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Learn, Grow and Excel with Help From Some of Central Oregon’s Coaches

Home to not only world-class athletes and performers but experienced coaches ready to support them in reaching their goals, it’s no wonder Bend sees so many of its own on the main stage. Mentors, armed with empathy, good listening skills, and positive attitudes, guide competitors on and off the field. Whether they’re teaching safety or excellence, life lessons or state championships, coaches sacrifice for their students. Here, we highlight a handful of local coaches who have dedicated their lives to helping kids—and kids-at-heart—reach their full potential, in sport and life.

Tara Brothers

Equestrian: Tara Brothers

Tara Brothers grew up caring for horses on her family’s Tumalo ranch and had a very successful junior and collegiate riding career. Her skills in a saddle led her across the country, to Europe and eventually to showing horses for acclaimed trainer Tom Wright at All Seasons Farm in Ohio. In 2017, Brothers opened Sage Equestrian near her childhood home where she teaches Central Oregonians how to ride in the English tradition. Brothers believes safety and enjoyment are the most important goals for coaches and students. She advises others to learn from the best, try to work jobs outside of their comfort zone, and always be capable of completing every task you ask someone else to do. “It is so fun for me to look at kids that I worked with for years accomplishing all their equestrian goals,” explained Brothers.

JianFeng Chen & Ryan Clark

Martial Arts: JianFeng Chen & Ryan Clark

Shifu JianFeng Chen and Ryan Clark took two different paths to teach martial arts in Central Oregon. Clark, who instructs Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, began learning with his friends as teenagers in Salem after watching Bruce Lee movies and wanting to emulate him. He has trained throughout the United States, as well as Japan, Brazil and Thailand, opening his first studio in Eugene before moving to Bend in 2013, where he started Clark’s University of Martial Arts. “I love the training and teaching the strategy behind Jiu Jitsu,” said Clark. Chen, of Oregon Tai Chi Wushu, began coaching in 2000 as a competitor on the Fujian State Athletic Wushu Unit, where he was expected to help coach and mentor his less experienced teammates. He traveled the world competing before coming to the United States to teach, opening his Bend studio in 2012. “I recognized teaching is a skill that helps me express myself and grow, as well as connect people to this art and culture that I love,” said Chen. “I believe it has many benefits for health and life.” Both goal-oriented coaches believe in lifelong learning for the student and the master, as evidenced by Clark’s tattoo which reads, “Always be a student.” Chen explained his passion for coaching, “I want to use my experience to nurture each student and my ability to be a bridge or translator to this art and my culture with kindness and a sense of humor.”

Jimena Shepherd & Meshem Jackson

Music: Jimena Shepherd & Meshem Jackson

Cascade School of Music (CSM) has been connecting aspiring Central Oregon musicians with quality music instructors for more than two decades. Two of their most popular teachers, Percussion Department Chair Meshem Jackson and vocal coach Jimena Shepherd, have seen just about every level of student since they began introducing melody, keys, and timing to kids. Both believe in patience, but they stress experience and understanding as crucial to student success in the lifelong learning of music. They believe each child is different and should be taught to his or her talent or skill. Shepherd tries to interact with students in an authentic way and advises aspiring teachers to trust in the process and always be open to learning from their experiences. “I love being able to see the different personalities and the types of art each child brings to class,” said Shepherd. Jackson agreed, “I simply enjoy talking with people about drums and music. Showing someone how to play is just part of the conversation.” With both coaches having more than a decade of experience, they have witnessed many proud moments with their students. Jackson enjoys seeing his kids work hard and perform in high-pressure situations, such as local public musicals, or continuing with music in college. Shepherd likes to root for the underdogs. Jackson concurs and said, “Doing something that makes you happy, content, and relaxed will make you better at it.”

