COACHES
Logan Washburn, Head Coach - USAT Coach
Logan grew up as a swimmer on a swim team since age six. In high school she ran cross country, swam, and played lacrosse. Fitness, exercise, and coaching have always been her passions, so she completed both an undergraduate (Virginia Tech, while also playing lacrosse) and graduate degree (UNC) in Exercise Physiology. While in graduate school in 2004, a friend did a triathlon and Logan became interested. She borrowed a bike with toe cages and muscled her way through her first sprint tri. She became hooked and started competing in triathlons of various distances.
Overall, she has completed seven half-Ironman distance events and at least 30 Sprint or Olympic distance events, with plans of completing a full Ironman within the next few years. She also ran the New York City Marathon and has run many half-marathon and 10-mile races.
Logan has coached swimming in the past, is currently at USAT Coach and works for the Spring Valley Y as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor. She is married with 2 young children.
Brian Kozera, Head Coach - USAT Coach
Brian Kozera has been a member of the club for five years and is one of our certified USAT triathlon coaches. For the past ten years, he has been an avid endurance athlete competing in a wide variety of races which includes various mud runs, obstacle course races, GORUCK military challenges and settled into adventure racing. In 2013, an adventure race team teammate suggested the challenge of a full Ironman triathlon.
Brian had the good fortune of stumbling onto the existence of the club at the Spring Valley YMCA. By joining the club and working extensively with its head coach, he successively completed his first 70.3 and 140.6 IronMan events. Since that time Brian’s passion for the sport for triathlons has continued to evolve.
Already having a diverse background in teaching and coaching, Brian has obtained his level one certification from USA triathlon and his level two certification from US Masters Swimming. Brian continues to be competing in triathlons while coaching athletes at all levels, distances and through a variety of endurance sports.
Outside the sport of triathlon, Brian is a passionate husband and father of three daughters. Brian is also a law enforcement officer and a long time member of the National Ski Patrol.
Andrea Pucke (Dre), Head Coach - USAT Coach
Born under the sign of Pisces, it seems as if Andrea was born with a love of the water, or more accurately, of being in the water. She began swimming at age four and was competing on a team a year later. Growing up in the panhandle of Florida with its beautiful beaches, and later living with her family near the coast of New Jersey, she lived up to her horoscope and spent more time in the water than on the sand.
Andrea swam competitively on school teams from elementary school through her senior year of college, while concurrently competing for various clubs under United States Swimming (USS), now called USA Swimming.
Taking a few years off after college to concentrate on her career, she eventually joined masters swimming. After swimming with masters for a while, she competed in her first triathlon in 2010, placing third in her age group. From there, she was hooked and sought her next challenges, such as competing in short distances on up to two-mile open water swim races, and has trained for and raced in Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman and Ironman competitions.
Andrea understands that, for those triathletes who do not have a swimming background, the swim portion can be the most challenging. Confidence, determination, and concentrating on the technical aspects of the swim during training, while minimizing poor efficiency, can help aspiring triathletes become improved swimmers.
Married with 2 wild and crazy boys, she’s passed on to them the love of the water just like their mommy. Andrea is never satisfied with just being good enough—she believes you always must improve and be the best you can be. She exhibits this belief through her enthusiasm for the sport, and she’s not easily deterred from her goals, much like the slogan of her former Jersey Storm swim team: “Can’t Calm the Storm!”
Don Mack, Coach
Don's endurance sports participation began on the evening of Friday, November 13, 2009 with a 10 mile run on the indoor 13 lap/mile track at the Spring Valley YMCA. It was a work colleague's recent completion of a marathon that provided the incentive to see if it was possible to also complete one and led to the 10 mile, then 13.1 mile, and eventually a 26.2 mile marathon. Don's first marathon was the Pittsburgh Marathon in May 2010. Since then Don has completed 20 marathons including the past six Boston Marathons (#7 planned for 2018). After 2 years of marathons, Don decided to give "multisport" a try by signing up for his first triathlon, the Philadelphia Olympic Triathlon in 2012. Since then Don has completed approximately 80 events, including 20 triathlons, with highlights including the 2015 Ironman Lake Placid and back-to-back individual championships in the Piranha Mid-Atlantic Multisport Series in 2016 and 2017.
