Maurice Henriques - Founder & Director of Sports Programs
Admirably referred to as “Coach Mo”, Maurice Henriques founded REAL Training to develop athletes on and off the track, field, court, and classroom. When he first founded the club, Coach Mo was working as a Juvenile Intensive Probation Officer for Boulder County. He held this position for 18 years before taking these same philosophies to his work within Boulder Valley School District as a Truancy Advocate. Receiving many accolades over the years for his coaching and work with at-risk youth, he believes that working with kids is his calling. He strongly believes that if kids have at least one good role model in their life, they can work through adversity in their own life.
In 2020, Coach Mo was recognized by the Positive Coaching Alliance as a national coach of the year out of 800 nominees. Maurice has served as an assistant and head coach for various track programs in Colorado, including Northridge, Denver North (1999 – 2001), Fairview (2003 – 2007), and presently, Niwot High School (2010 – ). He has coached countless individual state champions in track events of all distances and multiple field events, as well as collected multiple team state championships. Most recently, he has brought five team state championships to the Niwot Cougars, and top-5 finishes every other year of his decade plus at Niwot. In addition to track & field, Coach Mo was a defensive back coach and defensive coordinator at Ranum, Denver North, Fairview, Northglenn, and Thornton high schools. He was a defensive back and four-year letter winner at the University of Colorado from 1992 – 1996. He also ran high school track & field in Texas, and he will never let you forget it.
Kelly Christensen - Director of Distance Program
Coach Christensen has been a school counselor at multiple schools in Colorado. Kelly spent 8 years in construction management before making a career change to school counseling where he has remained for 7 years. He joined the Niwot High School Counseling team in 2016. Kelly was a cross country and track & field athlete at Western State College from 2000 – 2005. An All-American in both cross country and track, he was also a member of three Division-II national championship cross country teams.
Coach Kelly has been the head cross country coach at Niwot since 2016, and he serves on the coaching staff for the track and field team as well. The Niwot cross country program has achieved two girls’ state championship titles and a boys’ state championship team title during his time. Additionally, the girls team has gone onto Nike Cross Nationals for fifth and third place finishes in back-to-back years. Prior to coaching at Niwot, Christensen has served as the head cross country and track coach at Palmer Ridge High School from 2014 - 2016 (achieving two boys’ track and field titles and a cross country title), Thompson Valley (2011 – 2013), University High School (2011 – 2012), and Exceler8 Track Club (2013 – 2016).
Brandi Menegatti, Director of REAL Training SoCo (Pueblo-Colorado Springs)
Coach Menegatti is a high school teacher at Pueblo West High School, where she is also the Head Coach for the girls’ and boys’ track programs. She has been coaching for the Cyclones since 2012, but has also coached at La Veta High School (2006 – 2012) and Hoehne High School (2004 – 2006). Brandi was also the Graduate Assistant Coach at Auburn University (1996 – 1997) and the Sprint and Hurdle coach for the Austin Striders Track Club (1992 – 1997).
Menegatti attended the University of Alabama from 1993 – 1996 where she was the NCAA Indoor Runner-Up and part of the SEC Indoor and Outdoor Championship teams. She also ran at Louisiana State University from 1991 – 1992, where she was a member of the 1991 NCAA Division-I National Championship team.
Whitney Hornung - Director of REAL Training - NoCo (Fort Collins)
Coach Whitney Henderson was an athlete at Colorado State University from 2009 – 2014 winning conference and regional honors. While in high school, she was a state champion in the 100, 200, 400, and 4 x 100 meter relay. After attending CSU, she received her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Wyoming and returned to her alma mater as the Assistant Director of Development.
While at the University of Wyoming, Henderson was an assistant for the men’s and women’s track and field and cross country programs, as well as the Director of Operations from 2015 – 2018. She also was an assistant coach for the track and field and cross country programs at Montana State University from 2018 – 2019. She has been the Director of REAL Training - Fort Collins since 2020.
Craig Sherman - Director of REAL Training - East (Commerce City, Brighton, & Henderson)
Coach Sherman has coached track & field for over 30 years at the middle school, high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Coach Sherman has coached 55 high school All-State performers and 11 collegiate All-Americans. His high school teams have won a state championship and finished second three times. Two of his collegiate teams have been national runner-ups. During the past ten years, he has had two individuals who have qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials, including one who qualified in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
Bryant Strause - Co-Director of Hortizontal Jumps
A graduate of the San Diego State School Counseling graduate program, Coach Bryant has held school counseling positions at Denver South High School and, currently, and Nevin Platt Middle School in Boulder, CO. During his undergraduate career, he was a member and captain of the track and field team at University of California - Santa Cruz from 2007 – 2011. He competed in sprinting events, as well as long and triple jump as a UC - Santa Cruz banana slug. Bryant served as the head coach for the girls’ track and field program at Denver South High School from 2013 – 2018 and, concurrently, as an assistant coach for the boys’ program. He has been a jumps coach for Niwot High School and REAL Training since 2018.
Lorne Jenkins - Co-Director of Horizontal Jumps
Jenkins is a REAL Training alum (2010-2013) and Niwot alum. He has played basketball, soccer, and football, but does not like to talk about his football experience. In track, he specialized in hurdles and horizontal jumps throughout high school and college. He graduated from Campbell University in 2017 with a degree in Economics and as a 4x Big South Conference Champion, 2x NCAA Regional Qualifier, and a team captain. He went on to earn his Master’s in Finance from the University of East London.