Nils Eriksson

Soccer and Ski: Nils Eriksson

Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF) Alpine Director and Bend High boys soccer coach Nils Eriksson grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, where coaching is a volunteer activity rather than a job. Excelling at both skiing and hockey, Eriksson chose to focus on skiing in his teens and ended up getting a scholarship to race for the University of Wyoming where he also studied business. After college, Eriksson moved to Bend with his wife and took a seasonal job as an alpine ski coach with MBSEF, a role that would change his trajectory away from finance and toward working with athletes. A year later, at a friend’s request, Eriksson agreed to coach the newly-formed freshman soccer squad at Bend High School. Though he’d never coached soccer before, he had played on intramural teams in college and developed a true appreciation for the sport while attending a few World Cup games. “You don’t need to be elite in your sport [to coach], but it helps in demonstrations and the mental aspects,” said Eriksson. On the field, Eriksson believes coaches need patience and an understanding of their athletes, and they must be able to convey to the kids in a fun way that it’s a long process, so they can focus on short-term goals. He stresses that age is different from maturity, and coaches need to understand where each athlete lies in their development, in order to connect with them at their level. For Eriksson, money is not the benefit of a successful coaching career. “Feeling good is the reward,” he said, “being happy with other rewards, such as interactions with the athletes and seeing mental and tactical improvements they make.”

Gabe Triplette

Skateboarding: Gabe Triplette

Gabe Triplette began his career as a skateboarding coach as a kid simply so he would have people to skate within his hometown of Boone, North Carolina. Though he competed in many sports growing up, Triplette gravitated to the camaraderie he felt with his fellow competitors skating for his Burton-sponsored East Coast Skates team. After moving to Bend and being asked to help teach a skateboarding camp at the former Local 50 Skate Shop, he became hooked on being a skateboarding coach. “It’s divine enlightenment to see my students’ smiles light up,” he said. “The energy you get from them is priceless.” Triplette has refined his unique coaching system over his 23 years of experience by figuring out what’s important for all skaters. He teaches six fundamentals (stance, vision, posture, turning, speed, and commitment) on his Central Oregon skatepark visits he has affectionately named Booger Tours. Triplette explained that the seventh fundamental is a drive to get better, and it applies to both coaches and students. “The best coaches are super passionate about learning, both for themselves and their students,” he said. He believes coaches should be empathetic, have a good attitude and communication skills, and the understanding of when to tell your students to push themselves. Though he loved seeing one of his skaters pictured in The Bulletin, these days he’s proudest watching his own daughter become a better skater and develop into a strong skateboarding coach herself.

Sport Climbing: Mike Rougeaux & Cate Beebe

In 2011, Mike Rougeaux pitched the idea of adding climbing to the Bend Endurance Academy roster of sports programs. Today, as the nonprofit’s executive director, he still works with climbers in town and at out-of-town competitions. “It’s really impactful to know the athletes in front of you are putting trust in you and that they hold you in high regard,” said Rougeaux, “so it makes me want to be at my best for them.” Bend Endurance Academy Climbing Director Cate Beebe started out rowing in middle school and high school. She explained that she was lucky enough to have welcoming role models within the coaching staff and the team. Beebe hopes for her students to have success both in the climbing world and within their community. “I started coaching because I wanted to make sports a place where kids feel powerful, heard, and accepted,” Beebe said. Both coaches take empathetic approaches to teaching, in the gym and at competitions. They focus on building relationships with the kids and on the fun side of learning. With their athletes ranging from middle schoolers to the Oregon State University climbing team, both Rougeaux and Beebe try to pinpoint the individual needs of each of their athletes. “It makes me so happy to see my team grow, whether through mental strength, climbing technique or attaining a goal,” said Beebe. “I love climbing and helping athletes to become the best people they can be. Coaching them is an absolute joy.”

