Chapter Leadership Team – Illinois State Chapter – USAFH

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Home
Member Clubs
- Clubs in IL
- Start a Club
About Us
Programs & Events
- Become a Member
- Youth
  - Middle School
  - Boys
- High School
  - Boys
- College
  - NCAA
  - NFHL
  - Men
- Adult
  - Masters (35+
  - USFHL
- All Starz – Adaptive Field Hockey
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- Umpires & Officials
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Calendar of Events
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Leadership Team

Michael Barminski

Athlete Director

Michael Barminski

Athlete Director

Barminski has been a staple of the U.S. Men’s National Team since 2010. In his tenure, he has accumulated more than 90 international caps and led USA to multiple podium finishes. Those notable medal wins include bronze at the 2017 Pan American Cup and the 2019 Pan American Games, and gold at the 2018 Hockey Series Open.

He has also traveled across the globe representing USA in a handful of series in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa and South Korea. Simultaneously competing with the senior squad, Barminski also played for the junior side. He led USA to fourth place finishes at the 2008 and 2012 Junior Pan American Championships.

The 2021 season was Barminski’s first year as the assistant coach at Stanford University. He has also coached the Junior USMNT and Ventura County Red Devils since 2017, and the Ventura County Roadrunners since 2016.

Barminski has also coached with USA Futures and Field Hockey Federation, while serving on the board of USA Field Hockey as an athlete representative since 2019.

A 2016 graduate of University of California, San Diego, Barminski later received his Master’s in Business Administration from DeVry University.

Phone:Phone number
Email:Email

Catherine Bessant

Independent Director

Catherine Bessant

Independent Director

Bessant, from Charlotte, N.C., is a high-profile figure in the banking industry. She is the chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America and is a member of the company’s executive management team. Since 2010, Bessant has led Global Technology and Operations, delivering end-to-end technology and operating services across the company through nearly 95,000 employees and contractors in more than 35 countries.

Active in the community and region, Bessant received the 2018 Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition, she was awarded the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine and was recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal with the Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award. She chairs the North Tryon Vision Plan Advisory Committee.

Cheryl Bruttomesso

Officials’ Representative

Cheryl Bruttomesso

Officials’ Representative

Bruttomesso earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from Slippery Rock University in 1984, and her Master of Education in Sport Psychology from Temple University in 1990. She currently works as a physical education teacher and coach at Germantown Friends School, where she’s coached softball, field hockey, lacrosse, squash, and track and field.

Bruttomesso began her career as a FIH Umpire in 1995 and umpired internationally until she retired in 2004. During that time, she umpired multiple NCAA Final Four games from 1998 to 2000. After her retirement from umpiring, Bruttomesso began acting as an umpire manager and rules interpreter, acting as a rules interpreter for the NCAA from 1998 to 2004, and again from 2022 to present. She has been an umpire manager for USA Field Hockey at Regional Club Championships, National Club Championship, and National Hockey Festival since 2019.

Stefanie Fee

Athlete Director

Stefanie Fee

Athlete Director

Fee joined the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2012 after her graduation from Duke University, and played for the following six years, retiring in 2018. During her time on the team, Fee competed in 111 international caps and represented USA at many major international competitions. These included finishing fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, winning gold at the 2015 Pan American Games, and participating in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, in The Netherland and England respectively.

Fee has more than a decade of coaching experience and became a USA Field Hockey Certified Level 1 Coach in 2013. She is the owner and coach of PowerHouse Field Hockey Club and served as the head coach of the U.S. O-60 Women’s Masters Team at the 2022 World MastersHockey (WMH) World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa this past fall. She previously was the head coach at Episcopal Academy and led the program to a state championship, while earning NFHCA All-South Region Coaching Staff of the Year. In 2016, she was the volunteer assistant coach at the University of Maryland, and then in 2017 served as an assistant coach.

In college, Fee served as captain for two years, received the Blue Devil Award, Underdog Award and had an award named in her honor. The Stef Fee Duke True award is presented to one athlete annually who shows the highest degree of leadership on and off the field and has a contagious passion for field hockey.

Fee earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2012 from Duke University in Psychology, with minors in Education and Culture Anthropology. Outside field hockey, she has worked in marketing both in the sports and health industries.

Dan Friedberg

Independent Director

Dan Friedberg

Independent Director

Friedberg, of Old Greenwich, Conn., is the CEO of Hampstead Park Capital Management, which he founded in 2016. The investment firm is an active, constructive, long term investor in small cap public and private companies in the United States and Canada. Over the last 30 years, Friedberg has focused both as an investor and consultant as a Partner at Bain & Company, investing and actively working with companies to provide a combination of capital investment, operating improvement and strategic support, and in a governance role to support management teams to maximize long term shareholder value. He has invested in more than 30 companies, serving on five public boards, taking two private, and numerous non-profit boards.

