The Gridiron Warrior Podcast

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast: football strength and conditioning insights from Coach Jim Kiritsy, Director of Football Strength and Conditioning at the United States Naval Academy. Strength coach tips, strength coach advice, and behind-the-scenes strength coach insights from one of football's most respected strength coaches. Why do Navy's football players never look gassed in the first 10 minutes...

The Gridiron Warrior Summer Summit is the hands-on football and strength & conditioning coaching clinic built for high school coaches who do it all. Saturday, July 18, 2026, inside the University of Rhode Island's Division I weight room and turf facility in Kingston, Rhode Island. In this solo episode, Scott Leech breaks it all down: who the Summit is for, the full speaker lineup, why every se...

Most coaches still think conditioning means running kids into the ground. Coach Tyler Franklin says that is the lie that has your players breaking down by week three. In this episode of the Gridiron Warrior Podcast, Scott Leech sits down with Coach Tyler Franklin, strength and conditioning coach at Murray High School in Kentucky and the NHSSCA 2023 Coach of the Year. Tyler is the author of "Build...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast delivers football strength and conditioning insights for high school and college coaches. Every episode brings real strength coach advice from the people doing the work. In this episode, head football coach and strength coach John Marshall breaks down how he built Randolph High School from 17 kids on the roster to a two-time Massachusetts state champion using a weight...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "Building a Football Culture from Scratch" with Coach Chris Murdock In this episode, I sit down with Chris Murdock, Head Football Coach at Billings Senior High School in Montana. Coach Murdock is the very first "Gridiron Warrior School," meaning he fully outsources his strength and conditioning programming to the Gridiron Warrior system. We dive deep into the logisti...

utrition with NSF-certified protein in a preloaded FlipTech bottle. Trusted by 150+ college and pro teams. Reach out for team pricing. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:33 Sponsor: TrainHeroic 01:32 Sponsor: Plyomat 03:08 Why Dustin is on the show + Summer Summit preview 04:05 Welcome Coach Jack Dustin 04:30 From Compete S&C to Coastal Carolina under Joe Moglia 07:45 Why he chose strength over footb...