Kevin Collier & Josh Cordell

Tennis: Kevin Collier & Josh Cordell

Few names are as synonymous with Bend area high school tennis over the last two decades as Josh Cordell (pictured on right) and Kevin Collier (seated), and both have the hardware to prove it. Cordell coached the Summit High School boys tennis team for 17 years, where his Storm Tennis won the Oregon State Boys Tennis Team Championships eight times in a 10-year span. Collier’s 37-year coaching career includes 24 years of leading the Bend High School girls tennis team where he coached three different champion girls doubles teams, including one with his own daughter. “I have had many proud moments, but coaching my daughter and watching her win a state championship is something I will never forget,” said Collier. Today, Collier runs the tennis program at Bend Golf and Country Club as well as the Caldera High School girls team. He believes his greatest asset as a coach lies in his passion for the sport and his ability to relate to each student’s needs. Cordell also deflects away from results, claiming his proudest moment came from a group of seniors on his team requesting one last practice, even though the state championships and the season had already ended. Cordell now runs Prep Success Coach, which specializes in life coaching, mental coaching, and athlete mentoring. For athletes and coaches alike, he recommends keeping it fun. Cordell points to all of his past tennis coaches, including Collier, as integral to his own coaching accomplishments. His goals are to see the students succeed, create opportunities, and make the most of their success. “If it stays fun, everyone keeps coming back,” Cordell said, “and if they keep coming back, you have the opportunity to be as good as you can possibly be.”

Mary McCool

Swimming: Mary McCool

If your child took swimming lessons in the past five decades, there’s a good chance you drove them five minutes east of Bend to Mary McCool’s house. Locally born and raised, McCool grew up spending the winters skiing and the summers swimming, like most Central Oregonians. Ironically, she didn’t enjoy taking swimming lessons as a child, but as a teenager, she immediately liked teaching swimming to the kids she would babysit. After 50 years of coaching, McCool has refined her technique, grounded in safety and developing confidence in the water. “Patience is necessary,” explained McCool. “It’s good to have them learn to work hard in the pool and in life,” said McCool. “It’s not going to happen right away, but if you work at it, it’s all doable.” Her teaching style centers around not being afraid of making her athletes work hard. She doesn’t overprotect them and tries to show how the effort pays off in the end. Perhaps most importantly for children, McCool knows how to say the same thing in many different ways to adapt to her students’ varied learning styles. “I’m most proud when a kid, who was scared to death in the beginning, by the third lesson, [is] confident and believes in themself,” said McCool. “I know those lessons will translate into life as well.”


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Olympic Dreams: Diggory Dillingham

Diggory Dillingham Remember this name: Diggory Dillingham. The swimming sensation has his sights on the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024.

Dillingham, 18, a senior at Mountain View High School, secured a swimming scholarship from University of Southern California, but instead of going straight to college this autumn, he’s taking a gap year to train even more intensely for the Olympic trials.

As the holder of the fastest American 50-meter freestyle time for his age group (18 years or under), and the fifth fastest 50-meter freestyle time in the world for 18U, his chances appear good, but Dillingham remains humble.

“My time for the 50-meter free is now 22.48, but really to make the Olympic team, I’d need to bring that down by another full second, but I don’t feel too much pressure, if I make it, I make it, but if I don’t, I can try for another Olympics,” said Dillingham from his home. Already, he had finished his early morning swim workout, attended his high school classes and was getting ready to go to his afternoon swim workout.

When he’s not in the pool or at school, Dillingham is at the gym lifting weights. He says he’s been serious about his swimming since he was about 12 years old, although he’s been swimming since before he could walk.

Dillingham’s Bend Swim Club coach is his mother, Megan Oesting, who was an accomplished swimmer and water polo player for University of California Los Angeles, and a national swim team member. Despite her career, she’s never forced her two children to swim.

 “Childcare is expensive,” joked Oesting. “The kids had to come with me. I’ve been a single parent since Diggory was two, and his sister, Mia, is a few years older than him, so they’ve always been around the pools.”

Diggory Dillingham

Oesting says swimming is an intense sport. It uses more muscles than football, and a workout typically consists of swimming at least 4 miles. Dillingham swims up to 8 miles per day doing “doubles” in the morning and afternoon, often six times a week.

If you’re weak in your mind, then you’re never going to be fast in swimming.