Friedberg has been involved in youth sports and education for over 20 years in a range of capacities. He has been involved with National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), Performance Sports Group (Bauer, Easton, Cascade, and Maverik), VICIS Football Helmets, Greenwich Skating Club and as a USA Hockey youth ice hockey coach. He is a member of Cornell’s Johnson Business School Development Committee and serves on the Advisory Council of Cornell’s business school.

Friedberg received his Master of Business Administration in 1987 from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell and a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984 from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England.

Katelyn Ginolfi

Vice Chair of Board & Athlete Director

Katelyn Ginolfi

Vice Chair of Board & Athlete Director

Ginolfi has one of the most decorated playing careers for the U.S. Women’s National Team after having competed in 261 international matches for Team USA. She joined the USWNT in 2005, when she was just 15 years old, and instantly earned respectful recognition as a wise athlete beyond her years. The three-time Olympian (Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016) claimed six gold and three silver medals, including a historic and memorable performance in the 2010 Pan American Games final while playing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Ginolfi played collegiately at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a four-year starter and two-time captain. She helped lead the Tar Heels to two NCAA National Championships (2007, 2009), two NCAA Runner-Ups (2010, 2011) and two Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) titles (2007, 2011), along with many personal accolades.

Alex Grassi

Athlete Director

Alex Grassi

Athlete Director

Grassi grew up in Montgomery County, Md. He was selected to the U.S. U-16 Men's National Team in 2004, moved up to the U-21 USMNT and in 2012 joined the senior USMNT, where he continues to play. Over his career he has competed in Junior Pan American Championships, Pan American Cups, and Pan American Games, in addition to FIH Hockey World League events and other tournaments. He is also a member of the Indoor USMNT.

Aside from his playing career, Grassi has been coaching field hockey for more than a decade. He is passionate about growing the game of field hockey for boys and girls. He has worked with several different club teams, in addition to collegiate teams and Junior USMNT. He runs Mustangs Field Hockey Club, for boys and girls youth hockey all the way up to adults.

Grassi joined the USA Field Hockey Board of Directors in 2019 as an interim Athlete Representative and was officially voted into the position as a full Athlete Representative later that year. He is also the Chair of the Athlete Advisory Committee. He currently lives in Washington D.C. and works as a mechanical engineer.

Will Holt

Athlete Director

Will Holt

Athlete Director

Holt has been a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team since 2007 and accumulated a 146 international caps. Since his debut he has been an offensive scoring threat tallying an impressive 85 goals. He has traveled to many countries where he competed in various test series and international events including the World League Round 1 (2012, 2016), World League Round 2 (2013, 2015, 2017), Hockey Series Open (2018), Hockey Series Finals (2019), Pan American Games (2011, 2015, 2019-A) and Pan American Cup (2009, 2017). When he was a member of the Junior USMNT he played in the Junior Pan American Championships and men’s Junior World Cup.

He is an active coach and in January 2020 was named the assistant coach at Indiana University. Holt has served in many coaching capacities and got his start with USA Field Hockey as the assistant coach of the U-21 USMNT. He went on to serve as the associate head coach of the U-16 squad before being moved up to the U-18 team.

Holt also has experience coaching internationally and in 2010 was the head coach of the Royal Oreé T. H. B. U-16 Boys first time in Brussels, Belgium. He returned to coaching abroad in 2016 as the head coach of the Royal Pingouin Hockey Club U-16 Boys first team and assistant coach for the U-18 Boys first team. During the 2017 season, he went on to be the director of strength and conditioning with Hockey Club Ludwigsburg in Germany. Holt spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons in The Netherlands coaching for two club organizations. In 2018, he was the head coach of the U-16 Boys first team at V.M.H.C. Cartouche prior to becoming the head coach of the U-14 girls team with NMHC Nijmegen.

Holt earned his bachelor’s degree in Health and Human Performance (Exercise Science) from the University of Louisville in 2014. He also earned his master’s degree from Louisville in Athletic Administration in 2015. While pursuing both degrees, he served as the volunteer assistant coach from 2012 to 2015, where he assisted in the development of team game plans and breakdown of film.

Billy King

At-Large Director

Billy King

At-Large Director

King’s extensive professional and athletic resume spans more than three decades, beginning his post-college basketball career by acting as assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers for four season. In 1998, King transitioned to the front office, joining the Philadelphia 76ers, where he eventually served as president and general manager before leaving the organization in 2007.

Following his departure from the 76ers, King joined the New Jersey (later Brooklyn) Nets, where he served as general manager of the organization from 2010 to 2016. During this time, he increased team average gate receipts 100%, planned and designed the new practice site and offices in Brooklyn, and established community initiatives in Brooklyn with the athletes.

