Colorado Springs, Colo. (Sept. 23, 2019) – USA Ultimate is pleased to announce the assistant coaches selected to help lead the U.S. National Teams at the World Flying Disc Federation’s 2020 World Ultimate and Guts Championships.
Alex Ghesquiere (Washington, D.C.) and Miranda Knowles (Atlanta, Ga.) will assist head coach Ben Van Heuvelen on the men’s team. Nancy Sun (San Francisco, Calif.) and Rohre Titcomb (Seattle, Wash.) will assist head coach Martin Aguilera on the mixed team. Angela Lin (Eugene, Ore.) and Andy Lovseth (Seattle, Wash.) will assist head coach Matty Tsang on the women’s team.
All coaches were selected after an extensive application and interview process conducted by the USA Ultimate Coaching Committee. The 2020 WUGC coaches have each competed and/or coached at the highest levels of the sport and bring extensive experience to their respective teams.
Selection assistants were also chosen for each team. The men’s, mixed and women’s coaching staffs will be assisted in selecting their teams by Bryan Jones, John Groess and Robin Davis, respectively. All three selection assistants have extensive coaching experience at multiple levels of the sport.
Alex Ghesquiere has earned many championship titles as a coach over the past seven years. He led the U.S. World Games team to gold in 2013 and 2017 and served as the head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team at WUGC in 2016. In the club division, he coached Washington, D.C. Scandal to back-to-back national titles in 2013 and 2014 and just helped them qualify for the National Championships once again. He previously coached San Francisco Revolver and San Francisco Zeitgeist.
Miranda Knowles has coached and competed at nearly every level of the sport. She began playing at Paideia High School in Atlanta and built a career that included time with some of the nation’s best, including Carleton College Syzygy, Seattle Riot, Atlanta Ozone and more. She was also a member of the 2005 U.S. World Games Team. Knowles has coached teams at all levels: multiple youth club and high-school-based teams, the University of Washington women’s team, Israel’s 2020 girls’ national team and more. She is currently the head coach of Atlanta Chain Lightning in the men’s club division. 2020 will be her third time as a U.S. National Team coach, after serving as an assistant coach for the U-20 Women’s National Teams in 2006 and 2010.
Nancy Sun returns to the WUGC mixed team as an assistant coach, having helped lead the team to gold alongside Jake Henderson in 2016. She also served as head coach of the U-24 Women’s National Team this summer, earning another gold in Germany. Sun previously coached alongside Aguilera with the U-24 Mixed National Team in 2015. She is a longtime member of San Francisco Fury and has won multiple national and world championships with the team. In addition she won gold with the U-20 U.S. National Team at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in 2000.
Rohre Titcomb is currently a coach of the Whitman College Sweets and Seattle Riot, one of the club women’s division’s top teams, and a team she competed with for many years. After serving as a selection assistant for several past teams, 2020 marks her debut as a National Team coach, but she has extensive experience competing at the National Team level. She was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team at WUGC in 2016 and also earned golds as a member of the 2015 and 2011 U.S. Women’s Beach National Teams and the 2004 U-20 Women’s National Team. Titcomb was also an alternate for the 2013 U.S. World Games team.
Angela Lin has been active at the highest levels of ultimate for more than 20 years. A longtime member of Atlanta Ozone, she has competed at the National Championships nearly 20 times and at six different World Ultimate Club Championships. She won gold at the World Championships of Beach Ultimate with the U.S. Women’s Masters National Teams in 2015 and 2017, as well as at the World Ultimate and Guts Championships in 2016. Lin was also an alternate for the 2005 World Games. She spent three years coaching and helping get a girls’ team off in ground at Decatur High School in the Atlanta area and helping lead Ozone as a captain and/or strategist for many years before relocating to Eugene, Ore., and helping out with the University of Oregon women’s team. Lin is also one of the founders and leaders of the Premier Ultimate League.
Andy Lovseth returns to the U.S. Women’s National Team for a second trip to the World Ultimate and Guts Championships. He assisted Tsang in the team’s 2016 gold-medal-winning appearance. Lovseth currently coaches Seattle Riot, alongside fellow assistant coach Rohre Titcomb. He helped lead Riot to World Championships in 2014 and 2018, and many finishes amongst the country’s top four at the National Championships. Riot has also reached the finals at the U.S. Open Championships four times, earned two titles. He has been active in the ultimate community for more than 20 years, having starting playing in his middle school days in Seattle.
Head coaches for each of the National Teams were selected this summer and announced in July. All members of the coaching staffs will travel to the two tryout camps, set to be held next February, to evaluate the athletes chosen to attend the camps and select rosters for next year’s World Ultimate and Guts Championships.
After many years of sending the reigning national champions to compete at the World Ultimate and Guts Championships, USA Ultimate began selecting National Teams through an application and tryout process in 2016. All three select National Teams – men’s, mixed and women’s – as well as the two U.S. masters teams (the reigning masters national champions) that competed at the 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships earned gold in London.
Applications for the 2020 U.S. National Teams will open in early October. Any and all eligible athletes are encouraged to apply; eligibility requirements are outlined in the 2019 Triple Crown Tour competition guidelines.
The World Flying Disc Federation’s 2020 World Ultimate and Guts Championships will be held July 11-18, 2020, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, and will be hosted by The Organizing Connection and the Dutch Frisbee Association. More than 2,500 athletes from 40 countries are expected to compete at the 2020 event.