 Training 24 hours a week, with several more hours of weight training in the gym, requires dedication. Dillingham admits the long intensive workouts led him to quit swimming when he was younger. He attempted other sports: “I’ve tried a lot of things, like football, fencing, wrestling, but I’m not really good at anything on land,” said Dillingham, who has the distinction of being the reigning Oregon 6-A state champion in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Dillingham said swimming thousands of miles in training requires the right mental state. “If you’re weak in your mind, then you’re never going to be fast in swimming,” said Dillingham. “If you get behind the starting block and you’re scared, then you’re getting beat. I really don’t like getting beat.”

To make the National Junior Team last year, Dillingham had the swim of his life so far.

“He had to swim against Olympic gold medalist veteran Caeleb Dressel [current world-record holder in the 50 free], Diggory had to go faster than he’s ever gone, he had to thrive in that one race, and he did,” said Oesting. Still, the road to the Paris Olympics is long. Dillingham must earn a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials swim meet, and once there, must finish in the top two in one of 13 individual events. “I’m going to try my best,” said Dillingham. “The best piece of swimming advice I’ve gotten from my coach, my mom, is to just win your heat; don’t complicate things.” 


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Bend’s Forged Elegance Creates Handcrafted Furniture with Reclaimed Wood

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As a second-generation sheet-metal worker and owner of a Bend HVAC company, Paul Shepherd has long been comfortable welding and crafting metal to fit a purpose. But it was only five years ago that he truly let his creativity start shining, when he was asked to create a copper range hood for the new home of a Shepherd Heating & Air Conditioning client. With no interest in taking the easy route, Shepherd crafted an intricate and beautiful copper hood that well exceeded the expectations of the homeowner. “The range hood was a piece of art, which we knew as soon as we saw it done,” said Connie Perala, owner of the home in the Crosswater neighborhood of Sunriver. It wasn’t long before Shepherd was also forging hardware for the kitchen cabinets, welding steel brackets for the interior beams, and creating a custom tile backsplash behind the oven range. Unknowingly, Perala had become one of the first customers of Shepherd’s future business, Forged Elegance.

Building a business

Today, five years after creating those first custom pieces in Perala’s kitchen, Shepherd has shifted his focus to crafting gorgeous wood and forged steel furniture, including beds, tables, chairs and mirrors. The wood is almost exclusively sourced from historic structures, which are torn down and given new life through Shepherd’s work. And the metal is hand-forged by Shepherd in his shop in Bend. Together the wood and metal come together in artistic elegance to create showpieces for homes near and far. While Shepherd is the man behind the magic, he also relies on help from his team, which includes his wife, Amanda Shepherd, who helps with design and finish work, full-time shop worker Shawn Allen, sub-contractor Brad Pinkert and Shepherd’s son, Jacob, who helps with steel work. Shepherd still operates the HVAC business he owns, but often spends his early mornings, between 4 and 7 a.m. at his Forged Elegance space in Bend, restoring and preserving aged woods or hammering out the details of steel accents. It’s become a labor of love for a craftsman always looking to design something new and different.

Old Barn

Barnwood revival

Wood for Forged Elegance’s projects comes almost exclusively from historic structures slated for demolition. Shepherd works with Brad Campbell of LongHorn Lumber in Powell Butte to source the aged wood, which has come from right here in Oregon and as far away as Missouri. One of Shepherd’s first hauls of barnwood was from a ranch in Spray, a town of about 200 people in rural eastern Oregon. The fir wood was 100 years old when it was used for construction on the Buffalo Ranch, where it existed for another 104 years, making the salvaged lumber more than two centuries old. “This barnwood holds a large amount of history in each piece, representing America through agriculture,” said Shepherd in a writeup about the wood collection, now being used to craft tables, bedroom furniture, benches and mirrors.

Another nearby salvage is that of a water tower built along the Umpqua River in Central Oregon in the 1970s by the Forest Service. The tower, made of beautiful 800-year-old redwood, fed water to the Steamboat Inn in Idleyld Park. The area was hit by a wildfire in 2018 and the water tower’s roof caught fire, rendering it unusable. But, the tower stayed intact and after coming down, Shepherd purchased all of the wood to reuse for his Forged Elegance pieces.

