ZACH BURKHOLDER

He began trying to do anything he could to resemble what he saw on the show. This included doing monkey bars, pull-ups, trying laches, and more at local parks and wherever else he could. Zach’s parents noticed his interest in Ninja and tried to find a place nearby where Zach could learn and practice. Unfortunately, at the time, the closest gym was about 45 minutes away.

 

One day, Zach’s dad took him to this 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.

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During this time, Zach focused on school and started playing Rugby. Zach played Rugby for about two years until he first found Dexterity Depot, which had just recently opened. 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.

 

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. Ninja became Zach’s life. 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. 

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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 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.

 

During the time of his injury, Zach turned 14. As soon as his leg healed, it’s no wonder that Zach was immediately approached with a coaching position at The Depot. 

Ever since his first day, Zach’s had a blast coaching at The Depot. Although he is young, Zach is an amazing coach. We are beyond happy to have Zach on the DXD Staff!