Club Director & Head Coach

Contact Patrick

✅Coaching Weightlifting since 2009

✅USA Weightlifting Level 3 National Coach (2015)

✅Girls' Weightlifting Head Coach, Land O' Lakes High School (2020-present)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 2 Advanced Coach (2014)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 1 Sports Performance Coach (2010)

✅Keep Pulling Level 5 Weightlifting Coach

✅MuscleDriver Level 1 Weightlifting Course (2011)

✅MuscleDriver Level 2 Advanced Coach’s Course (2012)

✅USA Weightlifting Certification Assistant Instructor (2014-2016)

✅USA Weightlifting LWC Certified Referee

✅USA Volleyball Florida Chaperone

✅USOC SafeSport Certified

✅Heartsaver First Aid, CPR, AED Certified (AHA)

✅USADA Coach’s Advantage

✅Event Director for over 25 USAW competitions

✅Coached 100's of Local Level Competitors

✅Produced 40+ National Competitors

✅Produced Dozens of State Medalists & State Champions

✅Produced 2 International Team Prospects

✅Introduced thousands of new athletes to the sport of Weightlifting

✅Weightlifting Photographer, LiftingLife (2016-2020)

✅B.S. Digital Media & Advertising from the University of West Florida

Patrick moved to Tampa in 2007 and joined a local CrossFit gym to lose weight and get back in shape. After a year and a half of doing CrossFit and losing 40 pounds, he attended a Weightlifting seminar with Glenn Pendlay and his 94kg national champion Jon North and was instantly hooked. After that seminar, he has focused primarily on training the Olympic lifts and becoming a student of the sport.

Patrick has been coaching Weightlifting since 2009 and created Keep Pulling in late 2013 to serve as a resource of the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. Since then, Keep Pulling has helped hundreds of recreational and competitive lifters alike by working with novice lifters to building state champions, national medalists, and international team prospects all while fostering a community of inclusion and opportunity for all athletes in the Tampa Bay Area and beyond.

Patrick has traveled to spend time training with and learning from some of the biggest names in the sport including Alex Krychev and Ivan Abadjiev at the Eleiko Weightlifting Academy, Glenn Pendlay from California Strength and MDUSA, as well as Catalyst Athletics in Sunnyvale, CA. He has also served as an Assistant Instructor for USA Weightlifting Level 1 and Level 2 Certification Courses and has conducted Weightlifting seminars around the state of Florida.

In 2016, he was elected to the Florida Weightlifting Federation (LWC #14) Board of Directors and served as Treasurer for the organization for two terms until June of 2020. Patrick is always seeking out new information and learning from everyone that he can while passing that information on to other lifters and coaches. Patrick’s mission with Keep Pulling is to provide opportunities and outlets for Weightlifters to find the sport and train in a positive gym environment. He believes that lifters should not be forced to train alone but rather embraced into a flourishing community of like-minded athletes.

Patrick was a three-sport I.B. high school varsity athlete (soccer, tennis, golf) and graduated from the University of West Florida with a degree in Digital Media and Advertising.

Assistant to the Director

Contact Elizabeth

✅Coaching Weightlifting since 2015

✅USA Weightlifting Level 2 Advanced Coach (2019)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 1 Sport Performance Coach (2016)

✅Keep Pulling Level 4 Weightlifting Coach

✅USA Volleyball Coach (2005)

✅Head Coach, OTVA Volleyball Academy

✅Head Volleyball Coach, Bishop McLaughlin High School

✅CrossFit Level 1 (2014)

✅NSCA-CPT Certification (2014)

✅CPR/AED Certified (AHA)

✅Coaching Volleyball since 2005

✅Bachelors of Science in Biology

Liz is originally from Michigan and spent her life playing competitive sports. She played volleyball as her main sport through high school and college and after that, began training for her first NPC Bikini show. After over a year of competing in physique shows, she discovered a CrossFit gym near her home town of Lansing, MI in 2013 and shifted her focus to CrossFit and Olympic Weightlifting.

Coaching has always been a passion for Elizabeth. She has been coaching volleyball since 2005 and is the Girls' Volleyball Head Coach for Bishop McLaughlin High School, Head Coach with Orlando/Tampa Volleyball Academy (OTVA), and is an instructor during competitive volleyball camps at the University of Tampa. She has also spent two years working as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for a Division 3 college in Michigan, coached group fitness classes and weekly barbell classes in a CrossFit environment since 2015, and has coached Keep Pulling athletes at multiple local, state, and national-level Weightlifting competitions.

Elizabeth currently works full-time as a middle school science teacher in the Tampa Bay Area in addition to chasing her passion for coaching.

Weightlifting Coach

✅USA Weightlifting Level 3 National Coach (2017)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 2 Advanced ​Sports Performance Coach​ (2015)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 1 ​Sports Performance Coach (2013)​

✅Keep Pulling Level 3 Weightlifting Coach

✅USA Weightlifting LWC Certified Referee (2015)

✅USA Weightlifting National Referee (2018)

✅USA Weightlifting Level 1 & Level 2 Sports Certification, Assistant Instructor (2016-2018)

✅Outlaw Way Doctrine (2014, 2015, 2016)

✅Crossroads Adaptive Athlete Training (2015)

✅American Heart Association CPR & AED 

✅CrossFit Level 1 (2014)

✅Owner/Coach CrossFit Fenrir (2011)

✅Fenrir Barbell Club Director & Head Coach (2013 - 2017)

✅Central Florida Throwdown Founder/Director (2013 - 2019)

Full bio coming soon!

Weightlifting Coach

✅Girls' Assistant Weightlifting Coach, Land O' Lakes High School

✅B.S., Sport and Leisure Management, Exercise Science Concentration

✅Strength & Conditioning Internship, Eastern Connecticut State University (2020-21)

✅Strength & Conditioning Internship, Harvard University (2020)

✅Keep Pulling Level 3 Weightlifting Coach

✅Keep Pulling Mentorship & Coach Development Program (2021)

✅Weightlifting Team Member, Lindenwood University (2015-17)

✅FHSSA Female Weightlifting Athlete of the Year (2014-15)

✅FHSSA Individual District Champion (2015)

Kenni is a life-long Floridian and attended Academy at the Lakes in Land O’Lakes from PreK through high school graduation. In high school, she lettered in five different sports (Cross-Country, Track and Field, Softball, Cheerleading, and Weightlifting). Kenni went on to win the Weightlifting District Championships, took second place at Regionals, and advanced to the FHSAA State Championships.

Upon graduation, she earned the Lee Emery Award, the Ironman Award, was named Female Athlete of the Year and received an athletic scholarship to compete in Olympic Weightlifting as part of Lindenwood University's four-time national championship team in St. Charles, Missouri. At Lindenwood, Kenni was coached by 1984 Olympic silver medalist Jianping Ma (Ma Strength) and trained along side some of the best University-level Weightlifters in the nation.

An unfortunate automobile accident ended Kenni's competitive Weightlifting career and she left Lindenwood to focus on her recovery. During this time, she transitioned into a coaching role as the Assistant Softball Coach at her high-school alma mater Academy at the Lakes, and helped lead the team to District, Regional, and State Championships in 2018.

Kenni returned to school at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she earned her B.S. in Sports and Leisure Management with a concentration in Sport and Human Performance (Dean’s List) in 2021. During her time at ECSU, she interned and coached the men’s and women’s Cross-Country, Track and Field, Soccer, Lacrosse, and Men’s Basketball teams while completing an internship with Harvard University’s Strength and Conditioning Department focusing on program design and application for all sports.

Weightlifting Coach