For Campbell, who acts as a lumber broker sourcing the aged woods for Shepherd, seeing the finished products is a special experience. “I’ve known Paul for several years, and I’ve got to see his work as it’s kind of progressed. I like the unique designs he comes up with and how he utilizes the material,” said Campbell. “Often times it’s 100-year-old wood and it’s not the easiest to work with. I’ve worked with it a bit myself.” Campbell has been salvaging and reclaiming wood for thirteen years and said most of the lumber he procures is supplied as raw material to builders. “Paul’s really been a bright spot in my business to see the smaller pieces that can’t be used in the construction of a home go towards furniture and things like that,” Campbell said. “The added value with the forge work is what really sets it apart. He’s blended together the wood and steel into almost artwork.”

One of the newest hauls of wood that Campbell helped connect with Forged Elegance is from an 1860s barn in Missouri with a unique story. At the time, wealthy plantation owners sometimes paid the less wealthy to fight in the Civil War in place of themselves or a son. In this case, the currency was a plot of land, which would only be given to the replacement solider if he returned from war. This individual fought in place of the plantation owner’s son, surviving the war and returning to get the land. He built a barn using bald cypress trees on his new property in 1865. More than 150 years later, the barn was torn down, the wood salvaged and transported to Oregon, where Shepherd began repurposing it. “Everything has a story behind it,” said Shepherd, while giving a tour of his Bend showroom in September. “Not only is that bald cypress piece over there absolutely beautiful, but it’s got an amazing story that you can tell your friends. It was built in 1865 and it will probably still be around another couple hundred years from now.”

Forged Elegance Furniture

Forging a following

As Forged Elegance has gained its footing over the past year, Shepherd has picked up many repeat customers who are using his furniture and décor to transform their homes into spaces that showcase his work.

Bend homeowner Kim Hogue is the owner of several Forged Elegance pieces, including a four-post bed, nightstands and an oak, bar-height dining room table. “Kim gave me the freedom to have full run over the design of all their pieces,” said Shepherd, who works with his wife to dream up and design just how the steel and aged wood come together for each item. “She fell in love with a coffee table first and bought it, and then started asking for more pieces.” Hogue’s nightstands use thin strips of salvaged wood, milled down from larger pieces. “It’s a very intricate piece,” said Shepherd, who finds uses for even the smallest bits of wood and shavings of metal around his shop. “We try to use everything.”

Paul Shepherd of Forged Elegance
Paul Shepherd

For Perala, one of Forged Elegance’s first customers, time has only made her more enamored with Shepherd’s work. This summer, she commissioned him to create beautiful new furniture for a second home in Tigard, using the redwood salvaged from the water tower impacted by wildfire. She’s seeking more contemporary pieces for her home there, versus the more rustic work in her Sunriver home. “I like the history,” Perala said. “The tables he’s making for the Tigard house are the 800-year-old redwood he has. I just love the history behind the wood.”

Shepherd opened his Bend showroom, office space and shop in 2020, and uses it as a place to showcase bedroom sets, office furniture, multiple dining tables, mirrors and more. It’s open by appointment only but is a great place to see the vastness of what the company can create. For a smaller peek at Shepherd’s work, Bendites can pay a visit to the new Italian restaurant on Galveston Avenue, Bosa. Shepherd used chemicals to create a patina for the columns behind the restaurant’s bar, and then stuck around to make forged curtain rods on the wall of windows facing the street.

Customers new and old are also invited to follow Forged Elegance on Facebook, where Shepherd posts new pieces as they’re completed, sometimes selling them within minutes or hours to dedicated followers of the work, who appreciate the craftsmanship and history behind it. The combination of aged wood and forged steel is something Shepherd is proud to share with those interested. “Forging in general is probably one of the oldest trades and there are not as many people that are able to do it anymore,” he said. “It’s so unique and it’s so stunning when you pair it with this aged wood. It’s an art.”

