Twin Cities Amazons Welcomes 2020 Board of Directors
Twin Cities, MN - The Twin Cities Amazons Rugby Club announces the election of new members to its Board of Directors and newly appointed officers. The newly elected members are Kaelene Lundstrum, Sara Bakker, Amity Beiner, Olivia Frey, Rachel Aufdembrink and Jamie Zarembinkski. Newly appointed officers are Morgan Mcginnis, Sheena Reed, and Rachel Dingle.
Amazon’s President, Katie Sjeklocha, announced, “I am thrilled to welcome these talented individuals. Their unique backgrounds and diverse experience will make them a great asset to the Amazons board and the organization.” This will be Katie’s third term as the Amazons President.
President - Katie Sjeklocha
Katie Sjeklocha joined the Amazons in 2011 and following her retirement in 2014, was eager to give back. With more than 15 years of diverse experience in the local and national rugby communities as an athlete, coach, and administrator, she is now serving her third term as the President of the Twin Cities Amazons Rugby Club. She looks forward to supporting the growth of the game for all future generations of Zons.
Professionally, Katie has a strong background in nonprofit management, sales, marketing, and fund development. Currently, she manages the admissions department of nonprofit program in Richfield, serving young adults with autism and learning differences. Katie is responsible for the student recruitment and outreach of the organization to ensure achievement of earned income revenue goals annually.
Outside of work, Katie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, reading, volunteering, and calling her BFF Mikayla daily.
Vice President - Kaelene Lundstrom
Kaelene (Lunde) started her rugby career at Gustavus College in 2006. In 2010, she took the field for the first time in Orange and Blue and has continue to play fullback and wing for the WPL team the past 10 years. She has also played on the U.S. National 7’s and 15’s Team.
In her professional life, Kaelene works as a Chemist at 3M where her attention to detail, organization and leadership skills help her to assign and complete testing quickly and effectively. In her free time, Kaelene is an avid crafter and loves to go on adventures with her fiance, Anna Bavery
Secretary - Sara Bakker
Sara started her rugby career playing for Marquette University Women’s Club Rugby team. She moved to the Twin Cities in 2004 and played for the Amazons from 2005-2013. While playing, she served as the Zons President and WPL representative from 2010-2013. She also played for the Midwest U-23 and Women’s select sides throughout her rugby career. Beyond playing, she has served as an assistant coach for the U of M Women’s Rugby Team (2011) and Macalester Women’s Rugby Team (2017).
Professionally, Sara has worked in the medical device industry for 15+ years in engineering and regulatory roles. She currently works for Medtronic as a Regulatory Affairs Specialist. Outside of work, her wife, Carrie, and her spend most of their time with their two small humans, Amelia (3) and Elliot (1). Sara and her wife love to travel and vacation with family, and enjoy an occasional date night.
Match Secretary - Amity Beiner
Amity started her rugby career at the University of Northern Iowa where she played from 2013-2017 and was on the Iowa U24 team all four years. After graduation, she moved to Minneapolis to play with the Amazons in 2017. She played on the Minnesota U24 team last year after moving and is excited to help coach the Iowa U24 team this year alongside retired Amazon Meghan Flanigan.
Currently, she works as an office manager at a law firm in downtown Minneapolis and believes her organizational skills she has developed there will help her excel as the amazons match secretary. Outside of work and rugby she likes to spend time with her two Australian Shepherds, Kozzi and Moxi.
Equipment and Apparel - Olivia Frey
Olivia started playing rugby her Junior year of high school at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Minnesota. From there, she played for the MN Tundra, and U19 Thunderbirds. Following that, she played for 4 years at UNI, while also getting the chance to play for the U23 thunderbirds that traveled to Canada and Wales! After graduation, Olivia started playing for the Twin Cities Amazons and has not looked back since!
In Olivia’s professional life, she works as a Worker’s Compensation Claims Professional at Travelers Insurance in downtown Saint Paul. She has enjoyed her work there since August of 2017. When at home, Olivia loves up on her numerous pets including her cats, Toaster and Ziggy.
Treasurer - Kim O’Brien
Kim started playing rugby in college at the State University of New York College at Cortland. After graduating, she helped start the Rochester Renegades Women’s Rugby Club in Rochester, NY where she played for several years. In 1992, Kim moved to Minnesota to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and began playing with the Twin Cities Amazons. Shortly thereafter she was asked to help organize and coordinate fundraising efforts and the teams ‘volunteer’ work selling concessions at local sporting events. This ultimately led to Kim being elected as Treasurer of the team sometime in the mid-1990’s. Kim continued to play with the Amazons until 2009 and has served as an Assistant Coach since then.
During her playing career, Kim also competed on the Minnesota Select Side team and Midwest Women’s Select Side team for numerous years. She has helped coach and manage both U-24 and Senior Women’s Select Side programs for Minnesota and the Midwest Region. Kim is passionate about continuing to grow the game and give back to the sport of rugby.
Professionally, Kim spent more than a decade working in Mental Health and Addictions before transitioning to clinical quality improvement and data analytics roles for a local healthcare system. She is currently employed as the Vice President of Informatics at a local healthcare software company focused on helping healthcare systems across the country improve clinical processes and deliver highly reliable healthcare. In her free time, Kim enjoys golfing, biking and traveling (especially to warm places during the cold Minnesota winters).
