The Strength Game

Kayla Girgen is a registered dietician, certified personal training, and founder of the online wellness community Sugar + Strength Academy. Her background spans clinical nutrition, personal training, and years of firsthand experience coaching women through transformative lifestyle changes. As a registered dietitian and nutrition entrepreneur she founded KG the RD, LLC in 2020 on a mission to help high-achieving women lose weight without eating “perfectly.” Prior to venturing on her own she wo...

Erik Hernandez is the Associate Director of Sports Performance for Olympic Sports at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Hernandez began his tenure with the Tar Heels in August 2010 as intern coach with a year break in that stint where he served as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Tulsa in 2011 working with football and basketball, before returning to UNC as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He was later promoted to his current title as the associate dire...

Kristoffer Koerper is the founder of Full Strength Father and co-founder of Built Sports Performance. He is the Director of Facility Design at Samson Equipment, where he leads the design and development of high-performance training facilities for athletic programs nationwide. Full Strength Father is a lifestyle and coaching community dedicated to helping driven, high-performing fathers maximize their physical readiness, lead their families with purpose and integrity, and live with strength in...

Michael Stegemoeller is an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Joining Pitt in spring 2025, Stegemoeller works directly with the Panthers women’s lacrosse, and swimming & diving programs. He previously worked in a similar role at the University of Cincinnati, where he was responsible for training for the women’s lacrosse, swimming and diving, and track and field’s sprint and hurdle groups since summer 2022. Stegemoeller began his coaching career as...

Andrew Clayton is the founder of First Called Strength & Performance. First Called Strength & Performance is an online coaching and personal training service based in Jacksonville, FL. Clayton started First Called Strength and Performance on a mission to offer more than just run-of-the-mill coaching but change people’s lives through his God given gifts and ultimately help people to feel strong in all areas of life. Clayton has been a personal trainer since 2011 and online coach since ...

Chad Dunn is the Owner of Move Human Performance Center and Physical Therapy in addition to being a sports performance and exercise specialist specializing in catastrophic injury recovery. Based out of Chandler, AZ, Move Human Performance Center and Physical Therapy was founded in 2017 by Chad and his wife, Jackie. With local community ties, their goal was to help establish a local training and physical therapy clinic where everyone from the inured to the abled are able to reach their physica...

Jeff Kryglik is a strength coach and personal trainer as well as founder of Deep Blue Training LLC, which offers personal training in person as well as online program, consultation and coaching. His mission is to teach the sport of strongman to the average gymgoer, prospective competitor and to simply make people better through unconventional methods. Kryglik began working as a local television producer, sports writer and reporter for multiple companies in the Maryland area, after earning his...

Tommy LaBriola is an on-site Human Performance Specialist at O2X Human Performance training tactical athletes. Prior to working with O2X Human Performance in late 2024, LaBriola spent five years as a Minor League strength and conditioning coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. Most recently, he served as the head AAA strength coach and previously worked with the High-A team in Vancouver, British Columbia from 2019-2023. Prior to his time in professional baseball, LaBriola completed a graduate assi...

Ken Nowick is the owner and CEO of Cerberus Strength USA, the American brand of the Scottish company of the same name which strives to provide supportive equipment of the highest possible quality to not only high level athletes in strength sports but also the recreational athlete too. Attaining a master’s degree in chemical and process engineering, Nowicki not only shifted gears out of a career in oil but simultaneously emigrated from Scotland to the USA to begin a career in sports ther...

Mike Colella is a Strength Coach and the Owner of Coach Mikes Dawg Pound. Colella established his coaching business and LLC in 2023 after training clients at Explosive Performance from 2018-2023 in Frederick, MD. Throughout his time working in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor and strength coach he’s worked with athletes of all levels from youth to pro, competitive powerlifting and general population clients. In addition to his business and coaching role, Co...

Tim Kontos is the Associate AD for Sports Performance and Student-Athlete Wellness at Virginia Commonwealth University. Kontos is going into his 27th year at VCU. First arriving in 1998 as the head strength and conditioning coach, he became an assistant athletic director for sports performance and was again promoted to associate AD before his new title of associate AD for sports performance and student-athlete wellness. From August of 2018 to January of 2021 Kontos supervised the Sports Medic...

Blair Vaughan is the Head Football Strength & Conditioning Coach at Sam Houston State University. Prior to his start with the Bearkats in 2025, Vaughan spent two season as the associate head strength coach at the University of Arizona. He arrived in Tuscon after spending 2020-2022 on the Army West Point strength and conditioning staff working with the Black Knights football team. Vaughan got his start as an intern football strength coach at his alma mater, Western Kentucky University in 2...

Anthony Fuhrman is a Strength Coach, Athletic Trainer and Co-Founder of Strengthlete Collective. The Strengthlete Collective is an online community and training app that gives members access to strength sports-based fitness programs created by world-class athletes and coaches. In addition to working with strength sport athletes, strongman competitors and team sport athletes alike, from the high school level to pro level, Fuhrman is also a former Infantry Soldier. Enlisting in the U.S. Army in...

Justin Lima is a strength coach, high-performance consultant, as well as the president and CEO of Strength Coach Network. Lima has been at the helm of SCN since 2023, initially starting as a partner with the company from 2020-2022 and followed by serving as the general manager from 2022-2023. In addition, he is serves in dual coaching roles as the head strength and conditioning coach at Goldfinch Athletics as well as volunteer strength coach at Ankeny Centennial high school both since 2024. P...

Danny Strohm is the Director of Basketball Performance at Georgia Southern University. Strohm arrived in Statesboro in 2024 after spending the previous two years as the interim director of strength & conditioning at Southeast Missouri State University. He spent the 2021-2022 season as the director of basketball performance at the University of Northern Iowa. Strohm got his start coaching as an intern at Kansas State in 2018, followed by an internship at Sain Louis University in 2019 befor...

Shannon Boone is the Head Athletic Performance Coach for USA Women’s Volleyball National Team. She joined Team USA in summer 2025 after spending the previous five years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Florida State University. Joining FSU in 2020, she oversaw training for the volleyball and beach volleyball programs. Prior to joining the Seminoles, she served as assistant director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports at Georgia Southern, working with the men’s so...

Connor Truhitte is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and Fitness Center Director at the University of Redlands. At Redlands Truhitte overseas the strength and conditioning department for all 21 sports in addition to the recreation fitness center on campus. He joined Redlands in 2021 after serving the previous year as an associate sports performance coach at Stanford University working with the football program. Truhitte got his start at Fresno State University in 2018 as an intern stre...

Rick Howard is an Associate Professor in Applied Sports Science at West Chester University (PA), Sports Performance Coordinator, and Coaching Minor Advisor. Starting at West Chester University in 2014, he is also a visiting professor at Reykhavik University, Iceland and a Fellow of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Previously, Howard served as a teacher at Keilir Health Academy in Iceland from 2015-2023, fitness director at Wilmington Country Club in Philadelphia, PA from 20...

Tanner Care is the Director of Performance for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as well as well as the Director of Performance for the Vancouver Bandits of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). Care joined the BC Lions in summer 2025 and began working with the Bandits in early 2023. Previously, Care was the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Simon Fraser University from 2021-2025 after being promoted after initially serving two years as an assistant coach. Prio...

John Bloom is the Founder and Head Strength Coach of Elevated Athlete Development LLC. Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Elevated Athlete Development offers coaching services for athletes and mentoring for coaches alike, and is committed to developing the whole athlete, fostering success in athletics and life. Bloom is the former Director of Sports Performance and head of men’s basketball at Oral Roberts University from 2023-2024. Prior to ORU he was the assistant strength coach for men’s ...