Coaches and Bio

I (Jason Hettenbaugh) founded Rochester Nordic Racing (R.N.R) in the spring of 2008 to facilitate the improvement of Nordic skiers within the greater Rochester area and Mid-Atlantic Division.

In the summer of 2008 the junior program was launched and was tremendously successful. An astounding 80% of the athletes from the summer program qualified for the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Junior Olympic Team and all of the athletes qualified for Eastern High School Championships. From that point on we have not looked back! Accomplishments now include World Junior Championship Qualifier, NCAA All-American, USSA All-American, State Champions, Sectional Champions, and more and more athletes continuing to ski in College!

As we move forward and continue to grow and succeed new and exciting programs will form as well our relationship with local high schools and ski clubs. I look forward to the future and welcome the challenges and excitement that it will bring!

Jason Hettenbaugh

Jason is a graduate of Honeoye Falls-Lima High School and Virginia Tech. At HFL, Jason was a standout runner and skier, earning multiple team and individual sectional championships. He was part of two State Championship Nordic teams and competed at Junior Nationals for the MID-A team. While at Virginia Tech, Jason earned a BS in Education: Major in Secondary Education, Physical Education and Health. He was a 4-year letterman in Cross Country, Indoor Track and Outdoor Track. Jason was conference runner-up in the steeple chase and a member of the conference championships team in XC, Indoor, and Outdoor Track in college. Jason has coached and waxed for the U.S Ski Team at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Kazakhstan, at the 2015 Europa Cup Campra Switzerland, at the 2015 Europa Cup Nove Mesto Czech Republic, at the 2017 U18 Nations Cup in Norway, at the 2018 U18 Nations Cup in Finland, 2019 World Junior Championships in Lahti, and 2023 World University Games in Lake Placid. Jason is the Head Coach of Rochester Nordic Racing. He is a US Ski and Snowboard Level 200 certified coach; CPR and first aid certified and completed the USOC SafeSport course.

Brian Lilly

Coach Lilly raced competitively for over a decade before turning his talents to coaching. In high school he earned individual Section V Championship titles in cross-country running, Nordic skiing, and track for Fairport High School where his school record for the 1600m run (4:14.63) still stands.

Following high school, Coach Lilly was recruited to the biathlon team at the United States Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University. During his time there, Coach Lilly participated in two Olympic biathlon trials (1998 and 2002), World Junior Biathlon Championships (1999) and three World Military Skiing Championships (2002, ’03, ’04) as well as numerous US National Championships and International Biathlon Union Europa Cups.

Before retiring from racing, Coach Lilly’s top results nationally include 11th place at the 2002 Biathlon Olympic Trials (10km sprint), 1st Place 2002 and 2003 US Military Skiing Championships (15km cross-country), 3rd place at the 2003 US Biathlon National Championship (10km sprint) and 2nd place 2002 Summer Biathlon National Championships (mass start). Top international results include 27th place, 1999 World Junior Biathlon Championships (15km Individual), and 15th place 2003 World Military Skiing Championships (15km cross-country).

After retiring from competition, Coach Lilly began coaching with the US Biathlon Team as head coach of the IBU Europa Cup team representing the United States in 2004. Later, he was named Development Team Manager for the 2007 NCAA Champion Dartmouth Ski Team, and was an assistant coach with the New England Junior National Team that same year. Coach Lilly then returned to Rochester and became head coach of the Irondequoit High School Nordic team in 2012, before moving to Pittsford with his family in 2016 where he was named director of Nordic skiing for both the Mendon and Sutherland school districts.

Matt Bellizzi

Matt grew up skiing in western Mass and raced for Harvard in the mid-90’s, with EISA and NCAA championship results just good enough to earn this epitaph from Middlebury coaching legend Terry Aldrich: “If he’d gone to a ski school, he could’ve amounted to something. But he didn’t, and he didn’t.” After graduating, he coached the Harvard ski team for 3 years while working in a comparative physiology lab (where among other things he worked with antelope, emu and rollerskiers on a treadmill to study how biomechanics affect the energy cost of locomotion). He moved to Rochester in 1999, coached several Brighton skiers in his free time during medical and grad school, and continued to race and train for the day when skiing would consist of towing a double-wide Chariot full of kids up the water tower hill at Mendon Ponds. He has led the RXCSF youth ski program since 2012, and joined RNR in 2018 to help transition youth skiers into junior racing and strengthen the skier development pipeline in our area. In his day job he's a neurologist at U of R (and has first aid, CPR, and SafeSport training).

Kellin King
Kellin grew up in Rochester and represented Brighton High at NY state championships in her second year skiing before moving to Mississippi, where she remained determined to continue her skiing development through 5 am rollerski workouts and junior ski trips to Australia. She raced in college for Harvard on the EISA circuit. She returned to Rochester for medical school, assisted with high school skiers at her alma mater, and raced on the NYSSRA and northeast ski marathon circuits before turning to coaching in the RXCSF Youth program as her family came upthrough the BKL ranks. She has done US Ski and Snowboard L100 training, along with CPR, first- aid and SafeSport training, and is a physician specializing in internal medicine and pediatrics. Kellin has been a crucial part of our coaching staff since 2018.

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