About the Coaches: Freddie

Freddie here. So I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, and seeing as there is now an abundance of free time I figured it was as good of a time as any to give it the old college try, so here we go. I have a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Sciences (Coaching and Sports Management cognate) and a M.S. in Human Performance-Clinical Exercise Physiology from Liberty University. Towards the end of my academic years I was primarily involved in cycling, I started my athletic career running cross country and track in middle and high school, where I was primarily a miler. I had started swimming and cycling in high school mostly as a means of cross training through many of the various injuries I sustained as a result of running. During my junior year of high school I broke my leg and my swimming and cycling took on a greater role as I rehabbed through that recovery. Fast forward to my freshman year of college and I transitioned to competing in triathlon and cycling, where I was pretty competitive. The highlights of my collegiate career so far have been competing in Elite ITU worlds for duathlon in the summer of 2018 and placing fifth in the USAC Collegiate National Championships in the time trial in 2019. Prior to that time, and continuing the present I have struggled with anxiety and depression, substance abuse, and an eating disorder than went undiagnosed for several years, dating back to high school. Understanding how these parts of me have affected my life has been a struggle, but at the same time understanding them more and more has helped me to not only become a better athlete, but has only reinforced why I want to be a coach, and the type of coach I want to be. Struggling with these things for years without really knowing what I was going through was incredibly difficult, and I feel that as a result of those experiences I can have a real effect on athletes how might be going through the same things, and if I can’t help them myself than at the very least be able to help them find people who can.