Demon Support Staff

Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Sam Daoust was named Northwestern State’s director of Olympic sports strength and conditioning in December 2021.

Daoust made an immediate impact upon his arrival, taking over strength and conditioning programming and implementation for NSU baseball, soccer, volleyball and softball while also assisting with the Demon football team’s strength and conditioning program. He has added men’s and women’s basketball responsibilities for the 2022-23 seasons while managing the NSU strength and conditioning interns and graduate assistants.

Daoust came to Northwestern State after a short stint as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Newberry College, a Division II school in South Carolina. While at Newberry, Daoust designed and implemented year-round strength and conditioning programs for Newberry’s men’s basketball, men’s soccer, wrestling and volleyball teams while assisting with football.

Daoust began the American portion of his coaching career as an intern at Boston College where he worked with the Eagles football team, including 2022 first-round NFL Draft pick Zion Johnson.

Prior to coming to the United States, Daoust was a strength and conditioning coach at his alma mater, Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

At Laurentian, Daoust coached five provincial medalists, five Canadian national qualifier swimmers and helped the men’s soccer team qualify for the 2019 playoffs.

A two-time Laurentian graduate (B.S. in kinesiology and master’s in human kinetics), Daoust also was the head strength and conditioning coach at Healthy Living Elite Training for two years and was a strength and conditioning intern with the Ottawa Fury FC of the North American Soccer League.

He is a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified strength and conditioning specialist. While earning his master’s degree, Daoust had an article published in the Journal of Exercise and Nutrition.

Brandon DICKMAN

Strength and Conditioning Intern

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Brandon Dickman is in his first year as part of the Northwestern State strength and conditioning staff.

A wrestler at Newberry College, Dickman earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Newberry in May 2022.

During his undergraduate career, Dickman interned with the UMass football program in 2021, serving as the head football sports performance intern. With the Minutement, Dickman assisted with the implementation of the sports performance program, collected and analyzed student-athlete data to track their neurological progress and developed and implemented strength and conditioning programs for various sports.

Dickman interned in the strength and conditioning department at Newberry in 2019-20, working with the football team. He was a strength and conditioning intern with Louisiana Tech in the summer of 2020 and with the University of Oregon in the summer of 2019.

A member of the Kappa Alpha Order, Dickman is first aid/CPR cerfitied and is Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Specialist certified.

Director of Sports Medicine

17TH YEAR AT NSU

Now in his 17th season at Northwestern State, Jason Drury was promoted to director of sports medicine in 2012 after the retirement of long-time athletic trainer Ed Evans. Drury joined the sports medicine staff at Northwestern State University in the summer of 2005 after being the head athletic trainer at Natchitoches Central for five years.

Drury was instrumental in developing Northwestern State’s partnership with Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, which doubled NSU’s full-time sports medicine staff in 2015.

In the spring of 2009, Drury took over as the head football athletic trainer for the Demons, after working for three seasons with the women’s soccer team and one season with men’s basketball team.

A 1999 graduate of Idaho State University in biology, Drury worked with numerous sports in Pocatello, Idaho, including football, men’s basketball and track and field. Drury earned his master’s degree in sports administration from Northwestern State in 2001, during which time he worked as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for the NSU softball team.

Drury is a native of Paoli, Indiana. He and his wife, Toni, have been married for 18 years. They have two children, Maddox and Kenzie.

Joseph FRANGENBERG

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Joseph Frangenberg is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, assisting with the offensive line.

Frangenberg comes to NSU after spending the past two seasons as the offensive line coach at Northwest Oklahoma State. During his tenure, Frangenberg helped develop an offensive line that allowed less than two sacks per game for an offense that averaged 245 passing yards and 363 total yards per game.

In addition to recruiting Arlington and Fort Worth Texas, southwest Oklahoma and Kansas, Frangenberg also served as NWOSU’s punt and field goal team coordinator.

Away from the field, Frangenberg served as the liaison to the admissions, recruiting and compliance offices.

Prior to his time at Northwest Oklahoma, Frangenberg spent four seasons on the coaching staff at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School in Kansas. Frangenberg was the offensive line coach and run game coordinator for Bishop Carroll, which won a state championship in 2017 with him on staff.

Additionally, Frangenberg was the school’s strength and conditioning coach.

Frangenberg lettered as an offensive lineman, fullback and long snapper during his career at Friends University, serving one year as a team captain.

A December 2016 Friends graduate in health and physical education, Frangenberg is pursuing a second master’s degree at Northwestern State, majoring in health and human performance.

Frangenberg and his wife, Lauren, have been married for five years and have a 1-year-old son, Parker.

Associate Director of Sports Medicine

5TH YEAR AT NSU

Brittany Goldberg was promoted to Northwestern State’s associate director of sports medicine in June of 2021 after serving three seasons as the primary baseball and assistant football athletic trainer.

