Wednesday, September 7, 2011

First Week on the Job

Some of you may know that I accepted the position of Director of Sports Performance at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In this newly created position, my role is two-fold. First, is to work with and train the hockey team. Second, is to develop a structure and organization for the DII sports. After a week on the job, I'm excited to say I have already been able to make some headway on both sides of the coin.

With hockey, I started out by completely reorganizing and cleaning up the current weight room. Its a small space, and was made worse by the clutter and poor design. Now that its cleaned up, its not too shabby! After that, I was able to meet the guys and get them through 3 days of testing, as well as our first official workout. All ran pretty smoothly, and the captains expressed how much better the workout was than what they did in the past (not pumping my tires too much here...I'm the first Performance Coach they have ever had on staff!!!)

On the DII side, I was able to come in just as they were re-flooring and turfing the Costello Wt. Room (hockey works out of the Tsongas Arena). This was great timing as we have a great new floor, and I was able to easily reorganize and toss out equipment. From there, its been a lot of brain storming. In the works is a front desk for a work study student, new locks and keys, developing and internship program (I need coaches because I only have 1 part time coach on staff), as well as some ideas on how to schedule and better organize the entire process. Up until now its been a free for all, which is why the position was created in the first place. Also, I have some new equipment on the way, so hopefully that will get here quick.

I have added a few before and after pics of the Tsongas Hockey Weight Room to give you an idea. I will add some pics of the Costello Performance Center as soon as I can.









4 comments:

  1. not too shabby of a place. It looks sort of the same size as mini maples.

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  2. its actually a little bigger...still tough to get all our guys in (30), but we are figuring it out...stagger 3 groups every 15min

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  3. Nice work Devan! If I lived closer I would see about helping you out :) I am looking to get more involved in the college setting myself! The university here doesn't have Strength and Conditioning program either so I am helping out with VB and hope to expand to other teams soon! If that happends I will be contacting you for some advice, im sure :) Congrats again Devan!

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  4. Awesome Devan! I'm happy for you, and it looks like you're already having a great impact. Keep up the great work and good luck buddy!

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