Our Team
Valerie Ferrara
Chief Operating Officer
Valerie Ferrara
Val has been the Chief Operating Officer of The Clubs at Pine Brook Fitness since early 2014. She joined the team from Philadelphia, PA, where she managed a health club with over 4,000 members. Although her climbing experience is tragically nowhere near the knowledge and expertise of her fellow managers and staff, she is confident she will someday conquer the slackline and become a master at jumps and turns.
A competitive swimmer for over 12 years, she did not have “land sports” in her early repertoire of physical activity. Swimming on the Varsity high school boys’ team all 4 years, she often made guys twice her size cry when they underestimated her speed and were left in her wake.
When she is not overseeing construction projects or touring prospective members to the Clubs, Val enjoys daily long drives, her 2 cats, and chasing after her 2 young sons and taking in the sights of the northern Hudson Valley. She is a tennis player (shh!) at NRRC and loves the weekly clinics. She also is an Airbnb Superhost and a Notary Public—and always has her stamp on her if you need signature-related assistance!
Jordan Pacheco
Gym Director, Head Routesetter, Team Coach
Jordan Pacheco
Jordan Pacheco was born and raised here in our very own New Rochelle. Jordan has been working for TRC since 2008 and caught the climbing bug hard. Since falling in love with climbing, he has only three things on his mind; climbing, soccer, and animals (in no particular order). Jordan has the honor of being one of the coaches for our award-winning rock climbing team: Team Rock.
Unable to name just one, his favorite climbing moments are his yearly climbing/camping trips at The Red River Gorge with Team Rock. These trips are guaranteed to be filled with corniest of puns and the promise of amazing pizza at Miguel’s. A cat lover like no other, he has two cats. One is from the local shelter, and the other was saved off the streets during one of the most brutal snow storms in 2014.
Whenever Jordan isn’t climbing, he can be found on a soccer pitch somewhere or helping at a local shelter. A graduate and former soccer player of Westchester Community College, Jordan is currently working towards a degree in Veterinary Technology.
Jenny Fryer
Team Rock Head Coach, Co-Assistant Director, Membership Coordinator
Jenny Fryer
Jenny has been a TRC employee and a member of the Team Rock family since 2011, and she’s still loving it! Since starting as a belayer, she’s enjoyed the role of camp counselor, junior program instructor, facilitator, and head instructor; these days, you’re more likely to find her coaching Team Rock, or sitting on the end of a rope with a few buckets of holds hanging off her harness, sweating and making a racket with her well-loved power drill.
Her favorite place to climb is the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, where Team Rock journeys every year to get unreasonably pumped out on perfect sandstone and refine their pancake-making techniques. Ask her to show you pictures of her pup, Bernie, and give her climbs a try!
Daniel Gruza
Director of Junior Programs, Co-Assistant Director
Daniel Gruza
A New Rochelle native, Daniel developed an early love of the outdoors going on hikes with his Dad. Loving to scramble up rocks and boulders, he discovered climbing at a young age, and as a teen even enjoyed a short stint climbing at The Rock Club. After a hiatus from the sport, Daniel rediscovered his passion for climbing when he started working at The Rock Club in 2015. Working at The Rock Club has helped bring both climbing and the outdoors back into his life in a big way.
“I love how passionate and welcoming the community is at The Rock Club. It has absolutely helped me rediscover things that I loved.” Over the years, Daniel has worked as a Belayer, Facilitator, Junior Program instructor, and head instructor. Along the way he developed a passion for teaching kids. He graduated with BS in psychology in the fall of 2018 and in late spring of became the Rock Club’s Director of Junior Programs. Now, he hopes to help spread his passion for climbing and the outdoors he rediscovered through The Rock Club.
Tina Hoerenz
Head of Finance, HR
Tine Hoerenz
Originally from Berlin, Germany, Tina moved to the US at age 8. With a backyard facing the woods, she literally climbed everything: trees, boulders, rock walls, onto the roof of her house, you name it, she was on it.
After finishing up her education in New York, Berlin, and Paris, she jumped into a career in public relations, marketing, information technology, and graphic design for a major not-for-profit organization in New York City. After several years of daily commutes to the noisy hustle and bustle of NYC, however, it was time for a change: Tina is now Administrative Manager for Pine Brook Fitness, home of The Rock Club, The New Rochelle Racquet Club and The Studios.
This was a perfect fit since climbing is her passion (rediscovered about 4 years ago when her brother gave her a climbing session as a gift), and she is diligently working at improving her skills and strength. Her most memorable moment on a high outdoor granite wall was looking down at the distant woods and lakes and watching the vultures gliding by below her vantage point. Tina’s favorite non-climbing activity is chasing the birds during spring and fall migration, aiming to get good photographs. She likes reading science-based books, coffee with condensed milk, and sounds of all kinds as she sees them in color, shape and motion.
Paul Cesario
Marketing Director
Paul Cesario
Paul was born and raised in NY and joined the team in 2016. He brings many years of marketing and entrepreneurial experience to the club, having previously run two businesses of his own, a professional recording studio and teaching practice. He has worked in the marketing department for NJ Transit and a variety of tech startups in NYC. He is an avid lover of all things tech, whether it is the latest gadget or new marketing software. He holds an B.A in Music from SUNY Purchase and an MBA in Marketing from CUNY Baruch.
