Audrey K. Weisiger 2-Time US Olympic Team Coach Audrey Weisiger was the 1999 PSA and USFSA Coach of the Year. She has her PSA World Coach Ranking and is Master Rated in Figures and Freestyle. She has been asked to be the presenter at several PSA conferences, including the Keynote Speaker for the PSA Conferences in 2000 and 2003; and Canadian Coaches Conferences in 2005 and 2006. Weisiger has held positions on the Board of Directors of the PSA and various USFSA and USOC committees. A member of the USOC Developing Young Champions committee, she has organized and directed numerous Grassroots to Champions seminars.

Nick Perna is a PSA Master-rated coach who is a jumping pole expert. Perna is a former pairs skater who has carved out a niche in the sport with his unique training device — which has earned him the moniker, “The Fishing Pole Guy” — with two-time men’s national champion Michael Weiss and Olympic Champion Sarah Hughes among the users of his harness. "Kids that wear it say they feel like a fish, a dog or a puppet,” Perna said. “I’ve been doing it for 15 years. I used to grab the backs of little kids’ sweatshirts and pull it over their heads when they’d do their axels — holding them by the scruff of their necks, so to speak. But with that, they couldn’t really skate into jumps.” Perna stumbled onto an ad in a skating magazine for the Pro Motion Hand-Held Harness invented by a Canadian named Jan Glerup. “I was his first customer,” Perna said. “It fit exactly what I was trying to do.” Nick was a World Coach at the 2001 World Championships with Christine Lee.

Sheila Thelen Ms. Thelen is the Executive Director of Grassroots to Champions. She holds a Professional Skaters Assocation Master Rating, and from 1998-2008 was the Skating Director at the St. Croix Valley Recreation Center located in Stillwater, Minnesota. Ms. Thelen is the Designer and President of Champion Cords (Endorsed by the Professional Skaters Association International) for teaching skaters: alignment, position, muscle memory, awareness and technique.