Goldberg, who was a graduate assistant with women’s soccer, returned to Northwestern State as its assistant director of sports medicine in the summer of 2018 after a stint at UL Lafayette.

In 2021, Goldberg became the chair of the NSU athletic department’s mental health committee.

She played a key role in helping the 14-sport athletic department navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, which included developing and implementing testing and quarantine protocols that aligned with regional and national standards.

Goldberg took charge of reporting COVID-19 test results for the department, which routinely occurred three times per week during all competitive seasons.

The Lake Havasu City, Arizona, native graduated from Northwestern State with a masters in health and human performance with a concentration in health promotion in May 2018, after spending two years working as an athletic trainer with soccer, spring volleyball, tennis and football.

The Southern Utah graduate earned a degree in athletic training and exercise science while serving two athletics seasons with duties ranging from emergency care, rehabilitation and baseline concussion testing.

Her sport assignments included football, softball, men’s basketball, gymnastics, cross country, track and field, volleyball and tennis. Goldberg served Parowan High School in a variety of sports as well as the Utah High School Activities Association football championships. Goldberg is a licensed athletic trainer by the State of Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners, a BOC certified athletic trainer and a Red Cross certified professional rescuer.

Goldberg, a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Trainers’ Association, was awarded the Big Sky Football Officials

Elizabeth HOLLOWAY

Administrative Assistant

25TH YEAR AT NSU

Elizabeth Holloway — known to the NSU athletic department as Ms. E — handles administrative duties for Demon football, baseball and track. For the last 21 years, she has gotten to work with the best coaches, staff and student-athletes an administrative assistant could ever ask for.

Ms. E and her husband Ted settled in Natchitoches 30 years ago. For five years, she worked in the athletic compliance office, then briefly worked at her husband’s jewelry store. She came back to Northwestern State in 2001. She considers her time here one of the greatest blessings in her life.

Ms. E is great grandmother to Leo Mercer, 6, and Mateo, 1, her grandson Jacob’s sons. Jacob lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife Karla, and works while attending UAB. Ms. E’s granddaughter Kate also lives in Birmingham, and recently graduated from Birmingham-Southern. Amy Abeyta, Ms. E’s daughter, is the assistant vice president of Communications at BSC. She is married to her husband Adam Abeyta. Ms. E’s son, Tim Bickers, recently moved back to Natchitoches and is employed by Rhodes Properties.

When Ms. E is not cleaning the house, mowing the four acres that she and Ted live on out in the country or cooking and caring for her husband, she likes to read, play with her dogs, Sophie and Paco, and float in her pool.

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Kevin Hyland is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, assisting with special teams.

Hyland comes to Northwestern State after a five-year break from football.

A New York native, Hyland spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, Colorado.

With Hyland on staff, Green Mountain went a combined 17-5 while phasing in RPO elements that produced a 35-percent increase in total offense for the Rams.

Following the 2017 season, Hyland returned to the private sector.

A four-year rugby letterman at Fordham University, Hyland was a team captain for the Rams and served as the team’s financial manager. A 2009 political science graduate from Fordham, Hyland is pursuing a master’s degree in health and human performance.

Dr. Ted JORDAN

Team Physician

2ND YEAR AT NSU

Dr. Theodore “Ted” Jordan joined the NSU sports medicine staff through NRMC Sports Medicine in August 2020.

He was raised a “military brat” growing up in many different states and countries. He came to call Texas “home”.

He graduated high school from Northern Burlington County High School in New Jerseyi in 1978. There he participated on the swim team through Fort Dix, eventually becoming the team captain. He also participated in baseball and tennis.

He then went to the University of Notre Dame where he graduated in 1982 with a double major in Chemistry and Biology.

Dr. Jordan attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), “the military medical school” and graduated in the top 10% in 1986. There he was on the school soccer and volleyball teams.

Dr. Jordan completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery in 1995 from Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX. He remained in the Air Force through 2002

During his Air Force career, he became the Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Bitburg AFB in Germany, then at Keesler AFB, Biloxi, MS. He was the captain of a mobile trauma surgical team and which, in part, entailed accompanying President Clinton on overseas trips. He was also selected as the captain of a mobile field medical team that flew up to New Jersey on 9/11 to set up a field hospital to assist in the care of any casulaties.

After his Air Force career, he set up practice in Gulfport, MS. He was the team physician for Gulfport High school as well as a pro hockey team in the ECHL, the Mississippi Seawolves, and a pro basketball team in the World Basketball Association, the Gulf Coast Bandits. He has also been the event physician for several WWE events as well as some boxing events.

Dr. Jordan moved to Natchitoches in August 2020 to begin his next adventure. He is here with his wife, Wendy. They have 7 children who are all grown and living throughout the county.