Communications - Rachel Aufdembrink
In 2009, Rachel started playing rugby as a freshman for Wayzata High School in Minnesota. Throughout high school, she played for the Minnesota U19 Select Side Team, Tundra Rugby and took multiple tours with the Midwest Thunderbirds U19. She continued her love for the sport at the University of Minnesota while continuing to participate on the Minnesota Select Side U24 and the Midwest Thunderbirds U24. Since graduating, she has had the honor to wear Blue and Orange as the fly-half for the Amazon DII side.
Outside of rugby, she currently works as a medical assistant for a dermatology lab in Roseville, Minnesota. She graduated from University of Minnesota with a degree in Genetics, Cell Development and Biology and hopes to continue on to Dental School in the future.
Social - Jamie Zarembinski
Jamie started playing rugby in 2006 at the University of Minnesota Duluth - Fighting Penguins as a fullback. In 2008, Jamie reached the DII Collegiate National Championship and took second. She played on the Minnesota Collegiate All-Stars from 2007-2009 as fullback. During her collegiate years, she would come down and play scrimmage side with Amazons on Sunday. She started full-time career with Amazons, in 2010, as hooker. She played on Midwest Senior Side from 2010 to 2013, as hooker. She played with the Amazons from 2010 to 2016. Jamie also was honored to be a part of the USA Eagles top 30 selection in 2013 and 2014.
Professionally, she is a Clinical Educator for Sterile Processing at Key Surgical as of January 2020. Previously, she has been a Sales Representative with the company since 2013. In her role she creates, develops and enhances educational programs for the sterile processing industry and staff around the United States. She presents at local seminars and national conferences around the United States as a part of the Clinical Education Department at Key Surgical. Jamie contributes to industry publications and writes educational content for Key Surgical. She develops internal training programs and product training for Key Surgical employees.
Head Coach - Rebecca Radtke
Rebecca began her rugby career at UW River Falls during college. Throughout college, she played for and captained the Minnesota U23’s. She made both the Midwest U23, where she won the Territorial Championship three years in a row, and the USA U23’s for three years. Rebecca began her Amazon career in 2000 while she was still in college. She took the field in blue and orange until 2013 when she led the team to a National Championship at the fly-half position. While playing with the Amazons Rebecca played for the Minnesota Senior Selectside and the Midwest Senior select side.
Along with Rebecca’s extensive playing history, she has coached at Carleton College, Midwest U23’s, University of Minnesota, and Minnesota Select Side. Through her playing and coaching career, Rebecca has operated under one philosophy, “Earn Your Spot”. The philosophy puts focus on the hard work and effort shown by a player every time they perform. She heavily emphasizes focus on fitness and knowing the basics of the game. The Amazons are her family and she is excited to see where this team can go in the upcoming years.
Recruiting Committee Chair - Morgan McGinnis
Morgan started her rugby career in college at North Dakota State University. As a collegiate player, Morgan also played for and captained the Minnesota Select Side team to top LAU U23 tournament finishes including a Midwest Championship win in 2011. Morgan was selected to the Midwest U23 All Star side in both 2010 and 2011 and was named Collegiate All American in 2011.
After college Morgan officially joined the Twin Cities Amazons Rugby club in the fall of 2011. As an Amazon, Morgan was a member of the 2013 WPL Championship team. Unfortunately, her rugby career ended suddenly in the fall of 2014 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic cancer of an unknown primary and was forced into early retirement. Post competitive play, Morgan has coached at the high school and collegiate level with the Hastings Heat Rugby Club and the University of Minnesota Women’s Rugby Club, respectively.
Off the field, Morgan works as the Aquatic Director at the Shoreview YMCA. She has been at the YMCA in a variety of roles for the past 8 years. Morgan is also a professionally trained life coach receiving her coaching certification through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Morgan went to college at North Dakota State University and has a Bachelor's degree in Women and Gender Studies with a minor in Psychology.
Fundraising Committee Chair - Sheena Reed
Sheena Reed is a software quality engineer at Ergotron, where she uses strong project management and organizational skills to meet deadlines and uphold standards for products.
She's a proud member of the Minnesota Vixen women's tackle football team and previously played football for the Wisconsin Warriors and rugby for Milwaukee Scylla. In her free time, she enjoys reading and competitive weightlifting.
Alumni Liaison Officer - Rachael Dingle
Rachel (Dingle) joined the Twin Cities Amazons in the early spring of 1999 having never touched a rugby ball and already being 26 years old. Dingle knew nothing about the sport but quickly learned that she had found her family. She played with the Amazons through the end of 2013 then moved to the Alumni ranks. While playing I served as Match Secretary for a few years as well as two stints at the President.
Her professional background includes 12 years of Active Duty military with the US Marines- and still serves as a Reserve member with hopes for retirement by April of 2021. After leaving active duty, she began her first “civilian” career with The St Paul Companies (Insurance) which then merged with Travelers shortly thereafter and has been with them for 15 years and loving it.
Following retirement from playing rugby in 2013, she began coaching the Women’s Rugby team at Macalester College in St. Paul – “I think I was mainly drawn in because I would not have to change my Rugby wardrobe since they area also ORANG AND BLUE!”
Dingle is excited to rejoin the active board to better facilitate relationship building between our active players and Alumni ranks!