The Strength Game

Joe Sheffield is the Head Strength coach at Rolston Hockey Academy and Little Caesars AAA Hockey. With over 20 years of experience personal training and strength coaching, Sheffield has been in his current position since 2021. After getting injured playing college football, Joe changed his academic focus to exercise science and started working as an assistant at a physical therapy clinic. Joe star...

Chad Snodgrass is the Director of Sports Performance at Old Dominion University and the head football strength coach for the Monarchs. Snodgrass joined the ODU sports performance department in January of 2022. Prior to ODU he spent his entire career at his alma mater, West Virginia University. Snodgrass started as an intern coach assisting with football and other Olympic teams on campus before spe...

Jay DeMayo is in his 21st year as a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Richmond, and his 19th year working with the men’s basketball team. DeMayo is directly responsible for the training for the men’s basketball and tennis teams and has worked with many of the other Spiders programs over his tenure at Richmond. In addition to his role with the Spiders, DeMayo is also the head str...

John Odden is the Owner and Head Coach of Empowered Strength. Located in Bend, Oregon, Empowered Strength offers in person and online coaching for athletes, business coaching and both in-person and online Highland Games programming and clinics. Prior to starting his own business, Odden worked in the clinic environment as an exercise physiologist and employee wellness coordinator at PeaceHealth in...

Steve Pulcinella is the Owner of Iron Sport Gym in Glenolden, Pennsylvania. Starting Iron Sport Gym in 1995, the gym is fully equipped for all types of strength training including powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, strongman, and Highland Games. Nearly thirty years later, Iron Sport continues to build a unique strength community in the Philadelphia area and is truly a facility for the lifter ope...

Kerry Overfelt is the Owner and Strength Coach of Darkside Athletics. Located in Bardstown, KY, Darkside Athletics is a multipurpose training center that meets all athletes and client’s needs. He has owned and operated the gym for over 11 years. Getting his start training people and writing programs back in 1996 he began his personal training business in 2001 and has been working with athletes, cl...

Michelle Pifer is an Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning at Rutgers University where she works with the field hockey and women’s rowing programs. Pifer was promoted from her assistant strength coach role in 2023 and served in a similar capacity at the University of Pennsylvania from 2019-2021 before arriving at Rutgers. Pifer began her career as an intern coach at Bucknell University i...

Scott Leech is the Associate AD for Strength and Conditioning at the University of Rhode Island. In his current position he leads the training for Rams football, women’s Tennis and women’s Lacrosse in addition to overseeing all areas of the strength and conditioning department. First arriving to URI in 2020 as an assistant he has previously worked with the baseball, volleyball and women’s soccer t...

Scott Caulfied is the Director of Strength & Conditioning at Norwich University. Joining Vermont’s Military College in 2021, he is their first Director of Strength and Conditioning in university history. Caulfield has been in the strength and conditioning profession for nearly 30 years and has coached at nearly every level from the private sector, college, professional level and even NSCA Head...

Nick Cidado is an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Boston College. Cidado arrived at BC in 2018 where he began working as an intern before being promoted to graduate assistant coach in 2019 and then full-time assistant coach in 2020. Over his tenure at BC he’s assisted with all 31 Olympic sports teams and now leads the performance training for the Eagles women’s lacrosse, field hocke...

John Grundy is the Assistant Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Missouri. Grundy joined the staff in 2023 and directly works with the Mizzou baseball, cheer and track and field sprinters. He spent the previous two years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Memphis where he designed and implemented strength and conditioning programs for the basebal...

Joe Kenn is the Vice President of Performance Education at Dynamic Fitness and Strength, where he leads the development and delivery of cutting-edge fitness and strength training programs and resources for athletes, coaches, and trainers. Coach Kenn has over 30 years of experience as a performance specialist and strength and conditioning coach. He has worked with athletes at all levels, from high...

DJ Melgar is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Hofstra University where he works with the Pride’s men’s soccer, wrestling, men’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s tennis programs. While in undergraduate at Hofstra he was the President of the “Exercise is Medicine Club” for three years from 2018-2021 prior to him beginning his coaching career as a intern with the strength and conditioni...

