Natalie Amara (January 2020 - present)

Natalie’s roles as RISE intern is in research and development, as she assists in data collection and analyses of youth athleticism, as well as aiding in the development of RISE’s training education program (RISE.edu)

Natalie is originally from Santa Clarita, CA and played soccer for Golden Valley High School. She is currently a center defensive midfielder for the Linfield College Women’s Soccer program. Her favorite part of being a collegiate athlete is the opportunity to hit the pitch daily with her best friends and getting touches in with the ball. Her favorite foods after a good team win include donuts and cookies! Natalie’s pump-up songs for training and matches include “Thief” by Ookay, “Rise” by Imagine Dragons, and “Wing$” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Besides soccer and school, Natalie likes to dabble in other sports, drawing, calligraphy, and being out in the sun.

Natalie is currently at Senior at Linfield College, majoring in Exercise Science. She recently was awarded Exercise Science Major of the Year by her professors. Her future aspirations after Linfield is to attend graduate school and become a physical therapist, as well as doubling as a strength and conditioning coach. She takes on leadership roles within her soccer team and our department as the primary designer of her team’s yearly strength and conditioning programming. She is rehabbing from an ACL injury from this past year. Her injury, along with her studies, has helped her gain a deeper understanding of biomechanics and its relation to sport and injury. She’s hoping that her experience at RISE will continue to allow her to apply her biomechanics textbook knowledge to strength and skill acquisition with our RISE youth athletes.

Alana Nuttman (December 2019 - present)

Alana’s internship role has been with the softball skill development of RISE. Specifically, she helped create the outfield and slap-hitting aspects of the softball training curriculum and has implemented those parts of the curriculum with the Oregon Blaze Fastpitch 12U squad.

Alana went to Heritage High School in Vancouver, WA. She played for the softball club Stealth Fastpitch out of Milwaukie, OR. She took her talents to Linfield College where she was a slap-hitting left/centerfielder. Her favorite parts of the game are baserunning and defense.

Her favorite pump-up songs for training and competition include AC/DC, A$AP Ferg, Imagine Dragons, and Ariana Grande. She’s a huge fan of macaroni and cheese from Panera Bread. Outside of softball and school, Alana enjoys watching “Friends” and online shopping.

Alana just finished her junior year at Linfield, studying in the rigorous Athletic Training program, focusing on prevention, mechanisms, and care of athletic injuries. She completed an internship in Athletic Training at Mountainside High School in Beaverton during the Fall of 2019, learning from Linfield alum, Christina Gray. Her career aspirations include earning a Master’s degree in Athletic Training, working towards her certifications in athletic training and strength and conditioning, and working as a certified athletic trainer/strength coach at a high school or small college.

Chelsea Sligh (December 2019 - April 2020)

Chelsea’s role was assisting in the design and implementation of RISE’s softball skill development curriculum. Specifically, she helped crate and teach the infield curriculum for the Oregon Blaze Fastpitch 12U team.

Chelsea is originally from San Leandro, CA and played for San Leandro High School and the 18U Lady Wolfpack Gold club team. She was a 3B/1B for the Concordia University Cavaliers in Portland, OR. Her favorite parts of softball are the times where all the hard work pays off and the team comes together. Chelsea also loves the high-energy games where it comes down to grit and toughness. Her most memorable moment as a player was when Concordia won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship title in 2019. Her go-to pump-up songs before games are anything energetic that she can dance and stay loose to. Besides softball and school, Chelsea enjoys acrylic painting and other arts and crafts.

Chelsea is a 2020 graduate of Concordia University, majoring in Exercise and Sport Science. She’s hoping she can parlay her degree, experience, and love for sports into a career designing sports products for NIKE, Wilson, or DeMarini. Before RISE, she also completed a strength and conditioning internship in Vancouver, WA. At RISE, she worked hard in player and skill development, truly combining the knowledge from her exercise and sport science courses.