Navy veteran takes holistic approach to coaching at his Harrisburg gym
- Rogue Sol Training owner Austin Qualls defines an athlete not as someone who plays sports but as someone who has a goal they want to achieve and the drive to make it happen.
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As the USS Theodore Roosevelt pulled out of port in 2015, Austin Qualls was already working on plans to organize wrestling teams aboard the aircraft carrier.
For the next two years, Austin, better known as Coach Q, traveled the world by sea, helping fellow sailors take their training to the next level.
He didn’t know it then, but it was the start of a coaching model he’d one day turn into his own business, Rogue Sol Training.
Fitness meets health
Coach Q spent his high school years wrestling, running track, and playing football. After getting out of the Navy in 2016, he got into boxing while living in California.
At age 21, he began training to go pro — until he discovered he was going to be a father.
He transitioned to a job at GNC, and the worlds of health and fitness began to come together for him. At the same time, he began working toward his certification as a personal trainer.
Just 15 months after his first child was born, Coach Q welcomed baby number two and moved his family back east.
‘This is my purpose’
While coaching youth and middle school wrestling teams in Ohio, Coach Q began envisioning opening his own gym.
He moved to Harrisburg in 2020 and launched Rogue Sol Training in the lower level of King Mansion on North Front Street.
“This is my purpose,” he says. “I can change the trajectory of people’s lives, but the more you work with people, you realize that you’re working with things that go a lot deeper.”
Through his holistic, 3D coaching model, Coach Q encourages his students to address not only physical fitness but also mental and emotional health.
“I don’t just train to train,” he says. “I train resilience, so they can handle more and persevere.”
Progress over perfection
While launching Rogue Sol, Coach Q’s family grew again. As a father of three young children, he takes his multi-dimensional model of coaching personally.
“I want to be a present father,” he says. “One of my mentors said there’s no such thing as work/life balance. It’s about prioritization. When I’m home, I’m home. When I’m at work, I’m at work. Be 100 percent wherever you are.”
Living that out while parenting and growing a business from the ground up has been a constant challenge, but Coach Q wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Whatever you want to do in life,” he says, “there’s only one way to do it, and that’s to do it. No matter what obstacle, the goal is not to be perfect but to always strive for progress.”