COACHING STAFF & INSTRUCTORS
Matt Haefner
After graduating from Minnesota State Mankato where he played catcher and received First-team All-NCC and First-team All-Region honors, Matt played 15 yrs of fastpitch softball. Haefner was a member of the 1995 ASA National Championship team, was voted the tournament MVP, and was an All-American. He was a member of the bronze medal winning team in the Olympic Sports Festival in 1995 and played in five ISC World Tournaments, finishing as high as fifth place in the World Championships.
He spent seven years as the head coach of the Prior Lake High School program where his teams finished with a record of 125–43, and won two South Suburban Conference championships. In 2013, the Lakers won section 2AAA and finished as Runner Up at the State Tournament, and Matt was named MFCA section 2 AAA Coach of the Year.
Matt is the co-owner/operator of the MN Waves where he serves as the development director, hitting instructor and head coach. He has been a hitting instructor in the Twin Cities for over 15 years and has run camps and clinics for softball players and youth fastpitch organizations.
Dan Beech
After finishing his career at AVHS, Dan Beech went on to play at Minnesota State Mankato from 1989-2001. He also coached the Apple Valley Millers amateur baseball team from 1991-2003. Since 2003, he has been a private hitting instructor for youth ages 8-18 working with individuals and in small group lessons.
Dan is the former Prior Lake Varsity Assistant Coach and Player Development Coordinator where he worked alongside Matt Haefner from 2013-2019. In his time there, the Lakers won two South Suburban Conference championships, and in 2013, they won section 2AAA and finished as Runner Up at the State Tournament.
He is the co-owner/operator of the MN Waves where he serves as the program director, hitting instructor and head coach.
Dan Nessler
Dan Nessler comes with a heralded resume as a fastpitch player and coach over the past 30+ years. He is entering his seventh season as the Head Softball Coach at Bethany Lutheran College. During his tenure, the Vikings qualified for the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) postseason tournament every year. In 2021, the Vikings won the UMAC Tournament Championship to claim the program's second conference postseason title in program history. The 2019 team won the first UMAC regular season championship in program history.
Nessler was inducted into the Minnesota State-Mankato Hall of Fame in the Fall of 2017. In 2016, Nessler was inducted into the Minnesota Softball Hall of Fame. He was also a 2009 inductee in the International Softball Congress (ISC) Hall of Fame. Nessler has played on three ISC World Championship teams with Penn Corp., while being named to the All-World Tournament team four times. Nessler also played in four United States Olympic Festivals. Locally, the St. James, Minn., native was a mainstay with Happy Chef fastpitch softball teams for 14 years. Nessler has coached girls fastpitch for many seasons.
Meghan Schellhammer
Originally from Eden Prairie, Meghan Schellhammer grew up a three-sport athlete (volleyball, basketball, and fastpitch), lettering in all three sports her freshman year. Fastpitch was always her favorite, so after high school she played at the University of MN and was a starting catcher for the Gophers. During her college career, the Gophers won a Big Ten Tournament Championship, and she was selected to try out for the USA Junior Women’s National Team. She went to school for Biomedical Engineering and received all region academic awards along the way.
Meghan has coached fastpitch for over 15 years, from 6U in-house to 18U highly competitive traveling teams. Most recently, she has coached 8U and 10U Lakeville fastpitch players to multiple league, invitational, state, and national championships, along with coaching the first Waves 11U team to a 65-27-1 record in 2021-22. In addition, she has developed and facilitated catching and hitting clinics for various community programs in Minnesota.
Holly Weinberger
Holly Weinberger returns to the Waves as a head coach for the 2023-24 season after several years assistant coaching at the club level. She is a 5th year senior at St. Cloud State University. In 2022 she earned both Second Team All-NSIC and Gold Glove honors for her play in right field. She was also named to the NSIC's Gold Glove team in 2021 for her play in right field along with earning D2CCA Second Team All-Region honors. In her first official season with the Huskies, Weinberger hit .400 on the season with 52 hits in 130 at bats, including a team-leading 11 doubles, one triple and three home runs for 74 total bases.
Weinberger was a four-year letter winner at Waconia High School, leading the Wildcats to state appearances during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. She batted over .500 as a junior in 2018 with an OBP of .551 and slugging percentage of .577. As a first baseman, she committed just one error in the field for a .995 field percentage and earned All-Conference and First Team All-State honors that same season. Additionally, Weinberger is a four-time Academic Excellence Award winner and is a two-time team Golden Bat Award winner, as she had the highest batting average on the Waconia high school team in both 2017 and 2018.