Zach Even-Esh is a Sports Performance Coach, Life Coach, Business Consultant, gym owner, Speaker, Author, and Family Man. Zach Even-Esh is the Strength Coach & Founder of THE Underground Strength Gym. He established the gym in 2002 in his parent’s garage and backyard, and has seen it grown over the more than two decades he opened the doors to his facility. There are currently 2 Underground Str...

Nick O’Brien is a college strength and conditioning coach, national level Strongman competitor and Highland games athlete, as well as an Officer in the United States Army. In addition to his coaching and athletic experience, O’Brien is a committee member of the NSCA Strongman SIG, columnist for Samson Equipment, and the Host of “ The Strength Game ” Podcast. With more than 14 years of experience i...

Connor Agnew is the Director of Basketball Performance at App State. Joining the App State staff in July 2022, Agnew works with the both the men’s and women’s basketball as well as women’s golf team. Most recently, he was a strength and conditioning coach at Texas Tech working primarily with the women’s basketball program for two years. Agnew began his career as a sports performance intern working...

Matt Mitcheroney is the Associate Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning Coach as James Madison University working directly with the baseball and softball programs. Mitcheroney joined the staff in 2022 after serving as an assistant coach for three years at the United States Military Academy working with the hockey, men’s rugby, softball, and strength teams. Prior to joining West Poin...

Andy Brown is a Sports Performance Coach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he oversees training for the men’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, and tennis programs. Prior to arriving at UMass, Andy was a strength and conditioning coach at American University from 2019-2022.  Andy also worked at Franklin Pierce University for 2 years. First arriving in 2017 he spent hi...

Gio Grassi is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Monmouth University where he is responsible for optimizing player readiness and performance through load management as well as implementing, analyzing, and interpreting all technology used with the Monmouth Football team, including Polar Heart Rate/GZPS system and Sparta Science Force Plates. He is also the head for programming strength...

Anthony Paradis is the Performance Dietitian for the US Army at Fort Jackson, SC. Paradis has spent time in multiple sectors of the sport nutrition space. Prior to taking his current role with the US Army’s H2F program in early 2023 he was the director of Olympic sports nutrition at the University of South Carolina from 2021-2023 and the director of sports nutrition at Tennessee Tech for 5 years f...

Jimmy Stitz is the Head Olympic Strength and Conditioning Coach at Utah State University. Stitz joined Utah State in 2021 after spending the previous eight seasons as an athletic performance coach for USA Volleyball Women’s Senior National Team. He began his first season with the program as a seasonal assistant in 2014 through their mentorship program and took over the team the following year prio...

Ryan Metzger is the Assistant Director of Olympic Sports Performance at the University of Tennessee where she is directly responsible for the strength and conditioning efforts for women’s soccer and women’s tennis as well as having direct oversight of all volunteer interns. Metzger arrived at Tennessee in 2022 after spending the previous three seasons at Clemson University as their senior assistan...

Chris Slater is a teacher at Baldwin County board of education in Alabama as well as wrestling coach. He has been teaching and coaching for over 13 years. Slater took a break for teaching in the high school setting to be a gym owner, personal trainer and strength coach at Alabama Strength before returning to high school coaching and teaching. He has also been an independent professional trainer at...

Bobby O’Mullan is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Rollins College as well as Performance Specialist at Spectrum Performance in Orlando, FL. Starting at Rollins in 2021, O’Mullan arrived from nearby UCF where he served as an adjunct instructor in the kinesiology department from 2017-2021 teaching courses in exercise science and strength and conditioning. In 2019 he served as a footbal...

Jon Heck is a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Houston Texans. First arriving with the Texans in 2023, he spent the previous 5 years at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, as an assistant football strength and conditioning coach. Concurrent to his work on the Tar Heel’s strength staff, he served as a strength and conditioning coach and nutritionist at D1 Sports Training in Ral...