Coaches

Cate Brams
Head Coach and Program Director

Cate Brams grew up in the Boston area, and learned to ski in the EMBK / CSU (now EMXC) pipeline. Cate raced for Middlebury College under coach Andrew Johnson, and subsequently spent a year on SVSEF's Gold Team chasing the lucrative "pro skiing" dream. In 2019, Cate moved back to Boston, and worked for two years as an AmeriCorps Legal Advocate at the Volunteer Lawyers Project. During that time, Cate began volunteer coaching with EMXC, and was hired as the Head Coach & Program Director for the Juniors Team in 2021. Cate is excited about technique development, klister days, the double pole test, and getting the next generation of EMXC skiers stoked on skiing fast. Cate is a US Ski & Snowboard Level 200 certified coach.

Volunteer Coach

Barry Kitch comes to EMXC by way of EMBK, where he was a long time coach and, from 2011 until 2017, Club Director. He is a US Ski & Snowboard Level 200 certified cross country ski coach. Rather than on the ski trail, his origins in competitive sport were on the tennis court, and he competed into college. He’s been a lifelong athlete, having skied in his youth on the Southern Appalachian Mountains, as well as competing in soccer and cross country running. A month long Outward Bound trip through the Cascades of Oregon before college brought him to outdoor adventuring and exploration. He continued his adventures after moving to Boston 25 years ago and has been kayaking, sailing, and camping on the Maine Coast, and hiking and skiing the mountains and trails of New England, ever since.

Volunteer Coach

Growing up in the mountains of Switzerland, Heiner learned to wax and ski from his father. He completed his initial marathon distance race at age 16 and earned his first Nordic ski instructor qualification at age 18. Off the snow, he professionally led for some time an international youth development program promoting international and cultural understanding. Coaching cross-country skiing in the Eastern Massachusetts Bill Koch League (EMXC Youth) since 2012, Heiner has been focusing on instilling in young athletes a deep passion for snow and Nordic skiing. When he’s not skiing, you can find him traversing glaciers and rock-climbing for crystals in the Swiss Alps.

Volunteer Coach

Robert is a lifetime athlete and outdoor enthusiast. As a youth he played soccer for Princeton University and rowed crew for Oxford University. Highlights of those efforts include playing for the Connecticut State soccer team in the regional national team selection tournaments; and racing in the GB Olympic rowing trials (As a note, he did not perform nearly well enough for his US citizenship to complicate matters, but he had fun). Later in life he competed in triathlons and ran 11 Boston marathons as a charity runner. Robert's key introduction to Nordic skiing came with EMBK, opening a new world of endurance training thrills. Outside skiing, Robert works in finance, managing an investment firm called Ironsides Partners which he founded in 2007. He is married to Kris Collins, another EMXC youth coach and law professor at BU, and is father of Calvin and Josie, both EMXC skiers. When not working/skiing/coaching Robert serves on several non-profit boards, including that of Mass Eye & Ear and the Children’s School of Science (Woods Hole).

Volunteer Coach