MEET YOUR STARTING STRENGTH COACH

Jared Nessland has been coaching Division I athletes in Strength and Conditioning for 20 years. Jared is both a Starting Strength Coach (since 2013) and a Seminar Staff Coach. Most recently, Jared was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Sacramento State from 2011 – 2019, where he used the Starting Strength model with all of his teams. He previously served as the Head Strength Coach at Southern Illinois University, the University of Montana, and the University of North Dakota, with stints as an Assistant at the University of North Dakota and the University of Nebraska. Originally, from Havre, Montana, Nessland attended Montana State University where he competed as a thrower on the Track and Field team. Jared has competed in both Olympic Lifting and Powerlifting, and is currently a competitive open level racquetball player. After hearing about the opening of Starting Strength Denver, Jared decided to leave collegiate coaching and join Jay Livsey's team as the Head Coach. He is moving from California with his fiance, Laurie Holland and his Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Koda. If you are a living human being, Jared knows how to make you much stronger than you are now.

Amanda Sheppard started her strength coaching career at the collegiate level. She decided on strength and conditioning after spending 4 years as a starter for the softball team at Northern Illinois University. She spent her first two years as a graduate assistant in the weight room at NIU.
After that she accepted her first assistant position at Sacramento State where she worked under Head SSC, Jared Nessland, for two years. This is where she was introduced to the Starting Strength Method and books which she continued to use with her athletes in the collegiate setting.
In 2017, she was offered the Olympic Director of Sports Performance position back at her alma mater where she spent another two and a half years in that position. After hearing about the opportunity for Starting Strength Denver, through Jared, she knew it was time to make the jump from college athletics to help make people strong for life. Amanda is originally from the South Suburbs of Chicago and moved here with her pup, Letty.