Here To Help You Succeed
MEET OUR STAFF AND EXPERT COACHES
Founder/Chief Encouragement Officer
BEN DAVIS
OPEX CCP Coach, FMS Level 2, PN1, CFL2
Ben Davis found his love for sports while playing soccer. He was a fierce competitor from the time he was 11 years old. Davis advanced to the Olympic Development Program, which is for elite players. He experienced playing in some of the largest youth soccer tournaments in the world, including Dallas Cup, Nike International Cup and the Dana Cup in Denmark.
When Davis entered High School, he got into wrestling and pursued it while continuing to play soccer. He has trained under some of the best coaches in the state of Georgia in both sports. This is where God began developing Ben’s understanding and passion for training the body. After experiencing a career-ending injury in college, Ben developed a deep depression and confusion about the meaning of life and what he was purposed to do. This led to a “bed of suicide” in 2008 where he was saved by God’s grace and shown his purpose and meaning to glorify God with his life. In December of 2008, Ben built No Excuses Athletics-CrossFit with Kyle Maynard and developed a knowledge and love for functional movement and continued to grow his passion for changing people’s lives by impacting their physical well-being. In April of 2014, Ben left No Excuses to pursue a franchise partnership with Iron Tribe Fitness On Ponce, a location in Atlanta. He is now seeking to develop a team to impact lives in the area through Noble Clay, a 501c3 Non-profit that he has founded, who’s purpose is to align individual’s well-being with their well-doing by providing Individual Design fitness to all members of the community regardless of income level. Davis now lives and breathes to honor God. He’s incessantly learning to be like Him and loving others. It’s for this love that Ben has missioned his life to pursue God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength and to love others as himself. It’s for this reason; he pursues people and encourages them to reach their full God-given potential. He is living proof of the radical change the gospel of Jesus Christ can have on one’s life. Ben’s mission is to share this love with all people, helping them live an abundant life. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia where he shares this life with his beautiful and talented bride, Laura Sully Davis and son, Thaddaeus.
Coach/Operations Coodinator
CARLY BLANCHETT
OPEX CCP Coach, B.S. Kinesiology, Minor Health Promotion & Sports Business Management
At the age of 15, Carly lost her Grandmother, who was also her best friend, to numerous chronic diseases and cancer. In efforts to deal with the depression and anxiety, she turned to fitness. She began running and doing bodyweight workouts she found on Pinterest in her basement. She then graduated to long distance running, weight lifting, and finally, found her place in functional fitness. Over this long journey, she realized how valuable of a tool fitness is for understanding who you are.
Carly graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Kinesiology and minors in health promotion and sports business management. She has previously worked at State of Fitness in East Lansing, Michigan and spent a semester in Southern California interning at EXOS, a top-level athletic training facility working with NFL free agents, professional baseball, tennis, and soccer players as well as a specialty with military rehabilitation and training.
Through all struggles and challenges she has been faced with in life, fitness provided incredible physical, mental, and emotional tools to keep moving forward. Her true passion is not simply training someone in a gym, but rather, providing the relationship and knowledge to support and guide them on their own journey to build and grow a healthier more fulfilling life. After losing her Grandmother and her step father to chronic disease, she wants to do what she can to help provide her community with a more holistic approach to living a healthy life.
Chief Of Operations
MARIELA SMITH
Business Management Administration Degree, PMP Certification, ISO Lead Auditor
Mariela was born and raised in San Jose Costa Rica, although his Father is from Norfolk Virginia Beach. Mariela used to not be a very active person and weighed over 200 pounds. She spent a lot of that time battling with insecurities and social anxiety because even going for a walk was hard.
She remembers the moment her world changed when she watched the Crossfit Games for the first time and fell in love with the sport. She decided to join a local gym in 2017 and her life hasn’t been the same since.
She always liked to learn and challenge myself, so alongside her newfound love for Crossfit, she fell in love with numbers, projects, and continuous improvement. She decided to get certified as a project manager and as an ISO Auditor while finishing her career as a Business Administrator.
