Founder & CEO

Olya Schaefer

Throughout her 20’s, Olya’s fitness regimen consisted of diet soda, cigarettes, and the treadmill. She wanted to be strong and fit but didn’t know how. “Sometimes I’d watch what other people did in the gym and copy them, but I felt unsure of myself and after a few halfhearted bicep curls, I’d be back to half-hearted jogging. When I moved to St. Pete in 2014, I tried lots of local gyms and really got into cross-functional fitness. I loved it, but I was always tired. And everything hurt! I didn’t look as strong as I felt, and I still didn’t feel like I truly knew what I was doing in the weight room.” Over time, Olya has worked with various trainers and eventually really got into the study of fitness and nutrition herself. What she learned is that the targeted, personal approach works best. Clear metrics are far more indicative of progress and fitness than subjective tape measures or the bathroom scale. The Athleticus was founded to unite like-minded coaches, mentors and athletes, and create a community of wellness.

Advisory Board Member

David Williams

David has extensive experience in enterprise and startup executive roles. As a technology leader and founder of several software development firms, David brings C-level leadership and systems experience, as well as a passion for fitness to our team. He provides strategic and leadership advice, and has helped with the creative aspects of The Athleticus. And he is of course a fitness enthusiast! David holds a black belt in kung fu.

Assistant Manager & Coach

Marisa Ahearn

Marisa is a certified personal trainer, pain-free performance specialist and women’s fitness specialist. She has dedicated herself to the pursuit of wellness and is also studying to become a nutrition coach. Her approach to health and fitness is all about longevity; making consistent and sustainable lifestyle changes that add up to a fuller life. A former chronic knee pain sufferer, she used strength training to eliminate her pain and get back to the sports she loves. Learning how to work through pain to reach new levels of strength has motivated her to share that the same is possible for others. She uses her knowledge of integrative physiology and years of coaching experience to help clients overcome pain, push through plateaus, and support an active lifestyle through a tailored strength training approach.

When she’s not empowering clients to become the best versions of themselves, Marisa can be found with her family and friends playing Catan, golfing, or at the beach with her dog Winston. A Florida native who’s always looking for a challenge, she loves training for obstacle course races and hiking adventures. A fun fact about Marisa is that she is an identical twin, her mom is a twin, and even her husband is a twin! Marisa is eager to show you how strength training can transform your life!

Head Coach

Álvaro Betancourt

Álvaro is a chiropractor and a trainer at The Athleticus. For the longest time he struggled with the saturation of information and fitness influencers each claiming they have cracked the code for fitness. He never knew what to believe. After many years of chiropractic school, seminars, training, certifications, and mentorships Álvaro has made it his mission to show everyone that fitness should be simple and foundational. He is here to help everyone that shares the same struggles he’s had. Álvaro believes that we are all athletes, and we are all much stronger than we believe we are. As a healthcare practitioner his go-to method is exercise. It is well documented by science to be the best tool to increase a healthy lifespan and reduce all cause mortality by up to 50%.

A few more facts about him: Álvaro played Division 1 soccer and was part of the Puerto Rico National Team for 8 years. His hobbies include biking, hiking, going to the gym, roller blading, jogging, going to the beach, pickleball, slacklining, selling headbands, beach paddle, and futvolley. He has two rescued pets. Pele and Clem, loves anything outdoors and absolutely loves food. His top pleasure in life is the joy of eating.  Álvaro is excited to share his passion for healthy longevity with you!

Coach

Andrew Durrett

Andrew came to St. Pete via DC and Virginia Beach to join The Athleticus and some of the best trainers and fitness professionals in the area. Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science, and is a human encyclopedia of knowledge in strength and conditioning via his voracious appetite for continuing education and academic study in health and fitness. Andrew has more than 9 years of experience in fitness training, athletic training, coaching, and rehabilitation. 

Andrew’s dynamic and comprehensive experience and education in fitness and human anatomy contributes to his deep and personal understanding of body alignment and movement compensations, awareness of how muscles work in tandem, and how to recognize an individual’s current state of fitness and how to program the appropriate approach/program. In addition to helping clients with wide-ranging goals, Andrew is a great match for clients who come to him with joint pain, arthritis, movement dysfunction and can help them with pain relief and movement mechanics through proper assessment and proper training prescriptions. 

Andrew combines his high degree of professionalism, experience and education to help his numerous FIT clients. Along with his education, he has received multiple personal training certifications from some of the most respected companies in the industry including NSCA, NFPT and AFAA, Grey Institute CAFS. Andrew is never done learning. This is a unique devotion in our industry, the pursuit of professional improvement. “As your trainer, I will do my utmost to help you achieve your goals. In my 11 years of experience, I have a working expertise in multiple areas of fitness including kinesiology, linear and non-linear periodization, bodybuilding, corrective exercise and rehabilitation, functional / foundational fitness, physical therapy and nutrition. Although I have over a decade of experience in multiple disciplines of fitness, I have honed my specific focus to functional/foundational fitness as it lends itself to enabling you to accomplish day to day activities. This area of study really focuses on mobility, tissue preparation, biomechanical variation and 3D global movements, which is going to help you move as efficiently as possible.

In my free time I enjoy everything that this great city has to offer including live music, museums, and outdoor physical activities. As active as I like to stay, I love a night in binging whatever I can find on Netflix and rewatching every Marvel movie and Disney Movie. Thank you for taking the time to read my bio, and I hope this short glimpse into who I am will give you frame of mind as to what I can help you accomplish!”

COACH

Brett Stanley

Brett has been a Personal Trainer since 2010 and has worked in many aspects of the fitness industry. His experiences include in-home private clients, big box gyms, group fitness classes and working as a physical therapists’ assistant. While working as a trainer in San Diego for the past 13 years he was also a member of the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team and a Wilderness First Responder.

His hobbies include hiking, backpacking, mountaineering and training in a wide variety of martial arts. Brett was the captain of his high school swimming and lacrosse team and continued to swim in college. His love of sports and physical activities drew him to a career in the health and fitness industry. Brett moved to Florida at the end of 2023 and is looking forward to continuing his training career at The Athleticus. Brett’s training style has a focus on functional training and safely recovering from injuries so that you can continue to do the things you enjoy as we move through life.

Chief Greeter

Maggie Noodle

Maggie is the Chief Greeter and Happiness Ambassador for The Athleticus. She enjoys back scratches, long walks on the beach and stray chicken wings discarded by strangers. Maggie’s favorite workouts are sprints after tennis balls, various yoga poses and competitive eating.