Coaches
Todd Katz - Todd is the head coach for Hammer Down CrossFit, a CrossFit Trainer, and holds certificates in CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting, CrossFit Gymnastics, CrossFit Endurance, CrossFit Mobility, CrossFit Striking, CrossFit Strongman, CrossFit Kettlebell, and CrossFit for Kids. Todd is also a certified personal trainer and nutritional counselor through NPTI, an Olympic Weightlifting coach with USAW and holds CrossFit’s Advanced Coaching certification and CrossFit’s Advanced Competition certification as well. Todd has spent the better part of the last decade either in the weight room or running marathons. His personal best marathon time of 2:59:23 was set on the difficult Boston course in April of 2009. For several years Todd was stuck between 3:02 and 3:12 at the marathon distance. In the winter of 2008, Todd discovered CrossFit and dramatically altered his training style which led to his breakthrough performance. A certified running coach with RRCA, Todd has helped many runners achieve personal bests by instituting a carefully planned out training schedule that utilizes CrossFit for strength training and high intensity interval training on the road. Todd played ice hockey for almost three decades and played lacrosse through college. coachtodd@hammerdowncrossfit.com
Sarah Mills - Sarah is a CrossFit Trainer, CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting Coach, CrossFit Movement & Mobility Coach, CrossFit Strongman Trainer, CrossFit Striking Trainer, and CrossFit Goal Setting Coach. She has an advanced CrossFit Coach’s Prep certificate and is a Certified Group Exercise Instructor and Cycling Coach. She has coached elite and everyday athletes for more than a decade to achieve their performance and personal health and fitness goals. An avid cyclist, runner and yoga practitioner, Sarah understands how CrossFit can combine with and support other disciplines for optimal performance in endurance athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike. She leads mobility and stretching sessions to support recovery and injury prevention, and loves motivating CrossFit athletes to incredible results. Sarah runs a consulting firm in Northern Virginia called Vivazu Communications, has coordinated communication efforts for professional athletic teams, and helped to create an amateur distance cycling squad, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. She was an NCAA Division 1 tennis player. coachsarah@hammerdowncrossfit.com
Devin Carr – Devin Carr is a CrossFit Trainer and a CrossFit Gymnastics coach. Devin has competed in a wide range of sports including cross country running, skiing, soccer, baseball, tennis, golf and weightlifting. Since college, Devin had been running and lifting weights, but quickly reached a plateau. In 2009, Coach Todd Katz introduced him to a highly-intense, highly-varied, community-based program called CrossFit, and he found an athletic endeavor worthy of becoming his passion. Since beginning training with Coach Katz, Devin’s physical response has been amazing. He set a 12 minute personal record in the marathon running a 3:05:55 (on less than 30 miles of running a week) in 2009 and has experienced an increase across all areas of fitness (endurance, flexibility, stamina, strength, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy). Devin is very excited to share his passion and to help others reach their personal fitness goals as a coach at Hammer Down CrossFit.
Drew - Drew is a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and CrossFit Strongman Coach. Drew has always been into sports, competition and cooking/eating (nicknamed by his brother as the “Angry Chef”) even completing the Chicago Marathon (against all good judgment but he met his awesome wife)! After playing football in college and really enjoying Olympic lifting he found the BIG GLOBO GYMS to be unreceptive to dropping weights so workouts became boring and monotonous. Drew found CrossFit on the internet in 2006, joined a CrossFit gym in 2009, and has been hooked on the high speed intense workouts ever since. Drew truly enjoys the opportunity to meet new athletes and hopes to encourage, teach and learn from all the athletes at Hammer Down. By the way if Drew looks angry he probably isn’t, and if he looks super happy he probably isn’t…Come get some work done.
Alison Phillips – Alison is a CrossFit Trainer and holds certificates in CrossFit Kettlebell, CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting, CrossFit Strongman and CrossFit Kids. Originally from Scotland, she moved to the United States in 2000 on a full volleyball scholarship to George Mason University. She competed on the Division 1 volleyball team and earned a degree in Teaching Physical Education and Health. Since graduating she has been teaching P.E. to preschool through middle school children as well as taking on the role of Athletic Director at Merritt Academy. Alison also enjoys running and has competed in distances from 5 km through marathon. She was fortunate to find CrossFit in March 2010 and has never looked back. She is excited to welcome new members into the Hammer Down community and is eager to see the athletes excel and reach personal fitness goals.
Jonathan Rankin – Jonathan is a Level 1 CrossFit Coach and holds certificates in CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting, CrossFit Strongman and CrossFit Striking, adding CrossFit to his multifaceted exercise background. He grew up playing soccer into high school, when he added tae kwon do, ultimately earning a black belt, and teaching classes at the age of 17. Jon started running competitively on his high school track and cross country teams, which was when he was first introduced to weightlifting. Like many other young lifters, he was focused on looks over performance, and regularly skipped lower body days. Jon picked up softball, volleyball, and mountain biking in college, but still was drawn to the free weights. After a lengthy break from exercise that saw him gaining 25 lbs, Jon sharpened his diet, and re-entered the weight room, this time working on functional movements. In 2008 he discovered CrossFit, and did a few workouts on his own, but wasn’t ready to drink the kool-aid. After a knee surgery in 2009 he jumped into the CrossFit world with both feet.
