coached for Whitman Middle School, UW, Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps, and strangers he finds on grassy surfaces. Doug works at a bike shop. Doug is a Cancer.

Drew Johnson

Drew co-coaches at Nathan Hale High School. She also coaches at the Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps. As a player, Drew won gold twice at the UPA Western High School Championship with her Nathan Hale team, and three times at the UPA Youth Club Championship with the Seattle girls' team. She was also a member of the 2006 USA Junior Women's team that won at the 2006 WFDF Junior World Ultimate Championships. Drew has played since 2007 on the elite club women's team Seattle Riot.

Dutch Hixenbaugh

Dutch has coached MoHo since 2010. He and Doug Sumi are buddies. His full biography will be posted here soon.

Heidi-Marie Clemens

Heidi-Marie Clemens coaches at Roosevelt High School.  Past experience includes co-coaching the 2009 gold-winning girls' USA Ultimate Youth Club Championship team from Seattle, co-coaching a girls' team in the 2009 DiscNW Youth Club Draft Hat League, serving as a mentor for the 2009 Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series, and coaching clinics in the Philippines (Manila & Boracay) and Austria (Vienna). 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 has played competitive women's club Ultimate since 2005 and has played with Seattle Riot since 2010.  She 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.

Nathan Brown

Nathan coaches middle school at the Bush School and has been coaching MoHo since 2010. He was a coach in the 2010 DiscNW Youth Club Draft Hat League.

Sam Harkness

Sam's past experience includes the following: co-coach for the Western Washington University Women's team Chaos, assistant coach for the Seattle Academy boys' team, assistant coach for the 2005 and 2007 Seattle boys' Youth Club Championship teams, coach at the Seattle Ultimate Camps, and instructor/mentor for the 2009 Seattle Ultimate Coaching Series.

Sam has played for the Seattle men's club team Sockeye since 2008 as a defensive specialist.  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, at the 2008 WUGC with Seattle Sockeye, and at the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships 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.

Sam Kittross-Schnell

A former Northwest School player, Sam is a 2008 WFDF Junior World Ultimate Champion and currently plays at Oberlin College. He has coached at the Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps.

Shannon O'Malley

Shannon is a Seattle youth Ultimate super coach, teaching skills and strategy to hundreds of rising-star youngsters at Mini MoHo, Eckstein Middle School, and the Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps.  As a player, Shannon is not only one of the most decorated female Ultimate players in the world, but a poster child for the success of the Seattle youth Ultimate scene. At the age of 16, Shannon made her first USA Junior Girls' Team, which won a silver medal at the 2004 WFDF Junior World Championship. The next year, along with her Nathan Hale High School Team, she added wins at the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) Washington State Championship and the UPA Western Championship to her resumè. 2005 also brought great success for Shannon in the club world, as she won the UPA Youth Club Championship with the Seattle girls' team and broke into the women’s adult club scene, helping Seattle Riot to a UPA Club [North American] Championship in her first year on the team. In 2006 she again made the USA Junior Girls' Team for the WFDF World Ultimate Championship, this time taking home a gold medal. Since then, Shannon has exploded into college Ultimate with third and second place finishes with the University of Washington in 2008 and 2009 respectively, while wracking up three silver medal finishes in the Club Championships with Riot from 2006-2009.

Tim Garlock

Tim Garlock is a USA Ultimate certified coach.  He coaches Ultimate and basketball at Explorer West middle school and assists with the Ultimate teams at Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth High School.  Tim has coordinated the DiscNW Elementary School League since 2009. He is an avid triathlete.

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