Our Coaches
We are incredibly proud and honored to call these wonderful humans coaches at Higs Academy!
As you will read, our coaches have a variety of skills and interests, but one thing that is a constant for all is their extreme care for our students and their desire to be a positive part of their Higs journey!
We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about them below!
Byron Higinbotham
Head Coach & Owner
Byron Higinbotham
- Husband & Father
- 2nd Degree BJJ Black Belt
- 3rd Dan Tae Kwon Do Black Belt
- Bachelors in Criminology
- 4th Generation Farmer
Byron Higinbotham is a lifelong martial artist and fitness nut! Growing up on a farm taught him the value of hard work and working with what you’ve got. As a youngster, he built a workout gym in one of his family's hay barns which included hay bale punching bags, hydraulic cylinders as weights, and epic obstacle courses around the stacks of hay. Fast forward to today and now he and his family and a wonderful group of friends have created a similar concept on a much bigger scale for all of you to enjoy on his own farm in Central Point.
Byron started his formal martial arts training in Tae Kwon Do and achieved the rank of 3rd Dan Black Belt. Wanting to grow and have a way of handling a self-protection situation that didn’t involve punching and or kicking someone he took up grappling in 2001. Byron then met his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach, Roy Dean, in 2010 and is currently a 2nd degree Black Belt with only moderate cauliflower ear (BTW there is a way to train BJJ without messing your ears up).
Wanting to supplement his martial arts training with a functional conditioning method he began looking into military obstacle courses. Being inspired by early YouTube vids of the U.S. Navy’s O course at Coronado, Byron began building his own version. You can now find these continually growing and changing indoor and outdoor courses within Higs Performance Academy and utilized in various forms of training including Functional Fitness and Parkour.
Byron loves exploring, traveling, and dreaming with his family. He is continually learning and working to become a better version of himself physically, mentally, and spiritually each day so he can help those around him do the same. He is honored to coach and truly believes in one of our long-standing academy mottos, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” —Proverbs 27:17.
Nathan Hubler
Youth Parkour & BJJ Coach
Nathan Hubler
- Teen Parkour Coach
- Youth Parkour Coach
- Youth Jiu Jitsu Coach
Nathan started at the gym when he was 15 and has now been training and coaching at Higs for roughly 10 years. Nathan continues to sharpen and evolve his parkour and Jiu Jitsu skills and loves helping others do the same. He is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and aspires to reach the rank of black in the coming years. Other than Jiu Jitsu and parkour he enjoys reading, longboarding, video games, and movies. Nathan is a great help around the academy and farm and we are honored that he chooses Higs to make an impact.
Jason Kuhlman
MMA & Birthday Party Coach
Jason Kuhlman
- Mixed Martial Arts Coach
- Birthday Party Coach Extraordinaire
Jason moved from a small town in Iowa to a small town in Oregon in 1986. He and his wife Amy have raised their son and daughter in Central Point where he has also taught Elementary in the public-school setting for 21 years. Coach Jason has been a part of the Higs family for almost 15 years. He has received his black belt in Taekwondo and is working towards his brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He enjoys coaching MMA, filling in for kids and adult classes when needed as well as coaching birthday parties. When not at Higs or school, he enjoys camping, hiking, hunting, mountain biking, and throwing things at kids. We sure are thankful for him and would love to hear your stories of how he has impacted you and/or your family too!