Abbi lives in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband, Brian, and son, Griffin. They have two pups, a Border Collie mix, Pax, and an Australian Shepherd mix, Ozzy. She has over 20 years coaching experience including Olympians, Olympic Time Trial qualifiers, State Champions (both individual and team), conference champions (both individual and team), as well as athletes and individuals ranging from elementary age to adults. She is a Board Certified Coach through the Center of Credentialing and Education and provides mental training, sport psychology, and holistic life coaching to optimize performance and quality of life.
Abbi’s life and philosophy of coaching has been largely influenced by her involvement in athletics. Growing up in Lima, Ohio, she played any and every sport that time would allow. Earning 12 varsity letters throughout high school, and never having an off-season, the sport she likes to say chose her, was swimming. She won two State Championships and broke the Ohio High School State Record which attributed to her being recruited nationally.
She selected the University of Tennessee and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with honors as well as two minors. At Tennessee, she was a two-time All-American, elected team captain during her junior and senior seasons, and earned a role as the Graduate Assistant for the Lady Vol Swimming & Diving Team. This opportunity kept her in Knoxville for her Master of Science degree in Sport Psychology and allowed her to learn the flip-side of Division I Athletics in regards to coaching, recruiting, NCAA rules, and team operations.
Abbi’s professional experiences took her down a path she could have never designed on her own. Although very tightly connected to athletics, each job was training her to develop a holistic coaching philosophy. She started as an Academic Advisor Intern and learned to use mental training to help student athletes excel in the classroom. Then, at the University of Pittsburgh, held the role as Career and Life Skills Coordinator for Student Athletes. She gained in-depth experience effectively developing the student athlete holistically paying special attention to their professional progressions and life transitions. Abbi helped lead programming for all sport teams (500+ student athletes) covering academic and athletic achievement, career development and graduate school preparation, community service, personal development, health and wellness, leadership and character development, and financial education. Working for high profile athletic departments gave her unique experience in training student athletes for public speaking, television and print interviews as well as overall professional etiquette.
Since moving to the middle Tennessee area in 2010, she has provided life coaching to young adults fostering their personal growth and development in order to achieve success. Connecting with people who are striving to achieve their goals has brought her immense joy. Some examples of issues have ranged from a baseball player creating an alter ego to control his nerves, to a stage fright singer battling to earn a recording deal, to a nurse practitioner preparing for the MCAT, to multiple Olympians shooting for gold, to a new graduate’s career search, to an Irish dancer seeking perfection, to a business owner finding balance. She finds every connection exceptionally fascinating.
With the accumulation of experiences as an elite athlete as well as focusing on psychology, mental training, performance, and life transitions, she is committed to assisting individuals in succeeding in their life choices. The simple motivating factor driving all Abbi’s professional and personal decisions is to help others.