ZACH BURKHOLDER
Assistant Coach
Zach’s journey into Ninja started in an unexpected way. Growing up, he wasn’t very athletic and preferred video games and TV over sports. He played baseball for a couple of years but never really enjoyed it. One of his favorite shows was Wipeout until one day his grandfather introduced him to American Ninja Warrior. Zach was instantly hooked.
Inspired by what he saw, Zach began practicing wherever he could, on monkey bars, doing pull-ups, and attempting laches at local parks.
One day, Zach’s dad took him to a gym for a special event to meet American Ninja Warrior legend Joe Moravsky. Zach really enjoyed meeting Joe and he learned a lot. Zach really enjoyed being inside of a gym that had so many Ninja obstacles. So, for his 10th birthday Zach’s parents organized a birthday party at the gym. Zach had a great time, but because the gym was 45 minutes away, he would not be able to attend regular classes at this facility; which meant that Zach’s Ninja journey would have to be put on hold for a while.
During this time, Zach focused on school and started playing Rugby. Zach played Rugby for about two years until he first found out about Dexterity Depot, which had just recently opened. His first visit to The Depot was unforgettable. Zach checked out The Depot with one of his close friends and had an absolute blast. He wanted to go back right away. The next time Zach would step foot inside The Depot was for the first ever Dexterity Ninja Team Tryouts. Zach did fantastic at tryouts and was able to make the team with ease. From then on, Ninja became Zach’s life.
He began practicing at least twice a week and began falling more and more in love with Ninja. Zach then decided to stop playing Rugby to focus fully on Ninja. He no longer preferred to sit inside and play videos games, instead, he would rather be Ninja training. He trained hard and was always trying his best to learn and push himself.
Zach even started building obstacles and setting up obstacle courses in his basement to train on. Even when The Depot was closed during the pandemic, Zach trained at least once a day until The Depot was able to reopen. Zach’s hard work paid off as he saw a huge increase in his skills and strength from his training.
From the moment Zach joined our Ninja Team his work ethic, passion, maturity, drive, and more were quickly noticed by our coaching staff. Since day one, Zach has always been a leader on our team. Without anyone telling him to do so, Zach would always cheer on his teammates, help them when they were struggling in practice, and give advice when needed. He would coach his fellow teammates when he could, and acted as a role model for them.
As the one of the oldest on the team during our team’s first year, Zach was assigned the role of team captain. Our coaches could always count on Zach, and gave him many leadership responsibilities. When Zach unfortunately broke his leg and was unable to practice for weeks, he still wanted to come to practices to help his teammates. During this time, our staff had Zach assist with coaching while he was hanging out during practices, hence beginning Zach’s coaching journey at just 14 years old.
Since then, Zach’s been an incredible asset to our staff. Zach is an amazing Ninja who has worked very hard for the level he has gotten to. He has placed highly in many competitions around the country including at the World Championships.
Zach’s passion for Ninja, combined with his natural leadership and positive attitude, makes him an outstanding coach who inspires students to push themselves and grow. We’re proud to have Zach on the Dexterity Depot team! His journey from a non-athletic kid to a dedicated coach is proof that hard work and perseverance can transform lives.