The Team Behind the Team

“The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.” —Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi won two Super Bowls and five National League Football championships living by that mantra. Those words encompass the way that Matt Nelson, head strength and conditioning coach for the Oaks Christian athletic department, prepares student-athletes to compete.

Long before the student-athletes hit the court, the field, or the pool, Nelson and his team have been working diligently behind the scenes to prepare them mentally, emotionally and physically. They work to prepare student-athletes not only to get stronger and faster, but to teach them valuable life lessons about hard work and overcoming adversity.

“Taking the time to connect what you are trying to teach them with a Christian worldview or background is important. If they ask a question that is tied to strength training, it’s important to include my faith as part of the answer. I think it connects to the idea that our faith is not a result of the works that we do, but rather our works support our faith in order to make it authentic,” said Nelson.

Nelson comes from a strong background in physical training. After he graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a degree in kinesiology and exercise science, he began working at Gymnazo, a gym in San Luis Obispo that specialized in blending performance and rehabilitation.

“We were going to move our athletes and clients in three planes of motion: forward and backward, side to side and rotationally,” Nelson said. “We took a movement like a standard lunge and put it into those three planes. That was a new doorway for me mentally and educationally to walk through.”

Basing his idea of training on strengthening the body across these three planes of motion, Nelson started at Oaks Christian as an assistant strength coach in 2015, under Jade Molina, now the middle school spiritual life director. In 2017, he took over as the head strength coach, and began to build his program with that vision.

“It has been really fun to be able to grow the program and grow the relationships with teams and coaches,” Nelson said. “I was able to have a lead part in the project to design the new weight room, and The new weight room, finished in May 2019, has five Hammer Strength Elite Combo Racks, 10 Olympic lifting platforms, five Flexline Bluetooth Air Pressure Towers, two Woodway selfpowered treadmills and thousands of pounds of weight. Student-athletes learn how the body moves, strengthen the movement of the body and improve their endurance and strength.

With physical education programs on the decline nationwide, having a strength and conditioning program becomes even more important. Student-athletes master skills such body acceleration and deceleration, resistance training, directional efficiency, and strength and

endurance to significantly reduce the likelihood of injury. There is bonding and camaraderie when teams also spend time in the weight room.

But beyond the bells and whistles of a first-rate facility, Nelson strives to make the weight room a place where mentorship and faith-based values are as much a part of the environment as the bench press or the combo racks.

“I love going in the weight room in my free time,” said Ella Wiegand, a senior on the Oaks Christian girls’ water polo team. “Sometimes when I go in there, I don’t even work out. I will go in there just to talk to the trainers and coaches because they are so inviting. I have had a lot of struggles with stress while playing, and they have really helped with my leadership skills, as well as helping me calm down so I can be at my best when trying to lead others.”

Mathias Malaki-Donaldson, a senior on the OCS football team, concurs.

“Coach Nelson is a great coach who always pushes you to do greater things in the weight room. He does a really good job of analyzing a person’s body to make sure every movement is being done in perfect form, so you don’t injure yourself. But just being inside the weight room, he’s a great person to be around mentally. He speaks very positively and is down to earth. The environment in the weight room is very inspirational,” he shared.

Nelson has built a successful team. Carlos Mendoza and Brandi Prieto were his assistants this past year, bringing their own experiences to draw on.

Mendoza is an Oaks Christian alum who graduated in 2012. He was a football player and turned a very successful prep career into a spot on Arizona State’s football team. This past year he served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach, and as a tutor in the high school.

Trying to stay connected with studentathletes to help them train during COVID-19 was definitely one of his more challenging years. Much of the equipment was moved outside, and space was often shared with other programs. He and Nelson had to get creative with videos they could post online for the students to follow. As much as he could, he tried to check in with the studentathletes to see if they needed advice or just a listening ear. Through it all he saw his work as a calling above and beyond the physical training he provided, be it digitally or in person.

“The greatest satisfaction I get is from this job is the honor of knowing that I am using my God-given ability for a purpose and cause. If I can provide an opportunity for students to have deeper spiritual and emotional conversations, then that is definitely part of my method and training,” he said.

Prieto is a graduate of California State University, Northridge, where she was an All-American in 2000. She still holds the record for the triple jump (44-3 1/4). She works mainly with track athletes, but also helps with a lot of the female athletes from other sports.

“Brandi is fantastic,” Nelson said. “She competed at the Olympic Trials level as a track athlete. She has had more experience teaching than me or Carlos. She is so good at what she does. We call her the running guru because she can assess an athlete’s form immediately and know exactly what needs to be changed just from looking at the athlete once. Having a female strength coach on staff to work with our girls’ team is such a huge value. She gives them more confidence and empowers them to do their best.”

Having such a strong ‘team behind the team’ empowers all Oaks Christian Lions to compete with a vigor, grit and confidence.