Don's coaching background began with 20 years of coaching in youth sports (1992-2012) that included softball, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Don is beginning his 5th year as a coach with the Spring Valley YMCA Multisport Gators. In that role Don has planned and led many swimming, cycling, and running workouts, seminars, and clinics. Don's goal as a coach is to contribute to the development of the Gators multisport abilities to an extent that enables them to achieve, if not exceed, their goals while at the same time having fun. Some methods of achieving this include the development of the Gator Fitness Challenge (a points-based training incentive program during the typical "off-season") and regular "themed" workouts that include music and occasional videos.
Don has also been an officer of the Gators since the club was officially formed in 2014. Don was also named the Spring Valley YMCA's "Volunteer of the Year" for 2016.
Ginny Angus, Certified Ironman Coach
Ginny never competed in sports as a child. Her bike was her mode of transportation during high school and college. Later, she did some biking, running and swimming just to stay in shape. Her start with racing came in 1988 when her colleagues dared her to do a triathlon. Back then, there were no sprint races, only Olympic distance. With no real knowledge about triathlon and racing, she agreed and rode her 14 year old Schwinn Varsity 10 speed on the hilly course around Blue Marsh lake for the Pennsylvania triathlon. She was hooked! She didn’t realize they gave out age group awards until she heard her name called at a race a couple years later! From then on, hercompetitive spirit soared to the point that she has now placed in her age group or in the overall category in nearly every race entered for the last 25 years. She has completed 9 Ironmans, around 20 half Ironmans, 6 marathons, and hundreds of shorter races. She worked with a professional coach for 2 years and achieved the ultimate reward in triathlon which was qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in 2013. In that process, she also qualified for the Boston marathon.
Ginny’s coaching started in 2016 when she assistant coached the high school cross country team for 2 years and the junior high track team for 1 season when her sons were on the teams. She really enjoyed it and decided multisport coaching would be a good fit as her boys would be heading to college soon. In 2019, she earned her Ironman Coaching certification. Then, during the pandemic, she earned 6 more certifications including Personal Training, Nutrition Coaching, etc. She understands what it takes both physically and mentally to be an endurance athlete. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience to help others achieve their goals!
Karen Dunn, Certified Running Coach
Ever since I ran the mile in gym class in 7th grade and beat all the boys I have been running :-) I did track in middle school and then every season of cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in high school and college. Some of the highlights include qualifying for the State Championship meet as an individual in Cross Country my sophmore through senior years. One of my fondest memories during high school was my senior year of cross country - I was undefeated within my school's league and broke a long standing record on my teams home course in Quakertown. Some highlights from outdoor track include qualifying for Districts in the mile and 3200m. I also regularly ran the Meet of Champions in indoor track. I attended Lock Haven University where I continued my running career.
I became a certified Jack Daniel's VDOT distance coach and have been using his strategies in all of my marathon training cycles - allowing me to improve with each race. I have a great passion for fitness and running and have always wanted to coach. I really love to coach and take great pride in my work and seeing my athletes reach a level of fitness they didn't think was possible.
I have self coached myself ever since I returned to running and started winning local half and full marathons. At this point I now have a 1:25 PR in the half (spring 2017) and a 2:52 in the full (fall 2017). I have several elite starts lined up for Boston, Chicago, California International Marathon, and Grandma's. Being an elite master's marathoner is a new door I will open and my eyes and ears will be ready to learn even more from these experiences to further strengthen my depth of knowledge as a coach.
I don't just create training plans, I also provide a lot of current research and education for my athletes. I want them to be educated and know what can give them the edge their looking for, or how different paces affect you physiologically so they understand the "why" behind the workout, nutrition tips, visualization, injury prevention, etc. I also am a firm believer in strength training and work with athletes to develop general and running specific strength.
Don Schlichtmann, Coach
Don Schlichtmann is one of our Club Coaches. He is passionate about the sport of Triathlon and is dedicated to providing the best training for the entire Gators Family. Check out our Training Calendar to review the times Don is available to train with.