Cynthia Kaplan Revesman – Cindy is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer, holds certificates in CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting, CrossFit Strongman and is a former gym rat. Before CrossFit, Cindy would spend hours in the gym, weightlifting, taking body pump, spin, yoga or step classes and running too many miles on the road. Her spin instructor (and Hammer Down CrossFit trainer), Sarah Mills, suggested that she try CrossFit and she was instantly hooked. She found CrossFit to be varied, challenging and fun and not time consuming. As a busy litigation attorney with her own practice, the time-saving element was very appealing. As a coach, Cindy loves watching a new CrossFitter gain confidence and skill over time and become an integral part of the Hammer Down community. CrossFit helped Cindy achieved her first sub 2:00 half marathon, without her having to run an excessive amount of miles each week. Always active as a swimmer, tennis and softball player in high school, in the last 25 years Cindy has run hundreds of races, triathlons and biathlons and takes yoga classes in addition to CrossFit.
Melissa Katz - Melissa is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer, CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting Coach, CrossFit Kids Instructor, and CrossFit Striking Trainer. She became interested in CrossFit to break the monotony of her traditional gym workout (treadmill or elliptical followed by a few sets of light weights). Melissa got hooked on CrossFit’s constantly varied, highly-intense workouts that increased her stamina, strength, endurance, agility, flexibility and body composition, and helped her move past the plateau from less challenging workouts. As a full-time trial attorney and partner at the law firm of Bancroft, McGavin, Horvath & Judkins, P.C. specializing in civil litigation, Melissa has always de-stressed with exercise. Before succumbing to the addiction of CrossFit, her exercise of choice was running, including the Richmond Marathon, multiple half-marathons, and many 5K, 10K and 10 mile races. Melissa runs in and has organized her firm’s team in the American Heart Association Lawyers Have a Heart 10K, and promotes health and fitness to other professionals through CrossFit.
Rich Whitney - Rich is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer and holds certificates in CrossFit Olympic Weight Lifting and CrossFit Strongman. Rich played ice hockey and participated in the martial arts as a youth and young adult while in the military. He reached his former peak physical fitness while serving as a member of a U.S. Air Force Special Operations Explosive Ordnance Disposal (E.O.D) team, operating with other Special Forces such as Navy Seals, U.S. Army and Foreign Special Forces Teams. In recent years he found himself overweight and deconditioned, which negatively impacted his life and health. He was introduced to CrossFit by a professional colleague (and Hammer Down coach), Devin Carr. He has experienced tremendous results from CrossFit and a healthy change in diet. He lost 50 pounds and significantly changed his body composition achieving a level of physical fitness he never previously had. His passion for sharing his personal experiences and his previous roles as an instructor and coach have bled over into the world of CrossFit coaching.
Brandon Green – Brandon is a CrossFit Trainer with a BS in kinesiology and a minor in nutrition from the University of Central Arkansas. Brandon grew up playing baseball and football, and competed in powerlifting throughout his high school years. For the better part of a decade, he worked as a personal trainer and general manager of three globo gyms. In 2005, Brandon joined the US Army, became an infantryman, and after two deployments to Iraq, is now a US Army criminal investigator. CrossFit found him in August 2009 where he joined Pikes Peak CrossFit in Colorado. He joined Hammer Down in May 2010, was awarded his level 1 CrossFit coaching certification in 2011 and now brings his knowledge to our athletes as an experienced coach.
Kevin Thomas – Kevin is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer and holds a certificate in Olympic Weight Lifting. Kevin was a high school athlete competing in wrestling, soccer and tennis, and never really interested in fitness outside of athletics because it felt more like work and less like fun. After years away from sports and a more sedentary lifestyle, he was introduced to CrossFit by a colleague–and Hammer Down CrossFit charter member–Tim McCarthy, and he discovered the fun in fitness! CrossFit’s ethos of broad, general, inclusive fitness speaks directly to the type of balance he seeks in all parts of life and helped him build a passion for sharing the “Fun” of CrossFit with others.
Tom Roth - Tom is a Level one Crossfit trainer. Tom was a three sport athlete in highschool, playing, soccer, wrestling, and lacrosse. He went on to college to join Army ROTC which helped keep the competitive nature within him. He was commissioned into the Army in 2005 as an Infantryman and has been in ever since. Tom did CrossFit-like training through out his army career until moving to Northern Virginia in the summer of 2010. After getting bored of running and doing the same exercises every five days at globo gym he decided he would take up Crossfit full time. Tom says he cant imagine himself training for his job in any other capacity than Crossfit.
Holley Marchwicki Krempa - Holley is a Level 1 Crossfit Coach. Along with her sister, Kasey, Holley grew up participating in sports from an early age. Everything from speed skating, track and field, field hockey and lacrosse until eventually Holley went to college as a dual athlete in field hockey and lacrosse. After college, Holley spent many hours (too many hours) in the gym running and lifting weights – you know how it goes. One day Kasey convinced Holley to head over to HammerDown Crossfit for a trial class. Let’s just say they were hooked! So hooked in fact, they were actually told they had to take a rest day. Holley is very passionate about Crossfit and the community built around HammerDown. She looks forward to welcoming new members and watching them achieve skills they never even knew were possible.
Courtney Doehler – Courtney is a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer and a CrossFit Kids Trainer. Sports and fitness have always been a huge part of her life. Courtney found CrossFit in 2010 and has never looked back. She says Crossfit has added a dimension to her fitness that she could not have achieved with any other methodology. She not only found an amazing new and exciting fitness lifestyle, but also a community of people who inspire her each day. Courtney is currently a second grade teacher and is licensed in Elementary Education (PreK-6), Special Education (PreK-12), and Health and Physical Education (PreK-12). Courtney is passionate about Crossfit and working with children, which is why she loves coaching the CrossFit Kids program. She believes exposing kids to the CrossFit methodology enables them to grow up strong and healthy, while developing a lifelong love of fitness.
