Meet Our Coaches
Devon and Kalyn are some of the most skilled and experienced coaches in the Nation. Head coach Devon Maitozo, a two-time world champion has been in the sport for 42 years and Kalyn 20 years. Both have domestic and international experience in multiple facets of the sport. This includes FEI coaches training, extensive USEF High-Performance Vaulting training, CPR Certifications, and a performing arts degree from the University of California. As a flagship American Vaulting Club for more than 24 years, F.A.C.E. has prided itself on setting a gold standard in USA vaulting. Our record of safety and results are hard to beat.
Devon has been involved in the sport of equestrian vaulting for 39 years, having had an exciting individual vaulting career with seven world championship medals including an individual gold medal at WEG Rome in 1998 and a team gold medal at WEG Kentucky in 2010. He is the most decorated vaulter in USA history, is one of the most well known vaulting figures in the world, and still actively competes with his team to this day.
A California native, Devon has a University of California degree in theater arts and is the founder of Free Artists Creative Equestrians (F.A.C.E.), located at El Campeon Ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. As the head coach and horse trainer, Devon has worked hard to make F.A.C.E. a hub for training and a competitive leader for his equestrian sport for 17 years now. Devon is currently a trainer/ coach/ choreographer/ performer, and competitor with F.A.C.E. When asked what his motivation for all this is, Devon’s answer is clear. “I love teaching others how to believe in themselves and to reach their potential. Vaulting simply brings horses, athleticism, and the arts together like nothing else, and is the craft I know best. I am also just passionate about performance, be it through theater, dance, music, or film, and I love nothing better than to express those passions in harmony with a horse.”
Devon was USEF’s 2005 winner of the Becky Grand Hart Equestrian of Honor Trophy, is an AVA Hall of Fame inductee, served on the USEF Board of Directors for a decade, and has served on numerous committees with the federation and his affiliate over the years in service to equestrian sport. He dedicated to enhancing the sport in any way he can, with a focus on fielding teams and representing the USA on the world stage. He has hopes to compete with his horse team at WEG 2018 for his 13th world championships.
Devon is also passionate about photography, writing, traveling the world for adventure, running international clinics, dressage development with his horses Maximillian and Cimbasso, but more than anything about being a father to his 7 year old son Nico Maitozo-Menn.
Kalyn Noah has been an equestrian all her life and an internationally competitive vaulter for 14 years. She began vaulting at the age of 16 with Sundance Vaulters. In 2004 Kalyn was recruited by coach Katariina Alongi of Coastline Vaulters where she went on to join the squad bound for the World Championships in Stadle Paura, Austria. Her squad brought home a bronze medal that summer, and the experience ignited a lifelong passion for squad vaulting. Since then, Kalyn has founded two vaulting clubs in Texas and Canada, won multiple national titles in squad and pas de deux, and has represented the USA at three World Championships. Vaulting became her way to self discovery through avenues of music and horses. Kalyn continues to be an actively competitive vaulter, clinician, and coach. She strives to foster the willingness to be fearless and creative in her students, and to help develop a love for harmonious movement with horses. Kalyn joined Free Artists Creative Equestrians in 2016, and is proud to be a part of the vision to display vaulting with an artful application of technical knowledge.