BEHIND THE BENCH
“In our profession, it’s got to be all about the kids,” says Xavier Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Jennings. “Along the way, you develop some really close relationships. You put in the time with them, and show them you’ve invested in them, and they really do appreciate it.”
MUSCLE MAN BUILDING A STRONG PROGRAM REQUIRES DEDICATION, FOCUS, STRENGTH, AND SOME OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING. BY DAVE MALASKA
I P H OT O G R A P H B Y G R E G R U S T
IT’S WEDNESDAY OF SPRING BREAK WEEK. MATT STAINBROOK AND SEAN O’MARA shuffle into the Musketeer weight room. Just off the weight room’s main floor, Matt Jennings, the head strength and conditioning coach, sips coffee, but his eyes catch the duo outside. About the time the fi rst few notes of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” begin playing from the overhead speakers, Jennings makes a bee-line to his charges. “How’s spring break?” Jennings, a former University of North Carolina football lineman asks, without waiting for much of an answer. “Well, time to go to work!” Five minutes later, Jennings is back in his office. Stainbrook and O’Mara are outside sweating and talking animatedly as they work out, energized by a shot of Jennings-induced adrenaline. “Oh, he’s a high-energy guy, no doubt about it,” Stainbrook says later. “He’s fun to talk to and hang around with. At the same time he knows how to light a fi re under your ass. When you’re in the weight room, it’s all business. He fi nds that balance,” adds the senior, one of Jennings’ top projects—Stainbrook dropped 50 pounds since coming to Xavier, dramatically improving his pro prospects. Balance. That’s the key. Overseeing a staff of three, he’s been in charge of all of the Musketeers’ strength and training programs since 2009. The Xavier way under Jennings includes individually tailored workouts for each athlete (yes, they work out year-round), individual motivation, and a few other wrinkles. Jennings and his assistants ghost each team they’re assigned to, a constant presence at
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WARMUP
practices, games, road trips, and other team meetings. It’s time spent forming relationships with every player. “I have to figure out what motivates a Matt Stainbrook, or a Sean O’Mara. What drives Dee Davis, what buttons you need to push for a Jalen Reynolds,” he says. “What works for one may not work for another. It often doesn’t. But you put in the time and you figure out what does.” Sometimes, part of the job is knowing when to get really unconventional. Like boxing. Or yoga. For the past few years, Xavier has worked with Mason-based professional training firm Ignition APG, bringing clients like Luke Kuechly, the NFL’s reigning defensive player of the year, to work out with Musketeer student-athletes. The firm helps Jennings set up workouts to prepare prospective pro athletes for the tests they’d see in NFL and NBA combines. Lately, they also helped Jennings and the Musketeers basketball teams train the way boxers do. “We did a little boxing over the summer with Ben Creamer, coach of Chris Pearson, a boxer out of Dayton who fights under the Mayweather team. Not that we’re getting anyone ready to fight or anything, but it helps with hand-eye coordination, stamina, and balance,” says Jennings. “The team really got into it.” Then there’s yoga. “Man, that’s really tough,” says Stainbrook. “I never thought I’d be doing yoga. It’s a really great body-mind thing, though.” The unconventional choices bring in different expertise, according to Jennings, who freely admits he doesn’t have all the answers. He’s more than willing to tap into the experience of a boxing trainer or a yogi, though. “What it tells our athletes is that Xavier will leave no stone unturned when it comes to helping them be the best they can be. If we don’t have the answer, we have all sorts of support that we can call upon to get the right answer,” he says.
SPRING 2015
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