Forged Elegance | forged-elegance.com | 541-771-6554

E-bike Boom Gives a Boost to Bend Electric Bicycles

Sterling and Kathy McCord have always been one step ahead. Sterling worked in sustainable construction when building green was just emerging within the industry. Meanwhile, Kathy opened up Bend’s first citywide takeout delivery service (Bend Takeout Express) years before Uber Eats was even a thing.

When the recession hit in the mid-2000s, the pair turned to their family for the inspiration for their next venture. With two young kids at the time, Sterling was looking for an easier and more sustainable way to commute around town and get the kids to and from school. One day while riding his recently converted electric hub scooter, the idea of an e-bike business emerged. “It came from a sustainability point of view,” he said. “Nobody at the time was doing e-bikes or looking at sustainable transportation so we saw an opportunity.” 

With Kathy’s business savvy and Sterling’s vision, the pair set to work and in November 2008, Bend Electric Bikes was born.

Bend Electric Bikes Shop Exterior
Sterling and Kathy McCord

An electric bicycle, commonly referred to as an e-bike, is equipped with an electric motor powered by a battery that produces power for assisting propulsion. E-bikes range from small motors assisting the rider’s pedaling to a more powerful assist via a throttle. 

E-bikes are a flexible, eco-friendly alternative form of transportation that’s risen in popularity not just in Bend, but around the globe. Many see e-bikes as a way to drive less, avoid traffic congestion and stay healthy, all the while barely breaking a sweat uphill on their way to work.

The Rise of E-Bikes

In the early days of Bend Electric Bikes, these now common fixtures on the road were only just beginning to gain a foothold. “We were a bit of a spectacle in the beginning,” Kathy said. “We would turn a lot of heads, answer questions and get a lot of stares.”

Early e-bikes were somewhat clunky with large batteries and less than desirable aesthetics, but that began to change when more reputable bicycle manufacturers such as Giant and Specialized started producing e-bikes in the late 2000s. E-bikes slowly became lighter, more cost-effective and equipped with more energy-efficient batteries, which meant longer range capabilities for riders. Eventually, Sterling believes, you may not even be able to tell the difference between an e-bike and a traditional analog bike.

Bend Electric Bikes Shop InteriorAlong with technological advances, the e-bike form factor has also expanded to meet consumer needs and now users can find everything from commuters and hybrids to cargo bikes, touring bikes, gravel and e-mountain bikes.

The McCords have seen the trend evolve firsthand at the Interbike International Bicycle Expo, the largest bicycle industry trade show in North America. “Each year the e-bike section would slowly get larger and larger,” Kathy said. “Until finally the last one we went to seemed more heavily skewed toward e-bikes than traditional bicycles.”

Sterling said customers of Bend Electric Bikes run the gamut of age and ability. “Some are looking for a substitute for a car or to commute to work, others are simply looking to spend more time outside and just want to have fun,” she said. Kathy said she also sees many couples come in for e-bikes, which can be an equalizer for varying abilities and allow one rider the ability to keep pace with another.

Bend Electric Bikes Shop Interior

The boom in popularity of e-bikes over the last decade has helped propel the sales of Bend Electric Bikes and grow the company to seven full-time employees. This past year, the company saw its sales of e-bikes more than double due to a surging interest in bicycles during the pandemic, and Sterling said the company is on track for even more growth in 2021.  

More than anything, however, Sterling and Kathy are just happy to see more people on bikes.

Bend Electric Bikes

“As a 53-year-old female, I’m all about pushing past stereotypes of who rides bikes—e-bikes are for everyone,” Kathy said. “You can see people’s minds opening up about all the new options they have; all the barriers that can be eliminated—hills, distance, weather, arriving to work sweaty, overcoming injuries. It’s inspiring to see people walk through the doors and be excited about bikes.”

Note: The representatives of both Bend Magazine and Bend Electric Bikes strongly recommend always wearing a helmet when bicycling. 

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