Coaches
Berkeley High Coup Ultimate coaches are volunteers from the local ultimate community. They play on club teams, and in some cases on national and professional teams. Coaching at Berkeley High School takes dedication to the sport and students, as it is on a volunteer basis and takes time during the week and on weekends.
James Sheridan, Head Coach
How can you tell if someone played Ultimate at Carleton? Don't worry, they'll tell you. A proud alum of the Carleton College Gods of Plastic, James started his Ultimate career in 2006. A veteran of the SF mixed scene, James most recently played for SF Polar Bears and the Dominican Republic National Team at the World Championships in 2018. But his critical claim to fame is his coaching look: barefoot, striped pajama pants, a ball cap, and proudly rocking a Coup jersey. This will be his 9th season coaching Coup, and we're so lucky to have him!
Joey Ricks, Head Coach
Joey has a reputation of being the best dressed coach at tournaments with his crazy facial hair and break blazer. He has been coaching Berkeley since 2022 and is hoping to continue to grow the sport of ultimate. Joey started playing ultimate in college at UMBC and quickly fell in love with the sport. He has dabbled in the pro scene with the DC Current and Detroit Mechanix, but has been playing mixed club since 2015. He is coming back for his 3rd season with Berkeley hoping to not get another 2nd place finish. Joey is excited to be coaching the next generation of ultimate studs! Outside of ultimate, you will find Joey still coaching ultimate or crocheting.
.jpg)
Matt Zelin, Assistant Coach
Matt stumbled his way onto Colorado College Wasabi in 2012 and never looked back. A consummate role player, Matt has played every position on the field over his career that has led him from Colorado to New Zealand and back to his roots here in the Bay Area. You can often find Matt at the fields carrying his umbrella (helpful rain or shine!) - a pretty iconic look according to this writer, though maybe not as infamous as that of the Godfather of BHS COUP. Outside of ultimate, you'll find Matt gallivanting in the mountains distractedly tinkering with his next halftime speech and searching for cliché quotes to inspire your children.
Pavel Shering:
"An international import from Russia and later Canada where his Ultimate career began in 2009 as a freshman in high school. Over the years, he molded himself into a defensive hybrid on the field; was a 2017 U24 Team Canada prospect, played for Toronto's Roy in 2018, Toronto's GrandTrunk in 2019 and played at PAUC in 2019 with Houndd. Once moving to the Bay Area in 2022, he signed with the Oakland Spiders UFA along with Berkeley's Zyzzyva Club Team. He started coaching Spiders Clinics in 2022 and joined the BHS coaching staff in 2024.
Finding Pavel is a foolproof science: just locate the player whose voice carries across three zip codes, follow the passionate declarations about 'one more sprint!', or simply navigate toward the speaker that's turning the practice field into an impromptu dance party. Outside of ultimate, Pavel is coding, gaming, building robots or cross training."
.jpg)
Andrew Riggs:
"I started playing competitive ultimate in college at Cal in 2006. I’ve played at nearly every level of the sport, ranging from local leagues, fun (but somehow still too competitive) social tournaments, semipro ultimate under the lights and in front of fans(?), competitive club teams trying to make nationals, club teams just trying to have fun and improve as players, and even on the international stage at WMUCC in 2022. I currently play masters ultimate and way too much disc golf.
As a coach - I’ve coached BHS since 2019, club since 2022, and been in leadership positions on club teams for 5+ seasons doing everything from practice and strategy planning to captaining.
As a high school coach I believe in having fun, learning strong fundamentals, and learning how to be a good teammate. I tend to focus more on the developmental side of ultimate at BHS and have coached Yellow for most of my years. I think success in ultimate can look like many different things for different students and I try my best to make sure each student can enjoy their time on the team no matter what their goals are. On Yellow we will learn new skills, score points on teams better than us, win some tight games here and there, and be supportive to the newer teams we play as schools all over start to field their first teams and play their first games."
.jpg)
Joseph "Bonus" Gorelik
Joseph "Bonus" Gorelik has been a staple of the Berkeley High Coup community since 2021 working with successive waves of Lo Coup freshman. Bonus first started playing competitive ultimate in 2013 while at UCLA. Since then, he has played at the college and club level, on both grass and sand, and internationally in places such as Hong Kong and the Philippines. Bonus first started coaching in 2019 and has experience coaching at the middle school, high school, and college levels. Bonus likes to say he is allergic to three things: dairy, gluten, and people not knowing the fundamentals of the game. Outside of ultimate, he enjoys climbing, trivia, hiking, and being the best Joseph on the coaching staff.
Connor Stuart-Paul (CSP)
Connor started their ultimate journey in 2011 at Catonsville High School and quickly fell in love with the sport. They went on to play for Rice University’s Cloud 9 from 2013 to 2017, honing their skills as both a player and a teammate. Since graduating, Connor has focused on mixed club, in Connecticut, Durham, and the Bay Area.
Now coaching at Berkeley High, Connor brings over a decade of experience and a commitment to fostering growth in every player—whether it’s mastering the basics, developing advanced skills, or just learning to love the game. You’ll usually find Connor leading drills with a thoughtful approach, reminding players to hydrate, or sharing a perfectly timed pun to keep spirits high.
Off the field, Connor is either captaining queer ultimate players, playing disc golf at the Aquatic Park, or exploring tide pools with their spouse. They’re thrilled to help the next generation of ultimate players find their place in the sport!
Chris Godek
Chris Godek started playing Ultimate at Pacific Lutheran University in 2004 and quickly fell in love with the sport. By 2010, he had moved to the Bay Area and was playing in local beach and recreation leagues and eventually helped found the club Mixed team, Firefly. Having retired from competitive Ultimate, he now coaches Hysteria, the YCC team, California Current, and has coached the YCC team Belly of the Beast. He has an immense passion for growing the sport at all levels and is constantly looking for ways to increase opportunities for all players.
Wyatt Berreman
Started playing ultimate frisbee at Willard Middle School and went through the High Coup program from 2012-2016. I then played at Las Positas College and currently play for the mix team Mischief and the professional UFA team Oakland Spiders. 8 legs 1 heart!
I developed an interest in coaching the year after I graduated in 2016 and was in and out for the first few years, but have been consistently coaching lo coup for the past 3 years. Even though it is hard to coach new players every year, the freshmen are always a funny group that keep me on my toes. When I am not coaching you will find me playing with my dog, Lily, or squatting 500 lbs.
Lydia Auch
Lydia hails from the great state of Illinois, but didn’t start her ultimate journey until she moved to a slightly less cold area for college at Northeastern University in Boston. Here she played with the Valkyries from 2015-2018, learning from the great coaching duo of Jason Adams and Danny Clark. Captaining her college team her senior year began her blossoming love for sharing her ultimate knowledge and teaching others the joy of the sport. She moved to the Bay in 2018 where she played with various women and mixed teams, most recently with Firefly, where she captained the team to their first regionals appearance post-Covid. When she’s not running around catching discs, she can be found knitting, cuddling with her sweet orange cat Sunkist, or doing other athletic outdoorsy activities like paddleboarding, hiking, and running.
Olivia Goss
Betsy Siegal
Leo Gordon