Lorne believes that a good coach can make athletes work hard and a great coach can inspire athletes to make themselves work hard. He is the founder of his own company called Mini Money Management, a financial literacy app that uses experiences to help parents and teachers educate children about the importance of money. He feels that it's very important for children to learn about money and make their mistakes at the age of 8, not 18 or 28.
Tim Geldean - Director of Youth Distance Program, Central Distance Coach (Youth & HS)
Coach Tim Geldean coaches distance runners (club youth, club high school, high school, and online/private), directs running events, and shovels snow off of tracks. Coach Tim received his Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from North Central College, where he was a cross country and track and field athlete from 1987 – 1991. While at North Central, he was part of multiple Division III national championship teams in both cross and track. He has coached high school cross country and track since 2019 as part of the coaching staff at Lyons High School and now at Niwot High School. Geldean has been part of the REAL family since his daughter, Riley, began running with the program. Coach Tim formed REAL Training’s Youth Distance Program in the spring of 2020.
Daniel Bloom - Distance Program Coach
Bloom is currently a graduate student at Adams State University receiving his degree in counseling. His undergraduate career was at Western State Colorado University for 2013 – 2016, where he was a member of the cross country and track teams. He was also a member of the Western State Train Running team from 2016 – 2017. Daniel ran at Thompson Valley High School while Coach Christensen was an assistant coach, and Bloom has assisted Coach Kelly at Niwot High School and REAL Training since 2018.
Lamar West - Assistant Throws Coach
Coach Lamar West is a graduate of Niwot High School (‘06), where he played football and holds the school record in the discus. He currently works as a Campus Supervisor at Niwot High School and has served as a security/body guard for many high-profile individuals, including the Denver Broncos.
He coaches the throwers of Niwot High School and other schools in the area as part of REAL Training. He also serves as the Defensive Line coach at Niwot. His coaching philosophy is, “Win Each Day, What did you do to better yourself, community?”
Eddie Taylor - Director of Multi-Events
Coach Taylor is a science teacher at Centaurus High School. He has served as an assistant and head coach for various high school track & field programs in the area, including Broomfield, Fairview, and presently, Centaurus. He has coached many athletes who have gone on to have successful collegiate athletic careers; specifically in the field and the multi-events.
Taylor competed as a decathlete for the University of Colorado, receiving all-conference honors in both
Nik Blume - Director of Throwing Events
Coach Blume has spent the last 17 years as a football, track and strength coach. Nik graduated from Concordia University Wisconsin in 2013 with a degree in Physical Education, Health Education and Athletic Coaching. Before coming to Colorado, Nik coached high school athletes at Valentine Rural High School in Nebraska (2003 – 2008) and Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School in Wisconsin (2008 – 2013). Most recently he spent the last 7 years at Lutheran High School in Parker as an assistant football coach, strength coach and Associate Head Coach of Track and Field while coaching the Throws. As much as coach loves to win, he places his biggest premium on building relationships. "It's really about giving kids the confidence to be successful beyond the track and the field. Can I help them develop the skills necessary to be contributors to their school, their family, and their community? That's what's most important."
Coach Blume was just named the new Head Football Coach at Niwot and will also head up the Throws program as part of Niwot Track & Field. Over the last decade, Blume has had one or more athletes qualify for the State Championships in the Boys and Girls Shot Put and Discus with multiple athletes making the Top 10 best of the decade. In 7 years at Lutheran, Coach's throwers brought home 6 gold finishes, 2 sliver, and 2 bronze. In 2016 and 2017 his boys were Back to Back 3A Champions in Shot and Disc along with being the All Class leaders during the 2017 season. Most recently, Katie Dack-Howell won the 3A girls shot put and discus titles in 2019 for Lutheran and finished as the All Class leader in the Shot Put. These contributions helped Lutheran capture 5 Boys State Championships and 1 Girls State Championship from 2014-2020. In the private training world, Coach was blessed to work with Mikey and Logan DeRock from Roosevelt High School in 2018 and 19. Mikey captured the 4A Boys Silver medal in the Shot in 2018 and Logan won Back to Back Girls 4A Shot and Discus titles also finishing as an All Class leader in the Discus in 2019.
Zack Whimbush - Denver South
Coach Zack Whimbush is the head track and field coach at Denver South High School and has been a track and field coach for over 15 years, starting as the sprints coach and eventually becoming the head coach of Northridge High School in Greeley, Colorado. The coach then began the USATF/AAU member of the Grizzly Track Club in 2009, producing some of the state's top athletes from 2009 to 2018. Coach Whimbush was also a sprints coach at Doherty High School from 2011 to 2014 and the USATF Club Fast Traxx Troupe of Fountain-Fort Carson from 2012 to 2015, producing some of the state's top talents. Moreover, Coach Whimbush has been with REAL Training (South Denver) since 2019 as the sprints, hurdles, jumps, and javelin coach and continues to produce top athletes.
Coach Whimbush has taught for over 15 years and plans to work as a school administrator. He works as a learning specialist at Wayne Carle Middle School in Jeffco.
As an athlete in high school, Coach Whimbush participated in track and field, baseball, and football. He went on to Scottsdale Community College on a football scholarship and doubled as a track and field athlete, participating in sprints, throws, and jumps. Coach Whimbush eventually signed with the University of Northern Colorado on a football scholarship, where he played until 2002.