The Bayshore Project was founded by Mike Bedke, John Connery, Matt Markowski, and Clay Thomas in 2017 to fill a need for a youth running program in the South Tampa community.
In July 2022 Bayshore Project’s first and only head coach, Matt Markowski, and long-time coach Pete Fournier retired from coaching at Bayshore Project.
Volunteer Coaches Jen Harkins and Jackie Cahill took over for Matt and Pete. Tim Scheu joined in 2023.
Meet our coaches
Coaching is led by Jen Harkins and Jackie Cahill both of whom are experienced runners with children participating as Bayshore Project runners. With our coaches’ experience, our founders’ training and racing experiences and advice from local Hall of Fame high school cross country coaches, we have created a program intended to improve each Bayshore Project runner, while being mindful of risks of injury and burnout.
Coach Jackie
Coach Jackie discovered competitive road racing at age 30, and has since run 100+ races, varying in distances from one mile to marathon. She qualified for and ran a 3:29:48 personal record at the Boston Marathon, and twice placed 3rd overall female in the Gasparilla Jeep Liberty Challenge, which includes 15K, 5K and Half Marathon. She frequently joins on practice runs with her son Nicky.
Coach Jen
Coach Jen ran XC for Plant High school and legendary coach Roy Harrison. She frequently brings team mascot Remy to run alongside her and her boys Chris and Taj.
Coach Tim
Coach Tim ran track in high school and college. He has since moved to ultimate frisbee where he’s played for 25+ years. Tim and his wife and daughters Tessa and Harper join on many of the weekly runs.
NO COMPENSATION:
None of the Bayshore Project founders or coaches receive a coaching fee or any other compensation for work on behalf of the Bayshore Project. We are all unpaid volunteers motivated by our love for the sport and desire to share our passion with middle school runners. We would be thrilled if many of our Bayshore Project runners become successful high school cross country and track runners. Some of the best high school runners in our area started running with a club team before high school. More than a dozen runners in our early Bayshore Project classes have had great success and great experiences running cross country and track in high school. Several members of our earlier classes of runners are now competing at the collegiate level.
VOLUNTEERS:
To provide the best experience for Bayshore Project runners we rely on parent volunteers for track meets, including time keepers, stats, & race bibs. We encourage parents to share pictures on our closed Facebook group—Bayshore Project. Please let us know if you are able to volunteer!