Meet Our Volunteer Coaches

Head Coach

Sheila Kealey is a public health researcher who loves coaching and competing. She is passionate about keeping post-secondary students engaged in xc skiing and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the ranks of female coaches.

Sheila has a Masters in Public Health (Health Promotion) and works with other researchers in areas including behavioral interventions, the influence of nutrition and physical activity on health and disease, health policy, and global health. Her experience as a researcher, coach, and athlete shapes her communication on twitter and her website.

Coaching Background. Sheila is a Registered Coach with the Coaching Association of Canada. She is pursuing her NCCP Competition Development Certification and has coached for over 30 years. She coached many Nakkertok Nordic athletes and now focuses her coaching on uOttawa student athletes and Masters athletes at XC SuperCamps.

Assistant Coaches

Jesse Williams is a uOttawa Fine Arts graduate who worked tirelessly (and successfully!) to get recognition for a uOttawa ski team. Jesse has a wide range of experience with nordic skiing - as a student athlete, competitive athlete, and as a coach at Nakkertok Nordic. As someone who has worked on the snowmaking crew and trail grooming crew at Nakkertok Nordic - he appreciates the finer aspects of the foundations of our sport!

Jesse is an amazing artist, and many of his works are inspired by outdoor landscapes familiar to many nordic skiers. He studied in the Illustration and Concept Art Program at Algonquin College. Be sure to check out some of Jesse's work here.

Coaching Background. Jesse grew up skiing at Nakkertok Nordic, transitioned to coaching, and quickly became a favourite coach known for his adventurous spirit and infamous adventure skis! He has coached with uOttawa Nordiq since the inception of the team.

John Lewis is former Director of uOttawa's Biomedical Sciences Program, and a Professor in the uOttawa Department of Biology (more info on his research here).

John is a keen skier himself: he skied with the McGill University team, still likes to jump in the occasional race.

John is a firm believer that being active is good for students and can help their academics.

Coaching Background. John has coached for many years at Nakkertok Nordic, and now focuses on uOttawa Nordiq athletes.

Affiliate Coaches and Consultants

Katherine Denis is a recent uOttawa Human Kinetics graduate who will be helping the team in a coaching role this year and she also coaches our athletes who are part of Equipe Nakkertok Racing Group. While competing with uOttawa Katherine represented uOttawa and Canada at the FISU World University Games in 2019.

Katherine was a terrific teammate, inspiring our team with her ability to balance school, high performance skiing, and coaching. She also showed tremendous leadership as she helped shape the direction of the team in her role as as team president in 2019.

Steven Latino, is our strength coach with Gee-Gee Performance. Steven is responsible for our amazing strength training sessions at the Gee-Gees High Performance Center.