Climbing Team Manager

Overview

Managed the Rose-Hulman climbing team for two seasons with a single guiding goal: build climbers who keep climbing for the rest of their lives. Competition results matter, but they’re not the point, the point is that when someone graduates, they leave with a sport they love, a community they belong to, and the skills to keep progressing on their own.

The philosophy

The collegiate climbing circuit is a strange environment. It rewards a small slice of the team for a short window of time, and then everyone graduates and most people quit. I wanted to build something that outlasted the season, a team that served climbers regardless of whether they wanted to compete, and that sent people into the world with climbing as a lifelong practice.

That meant running a program that treated competitive ambition as one goal among many, not the goal itself. Some climbers trained for Nationals; some just wanted to get stronger for outdoor trips; some came for the community and competed as an afterthought. All of those were legitimate outcomes.

Goal-based training

I built individual training plans for each climber on the roster, anchored to their own stated goal rather than a team-wide program. The structure looked different for everyone. A periodized competition block for one climber, a general strength and technique block for another, and a lighter schedule for someone balancing climbing against a heavy academic term.

What I did

• Individualized training plans — built goal-based programs for each climber, anchored to specific benchmarks rather than open-ended improvement
• Frequent testing — ran regular assessments to measure progress, using the data to adjust training blocks rather than collecting it without action
• Weekly team workouts — ran structured sessions at the Rose-Hulman wall that served every level of the roster
• Trips — organized paid team trips to Indianapolis gyms and free club trips, giving climbers training opportunities outside the campus wall and a reason to spend time together outside of practice
• Competition support — qualified 2 climbers to Nationals in the 2024 season and 4 in the 2025 season, with two first-place finishes and overall 3rd place team ranking in 2024 and an individual placement of 4th in 2025
• Travel logistics — planned and budgeted team travel, coordinating transportation, lodging, and competition registration
• Inclusivity — built a program where competitive and recreational climbers both had a place, without diluting either experience