More recently, King acted as a co-host on WIP morning radio sport talk show, provided NBA analysis through Turner Sports, and worked as president of both ReachTV and Elfus Sports Management. He currently works as a senior partner at Modern Executive Solutions. In this role, he leads business development in sports, media and entertainment, researches and writes contracts, agreements, and proposals, and provides services to all individuals promoting effective and lasting business relationships.

Beyond his professional career, King has served on several sport, non-profit, and charitable boards over the past 30 years.

King attended Duke University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1988. During his tenure with the Blue Devils, the team played in two Final Four appearances, 1986 and 1988. His daughter is an avid field hockey player.

Stephen Martin

At-Large Director

Stephen Martin

At-Large Director

Martin joins USA Field Hockey ‘s Board of Directors with extensive legal, compliance and governance experience. He began his legal career almost 30 years ago, working in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Missouri, before moving to the United States Attorney’s Office in 1997 to act as an assistant United States Attorney. Throughout his career, he has acted as a partner at three law firms, in addition to several other notable legal positions.

Currently, Martin works for Skillsoft Corp as the Senior Vice President of Legal Compliance. His previous experience in compliance includes his time at Corpedia Corporation as General Counsel anp Chief Compliance Officer from 2006 to 2011 and Adelphia Communications Corporation as vice President of Law, Litigation and Compliance.

Martin earned his Bachelor of Arts in Public Affairs and Political Science from the University of Denver in 1991. Since completing his undergraduate, he earned three advanced degrees, including A Juris Doctorate from Creighton University School of Law, Master of Law from Georgetown University Law Center, and Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver. Martin is a member of the Bar in Colorado, Missouri and District of Columbia

Martin became interested in field hockey through his daughter, an enthusiastic player who is committed to the University of Illinois. He has supported the Colorado Bears Field Hockey Club and Colorado Academy high school program.

Karissa Niehoff

Amateur Sports Organization Representative

Karissa Niehoff

Amateur Sports Organization Representative

Niehoff is the current executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), a position she has held since August 2018. As the organization’s sixth full-time executive director and first female to lead the organization, she is responsible for the oversight of all aspects of the organization and achievement of the NFHS Strategic Plan and NFHS Board of Directors Priorities. She interacts with NFHS Board of Directors and 51 member associations and collaborates with other stakeholder entities including professional sport organizations. Prior to that she served as the executive director of the NFHS-member Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Athletic Conference (CAS-CIAC) for seven years.

On top of her extensive involvement with NFHS, Niehoff was previously a teacher, coach, athletic director, assistant principal and principal at the middle and high school levels in Connecticut for 20 years. She also was the field hockey coach at Litchfield High School and Joel Barlow High School.

Niehoff served as the interim director of education for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee from 1995 to 2001 and was on the USA Field Hockey Board of Ethics from 2006 to 2017.

Niehoff earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, master’s from Southern Connecticut State University, sixth-year degree in educational leadership from Central Connecticut State University and doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Connecticut.

Jon Potter

Independent Director

Jon Potter

Independent Director

Potter, a two-time Olympic medalist with Great Britain, brings extensive experience and record of success in delivering revenue and market share growth across multiple categories and markets. His background includes managing mature and new-to-world brands and overseeing relationships with distributors, agents, joint venture partners, and marketing agencies. With a history of beverage company management, for the past five years Potter was the managing director of the House of Suntory and Maison Courvoisier at Suntory Global Spirits. Prior to that he spent two years as the chief marketing officer at The Boston Beer Company.

Potter represented Great Britain and England on the international stage, retiring in 1995 with 234 combined international caps. He competed in three Olympic games, earning bronze at Los Angeles 1984 and gold at Seoul 1988, while also playing in Barcelona 1992.

Alison Worthington

At-Large Director

Alison Worthington

At-Large Director

Worthington brings more than 30 years of experience at Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Microsoft, Method and most recently Lyra Health. Recognized as a top marketer across consumer, tech and healthcare, Alison guides organizations through pivotal periods of their strategic evolution in the capacity of Chief Marketing Officer, Board Director, and Advisor. She also founded a consulting practice where she helps companies like GoPro, Ancestry, Bragg and multiple startups accelerate their vision and growth. Alison earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an AB from Smith College. She is a mom of twin daughters and is an advocate for youth mental health and sports participation.

Chip Rogers

Chair of Board & At-Large Director

Chip Rogers

Chair of Board & At-Large Director

Rogers lives in Oxford, Ohio, and serves as an assistant coach at Miami University, a U.S. Men’s Masters Team athlete and an international technical official. In addition, Rogers is the administrator of the fieldhockeycorner.com website, which has been used by coaches, players and fans as a resource for schedules, results, rankings, statistics and polls for all three divisions of NCAA field hockey for the past 15 years. He collated the national coaching and playing records for Division I, II and III, while doing ground-breaking research on early field hockey history. Rogers serves as the chair of the National Grow the Game committee and has been instrumental in starting new programs at colleges in all divisions.

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