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 joins the Waves as a head coach for the 2022-23 season after several years assistant coaching at the club level. She is a 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 third year coaching with the Waves.
Alli Renfroe
Alli Renfroe is a former Waves and Prior Lake Varsity player. In her senior year, the Lakers were undefeated in the South Suburban Conference and ranked as one of the best softball teams in the nation. Alli was a pitcher and outfielder throughout her softball career, playing six years for Matt Haefner and Dan Beech. She recently graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in Health Education.
Alli is entering her fourth year coaching with the Waves and is excited to bring her passion and leadership experience to the program.
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 is excited to work with the girls in the Waves organization and to help build highly competitive athletes who will succeed on and off the field.
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.
Chris Molitor
The Waves is excited to partner with Chris Molitor "Coach C-Mo" for our off-season conditioning. Chris has been a sports performance coach since 2006, training athletes of all ages and abilities. His knowledge, experience, and passion have allowed him to help athletes from many different sports achieve their maximum athletic potential. Chris has been a strength and conditioning coach for various professional, college, high school and youth programs including the Minnesota Swarm and University of Minnesota Women's Lacrosse. He has coached thousands of athletes through team, small group, and one-on-one sports performance training. He has also worked with professional athletes from the NFL, NLL, MLL, MLS, AFL, IFL, as well as numerous athletes playing pro basketball, hockey, and lacrosse outside of the USA.
Chris played professional indoor football for the Sioux Falls Storm and was a wide receiver at South Dakota State University where he was a 4-year letter winner. He was a three sport athlete and captain at Lakeville High School (Football, Basketball and Track). Chris is currently a competitive powerlifter and continues to play flag football, basketball and lacrosse. He is also the Owner/Sports Performance Coach at Molitor Athletic Performance in Lakeville.
As a coach, Chris strives to maximize the potential of every athlete. He takes a scientific and technical based approach by ensuring athletes use proper biomechanics to maximize efficiency. He pays close attention to detail in movement and exercise technique to develop speed, strength, flexibility, explosiveness, mobility, reaction time, among others. We are excited for our athletes to work with Chris in the off-season!
Additional coaches to be announced. If interested in joining the Waves coaching staff, please contact us.