Nick DiMarco, Assistant AD for Peak Performance at Elon, just released "The Director's Manual." It is the book every assistant should read before they take the head job, and every director should read after they take it. We get into hiring, system building, managing up to your AD, getting admin to fund your vision, and why most strength coaches burn out trying to do everything themselves. If you w...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "Game Speed, Conditioning & Identity" with Coach George Adams In this episode, I sit down with George Adams, Head Athletic Performance Coach at Madison Ridgeland Academy in Mississippi. We dive into the difference between track speed and game speed. We talk about why running cone drills often doesn't transfer to Friday nights and how to actually fix it. Coach Ada...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "Resurrecting a Program & The Single Wing" with Coach Mike Serricchio In this episode, I sit down with my good friend and former teammate Mike Serricchio, Head Football Coach at Ledyard High School in Connecticut. Mike took over a program that was stuck in the "dark ages"—winning only a handful of games in four years—and has rebuilt it into a perennial playoff co...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "FASTT: Fixing Broken Drills & Building Reactive Speed" with Coach Mike Niklos In this episode, I sit down with Mike Niklos, Director of Athletic Development at Acceleration Sports Performance. We dig into his "FASTT" philosophy (Football, Agility, Speed, Technical, Tactical) and why so many traditional football drills—like the W Drill—are failing to prepare athl...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "From Cancer Survivor to NFL Punter" with Nolan Cooney In this episode, I sit down with Nolan Cooney, a former NFL punter for the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints. Nolan has one of the most unique journeys to the league you will ever hear—he didn't kick a single football in high school. Instead, he was a three-sport athlete (soccer, basketball, baseball) who...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | "The Jump from College to High School S&C" with Coach Chris Gray In this episode, I sit down with Chris Gray, Director of Sports Performance at Archbishop Moeller High School in Ohio. We dive into what it really looks like to run a high-level high school program. Not just training, but culture, standards, fundraising, competitions, and community buy-in. Chris sha...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast – “Offseason Competitions, Juice, and Building Culture” with Coach Joe Gilfedder In this episode, I sit down with Coach Joe Gilfedder from Rutgers Football — one of the most passionate, energetic, competitive coaches I’ve ever worked with. We go deep on offseason competitions, how to create real buy-in, ways to bring juice into your winter workouts, and how to build me...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | “Training Qualities, Not Sports” with Coach Nick Crouse In this episode, I sit down with Coach Nick Crouse to break down how he builds training systems for multi-sport athletes without chaos. We talk training age vs. biological age, why rushing strong freshmen backfires, and how to manage volume when kids are never truly “out of season.” If you coach at the high scho...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | “How Jump Data Changes a High School Weight Room” with Rich Burnett (Creator of the Plyomat) In this episode, I sit down with Rich Burnett , creator of the Plyomat , to break down jump training from a coach’s perspective. Not theory. Not lab talk. Real-world application for high school and college weight rooms. We talk RSI, reactivity, jump testing mistakes, how to a...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | “Return to Play Inside Practice, Not Away From It” with Coach Logan Tomlinson In this episode, I sit down with Coach Logan Tomlinson from Carson-Newman University to break down how he handles return-to-play when you don’t have a massive staff . We talk what to do with injured athletes during practice , how to rebuild confidence instead of just tissue, and why total v...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | “How to Build a High School Weight Room from Scratch” with Coach Jimmy Gajewski In this episode, I sit down with Coach Jimmy Gajewski of Lakewood High School to break down the real process of rebuilding a high school weight room. Not just equipment. Not just aesthetics. Vision, funding, administration buy-in, safety, flow, and how to sell the why to people who contro...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast “Building a Middle School Feeder System That Transforms Your High School Program” with Coach Mike Morgan In this episode, I sit down with Coach Mike Morgan of Jefferson High School in Georgia — one of the best in the business when it comes to building a true middle school to high school strength pipeline. We talk structure, expectations, buy-in, PE integration, culture...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast – “Load Management, Practice Design, and Keeping Your Team Healthy” with Coach Joel Reinhardt In this episode, I sit down with Coach Joel Reinhardt, Director of Football Performance at Lafayette College, to break down one of the most misunderstood parts of coaching: load management and practice design. We talk about how to balance reps without losing detail, how to kee...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast – “How to Train the Modern Quarterback” with Coach Nic Giblin In this episode, I sit down with Coach Nic Giblin , the Florida NHSCA Strength Coach of the Year, to break down how he trains quarterbacks at a high level. We get into offseason development, in-season adjustments, sprint work, shoulder prep, recovery, and the unique challenges that come with the position. If...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast – Building Post-Season Momentum with Coach Bill DeLongis (Trinity College) In this episode, Coach Scott Leech sits down with Bill DeLongis, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Trinity College. Trinity has gone 32–4 over the last four seasons, and Coach DeLongis breaks down exactly how they manage the post-season phase — restoring range of motion, rebuilding size...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | Ep. [3] – “Applying Triphasic at the High School Level” with Coach Alex Nadolna In this episode, Coach Scott Leech sits down with Alex Nadolna , Director of Strength & Conditioning at DePaul College Prep in Chicago. They break down how to apply Triphasic Training at the high school level , manage limited resources, and build buy-in with young athletes — without b...

In this episode, I sit down with Coach James Burk, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Hardin-Simmons University. With nearly three decades of coaching experience, Coach Burk brings unmatched insight into training big bodies—offensive and defensive linemen. We dive deep into what makes great line play, the misconceptions high school athletes carry into college, how to better prepare linemen...

The Gridiron Warrior Podcast | Episode 1: Freshman Football Training with Coach Michael Gragg Welcome to the first episode of The Gridiron Warrior Podcast . In this conversation, Coach Michael Gragg (Head Strength Coach, Harding University) breaks down his approach to training freshman football players, building developmental lifts, and running challenges that build toughness and unity. If you’re...