Paul has been climbing for over four years and became hooked as soon as he set foot in TRC. He is a lover of the outdoors, enjoys traveling, cooking, playing his guitar and drums, and investing in the stock market. One of his life long goals is to hike the Appalachian Trail in its entirety, ME to GA, all 2200 miles of it. He says Yosemite National Park is his favorite place on planet earth (check out the valley in his pic). When he's not at the club, you can find him exercising, reading, teaching music lessons, and taking care of his eight year old american bombay cat, Lucy.
Conor McKoy
ACL Coordinator
Conor McKoy
There are plenty of words you can use to describe Conor (like world traveler, writer, or nerd) but his favorite way to describe himself is a climber. Addicted to the sport, Conor started climbing right here at TRC in the summer of 2016 when he signed up for the Climbing 101 class. Since then, Conor has ventured outdoors to try climbing on real rock and visited climbing gyms all over the world (even working in one in Ireland for a few months).
Of course, as much as he likes climbing, he does have a life outside of TRC (we think). At home, Conor loves hanging out with friends, writing fantasy novels, and playing video games. Outside, you can either find him hiking a mountain somewhere or in the city with some friends solving puzzles in an escape room. He’s also known to be looking for his next adventure, whether it be camping somewhere in New York or flying to another country. But of course, as much as he loves to be out he’s always happy to come home to his friends, family, and TRC.
Belissa Velasquez
Social Media Director
Belissa Velasquez
Xavier Torriente
Director of Maintenance + Route Setter
Xavier Torriente
A New Rochelle veteran, Xavier has 8 years of climbing and high rope course experience. He holds two National camp school certifications; one for climbing and one for C.O.P.E (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience.) through the BSA. He is also an Eagle Scout.
His favorite climbing moment was when he took his first whipper down in Kentucky RRG. A “whipper” is defined as an especially long or hard fall. He went at least 20 ft before he stopped. The moment his hand slipped off the wall, he felt free. It was just him and nothing else, he just was.
If he could choose a super power, he would be “Multiple Man.” This hero has the ability to make as many copies of himself as he wanted, and then be able to gain the copies’ experiences when they are reabsorbed back to his original form. He is constantly searching for truth and knowledge. Xavier’s favorite non-climbing activity is definitely singing. He loves music in general and he’s always singing, always.
Ashlee Crewe
Team Rock Coach
Ashlee Crewe
Ashlee started climbing and working at TRC in 2017. With a dancing background, she was able to pick up slacklining quickly and learn how to walk, sit and lay comfortably on the slackline within a few weeks. Ashlee is very excited to be a new Team Rock coach and can't wait to join them at Nationals this year. "The team inspires me to push past my limits and I can't wait to help them do the same". Ashlee loves balancing, bouldering, and bacon-burgers!
John Giantelli
Head JP/ Camp Instructor
John Giantelli
John is a Head Junior Program Instructor and Head Camp Counselor. It is his job to plan and facilitate JP classes and the summer or holiday camps. John started working at the rock club December of 2016 and fell in love with the sport almost instantly. He is a Health and Human Performance student at Westchester Community College and am going for his personal trainer certification as well.
Chris St. Pierre
Team Rock Coach + Route Setter
Chris St. Pierre
Chris is a third year economics student at purchase college and is also an avid pool shark, music nerd and full time goon, but for the past year his greatest love has been climbing. Chris started working at The Rock Club in December 2016 and started climbing a few months after that. Since starting his journey at TRC, Chris has become a facilitator and head instructor of TRC's amazing junior programs and even started lead climbing.
Chris' favorite things about climbing are balancey stem climbs, unnecessary dynos and calling himself a boulderer (yes, that is a word). When he's not climbing Chris can be found making music, writing lesson plans for his Junior Programs classes or sleeping on the roof of his car.
Chris Perez
Route Setter
Chris Perez
Chris P. has been working and climbing at The Rock Club for 3 years and it was love at first send. The physical problem solving and impossible looking movement made it so much more interesting than any conventional gym. That being said he started with a gnarly fear of heights and legend says he got stuck a top his first climb for at least 5 minutes, being too scared to come down. Jordan welcomed Chris P to the setting team about a year after and that put his passion into hyperdrive. When Chris P. isn't climbing, hes think of music or dreaming of ways to improve his setting and climbing. Or watching Mellow videos on YouTube. Other hobbies include climbing, route setting, climbing, and route setting... and making people laugh.
Megan Jeffry
Front Desk Supervisor
Megan Jeffry
Megan is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the TRC team as Front Desk Supervisor!
Growing up in Westchester, Megan played a ton of competitive sports and always loved challenging herself athletically. As an adult, she’s found it hard to get a group together to kick around a soccer ball or play a game of pickup basketball, so she decided to give climbing a try…and she is officially hooked!
Not only does Megan love the sport of climbing itself, but she also thinks so highly of the community – especially the one we have here at The Rock Club. Megan felt instantly comfortable and supported on and off our walls, especially by the Team kids and all the awesome TRC members. Now, Megan can’t wait to work alongside the Front Desk team to ensure that every new climber who walks through our front doors has the same experience!
Megan is always floating around the neighborhood, so if you don’t see her behind the Front Desk, you’ll probably spot her out in New Rochelle walking her adopted dog, Geo.