Paige Larson
Paige Larson is a graduate from the University of Minnesota Morris where she played Catcher/Utility and earned a degree in Secondary Education. In 2014, she was Offensive Player and Defensive Player of the Year, All-Conference, and Captain at Mora high school. She also competed in cross country and Nordic skiing and was a member of the National Honor Society. In her first year at Morris, she played in 26 games and was second on the team with a .386 batting average, 22 hits, 23 runs, 5 RBI, and had a .470 on-base percentage, best on the team. In 2016, after hitting for the cycle and driving in 14 runs in four games, Paige was named the UMAC Softball Player of the Week.
Paige formerly served as the Varsity Assistant Coach and Head JV Coach at Prior Lake High School and will be in her fourth year coaching with the Waves.
Telma Roesler
Most notably, Roesler was named UMAC (Upper Midwest Athletic Conference) 1st Team All-Conference. NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) North Central All-Region teams for the 2022 season. Roesler also had a strong bat in the lineup, hitting .385 for the University of Northwestern-St Paul Eagles.
Roesler coached for parts of the last 3 years as one of the MN ICE 16U Head Coaches before spending the 2022 Summer season as an assistant coach with the Midwest Speed 16U National Holt team. Telma coached with the Waves 16U Haefner team in the 2023 season and is excited to continue working with players in the Waves organization to help build highly competitive athletes who will succeed on and off the field.
Angela Dabu
Angela is a 2018 graduate from Apple Valley High School and a former Minnesota Waves and TC Blitz club softball player. Following her high school career, Angela went on to play softball at Bethel University where she was part of the 2022 MIAC regular season and playoff championship team, earning the program's first NCAA tournament appearance. Since graduating, she has coached and held various skills clinics for local youth and club softball programs along with pursuing her career in social work. Angela is thrilled to help build and develop a strong group of athletes as a head coach at the 14U level this season.
Alix Donnelly
Alix is a graduate of Lakeville South High School where she played fastpitch and hockey. She is the Lakeville North Freshman softball head coach, and has coached JV hockey over the past several years. Growing up, she played in the LFSA and ICE programs and continues to play slow-pitch to stay involved in the sport. She has also coached the Lakeville Fastpitch youth teams. She earned her degree in teaching and loves coaching and working with youth. She is excited to support the players as they progress in the sport and to celebrate their successes!
Chris Wilcox
Chris has coached girls fastpitch softball at a variety of levels from recreation to highly competitive for more than a decade. He has spent much of his time coaching for the Farmington Girls Fastpitch program. He most enjoys working at the 10U and 12U levels with players who are eager to learn, grow, and develop as players.
He is excited to join the Waves coaching staff, and looks forward to building a competitive young team that will thrive for years to come. With a passion for helping players develop sound skills and technique, as well as building confidence and self-esteem, Chris finds success by teaching controllables, effort, and team connection.
Alex Wurzer
Graduate of the St. Scholastica Exercise Physiology program as well as the softball program, Alex continued her strength and conditioning education and experience through pursuing the USA weightlifting coaching certification as well as various CrossFit certifications. She currently coaches a variety of clients in movement proficiency, overall wellness, sport training, and nutrition at Mendota Fitness.
Alex strives to maximize the potential of every athlete. She ensures that athletes use proper biomechanics to maximize efficiency and pays close attention to exercise technique for developing speed, strength, flexibility, explosiveness, mobility, reaction time, among others. We are excited for our athletes to work with Alex in the off-season!
Sara Moulton
Sara Moulton leads our off-season pitching instruction at her newly expanded training center in Eagan. Sara's goal is to maximize the physical and mental potential of every athlete. She works hard to provide expert instruction to develop top pitching prospects though both individual and small group lessons.
Sara is a 2014 graduate and 4-year letter winner from the University of Minnesota, where she set records in nearly every pitching category and held top spots on most national leader boards each year. Sara led the Gophers to 2 Regional appearances (2013, 2014), one Super Regional appearance (2014), and one Big 10 Championship (2014) in her tenure. Immediately following her impactful career with the Gophers, Sara played professionally with the National Professional Fastpitch (NPF) powerhouse, Chicago Bandits. She was a 5th overall pick in the NPF draft by the Bandits in 2014 and spent 3 seasons playing with and against the best fastpitch players in the world. Sara was a 2010 graduate of Eagan High School, where she broke and reset every pitching record and even a few offensive records. She holds career records at Eagan High School for wins (83), strikeouts (1.142), ERA (0.35), shutouts (58), no-hitters (13) and perfect games (3). Sara’s #9 jersey is retired at Eagan High School.
In the fall of 2014, Sara opened Strike Zone Sports - an elite indoor softball training facility that specializes in pitching, catching, hitting, slapping, and fielding instruction through private lessons and clinics. For the past 6.5 years, Sara has dedicated her time by leading and mentoring the next generation of softball pitchers, ages ranging from six years-old to 22 years-old. Sara has helped lead and develop a number of pitchers, to pursue their dream of playing college softball.
Additional coaches to be announced. If interested in joining the Waves coaching staff, please contact us.