Now, she has more than 10 years of experience in the financial area and carried out more than 10 transitions with multinational companies. She has also been an internal and external auditor for 4 years. Every day she is growing not only in her work, but in what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.
Coach
SARAH COLBERT
OPEX CCP, Crossfit Level 1, Certified Exercise Physiologist, Black Belt
Sarah was born and raised in Charlotte, NC to a father who was a competitive powerlifter. Sarah was raised in a weight room but found her passion for fitness through training in TaeKwonDo. She studied TaeKwonDo for 20 years (starting at age 10) and earned her 5th Degree Black Belt in 2017. Sarah graduated from UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology.
Sarah had originally planned to pursue a degree in Physical Therapy but when her father died of heart disease her freshman year of college it drastically changed her career path. She realized she wanted to help prevent as many premature, avoidable deaths as possible. Sarah worked at a hospital in Myrtle Beach, SC for two years as an Exercise Physiologist in a CardioPulmonary Rehabilitation Program helping patients recover post heart attack, stent placement, open heart surgeries etc. She moved to Atlanta in 2016 after she married her husband, Darion whom she had been dating since they were 18 yo. Sarah worked for WellStar Healthcare System for 2 years in the “Comprehensive Bariatric” Program where she provided exercise counseling and individualized exercise plans to patients pre and post weight loss surgery. For the past year Sarah has been a CrossFit coach and has been learning how to be the best individual coach she can be.
Sarah is most passionate about getting to know her friends and clients on the heart level and helping them be successful on their fitness journeys. She is very passionate about enabling others to live a healthy, happy life, free from chronic disease. In her free time she loves to read, hang out with her husband, Darion and mentor her “little buddy” through the organization, “Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta.”
BRADY SHACKELFORD
Coach
B.S. Science in Biology, B.S. Psychology from University of Georgia Athens
OPEX CCP L1 (in progress)
Brady has grown up with a passion to learn and a love for anything active. When he was younger those passions were met through sports. Over the years the drive to do competitive sports faded and no longer satisfied that passion. Rather, Brady found himself being drawn toward functional fitness. Toward the end of high school Brady became very interested in the behind the scenes work of gym life, program design, and nutritional education. Brady, with the help of his favorite workout partner, his dad, began researching new exercise and nutritional programs. Brady started college with the intention of attending med school. As he started down the pre-med track he realized that his passion wasn’t the treatment of illness but instead the prevention of chronic disease. Eventually Brady came to a fork in the road. Should he continue on to med school, the “sensible” step expected of him, or should he follow his heart and passion and work to make an impact in a different way? After months of deliberation, he stumbled upon “Noble Clay Fitness” where his values were completely aligned with the mission of the gym. Brady felt that he found a life where he could serve the under-resourced community and help others to live their healthiest lives possible.
JULIE PITTMAN
Coach
M.S., Exercise Science and Health Promotion, Precision Nutrition, Level 1, ACE Certified Health Coach, CrossFit: Level 2 Trainer, Kids, Weightlifting, Gymnastics
Julie’s coaching experience spans 10 years in a variety of gyms across multiple states as well as many countries virtually. Her passion for fitness began in her youth as a competitive cheerleader. When a cracked vertebrate and subsequent spinal fusion derailed her dreams of cheering at Penn State, she discovered that her passion for fitness was about more than a competitive goal. For Julie, fitness is about doing your best and having fun, despite the limitations you may feel your body or life may hold.
She transitioned from flipping on the mat to trying out a weightlifting class with the football team. She was immediately hooked, being able to challenge herself and feel good being active again. She learned very quickly though, that she needed to modify or substitute some of the movements to be a better fit for her body’s needs. Living with chronic pain, she’s learned to adapt movements to the specific limitations and needs of her body and the history it has been through. She’s extremely passionate about helping others find and adapt a health and fitness lifestyle that fits their unique needs.
In her free time, Julie enjoys playing outside with her husband and 4-year-old son! Hiking, biking, kayaking, paddle boarding, and camping are some of their favorite activities!