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Jake Martinez is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, assisting with the Demons’ wide receivers.

Martinez was a three-year letterman at Oklahoma Panhandle State as a slot receiver, helping Panhandle finish as the conference runner-up.

Martinez spent the 2021 season as the interim wide receivers coach/quality control analyst at Stetson University where he helped Nana Burris earn second-team All-Pioneer Football League honors.

With the Hatters, Martinez was responsible for opponent breakdown and assisted with game planning in addition to coaching the team’s receivers.

Martinez began his coaching career at Guymon (Oklahoma) High School where he coached the school’s first all-district receiver (Nash Kaufman) in more than a decade. He was promoted to Guymon’s head strength and conditioning coach role after the completion of the 2020 season.

A health and physical education graduate of Oklahoma Panhandle State, Martinez served as a strength and conditioning intern at Texas Tech. He is pursuing a master’s degree in health and human performance at Northwestern State.

Kristina OVERHOLT

Assistant Director of Sports Medicine

3RD YEAR AT NSU

Kristina Overholt was promoted to assistant director of sports medicine at Northwestern State in May 2021 after excelling as a graduate assistant for two seasons.

She remains the primary athletic trainer for women’s soccer and will supervise all athletic trainers in Prather Coliseum. Overholt served for two seasons as the primary athletic trainer for soccer along with other secondary sports.

The Lynchburg, Virginia, native graduated with her masters in health and human performance with a concentration in sports administration from Northwestern State this May and from James Madison in 2019 with a bachelors of science in athletic training.

At JMU, she worked with women’s field hockey, women’s soccer, and within the university’s recreation center athletic training room, which included the men’s and women’s club rugby teams. Overholt also worked with a local high school.

Overholt also taught CPR and First Aid and assisted with various classes as a part of NSU’s health and human performance department.

She is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers’ Association, Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association and Louisiana Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Assistant Director of Sports Medicine

3RD YEAR AT NSU

Kalevi Pajuluoma was named Northwestern State’s assistant director of sports medicine in August 2020 after spending one season as a graduate assistant athletic trainer on the NSU staff.

After one season with the men’s basketball team, Pajuluoma became the primary tennis and assistant football athletic trainer.

He was part of a medical staff that guided NSU’s 14-sport athletics department through the COVID-19 pandemic, which included developing and implementing testing and quarantine protocols that aligned with regional and national standards.

Pajuluoma spent three years at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for his undergraduate degree, assisting with men’s basketball, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis and track and field.

Pajuluoma gained additional experience as a volunteer with the Manning Passing Academy. He also volunteers on the Professional Development Committee for Louisiana Athletic Trainers’ Association.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training in 2018 and a masters degree in sports administration in 2021.

Rod PATTERSON

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Rod Patterson is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, assisting with the Demons’ safeties.

Patterson joins the NSU staff after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach at two Georgia high schools.

Patterson coached the 2021 season at Rutland High School after doing the same at Cedar Shoals High School in 2020.

Those stops came after Patterson spent time as an offensive assistant and a football operations intern at West Georgia, his alma mater.

In those roles, Patterson gained experience in a variety of roles with the program, including game planning, film study and coordinating team travel.

Patterson earned his bachelor’s degree in sport management from West Georgia in 2019.

Director of Football Operations

2ND YEAR AT NSU

Sonja Pezant enters her second season as the director of football operations for Northwestern State.

Pezant joined the staff in July 2020 and directed operations for the 2021 spring season. In her role, Pezant coordinates travel and equipment arrangements while also assisting with other day-today, on-and off-the-field tasks within the program.

Pezant also serves as the community service and outreach relations coordinator for the Demon program.

A 2018 graduate of LSU in sport administration and a 2021 Liberty University graduate in sport venue and event management, Pezant worked closely with the Baylor University softball camp for five years from 2014-19, gaining valuable insight into college athletics while an undergraduate.

In addition to her athletic administration experience, Pezant has experience in the private sector, having been an engineering/operations intern at ASM Global in New Orleans. In that role, Pezant oversaw client communications, managed record tracking and streamlined office operations among other tasks.

Hunter RACHELS

Strength and Conditioning Intern

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Hunter Rachels is in his first year as part of the Northwestern State strength and conditioning staff.

A baseball player at Newberry College, Rachels completed his bachelor’s degree in exercise science in December 2020 and earned his master’s degree in exercise science from Concordia University in Chicago in August.

In addition to assisting wtih the strength and conditoning program for NSU football, Rachels is the primary strength and conditioning coach for Demon baseball.

Prior to arriving in Natchitoches, Rachels began his coaching career as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Newberry. Rachels, a native of Grovetown, Georgia, was the primary strength and conditioning coach for Newberry men’s basketball, wrestling, track and field and volleyball while assisting with football, helping the Wolves win a South Atlantic Conference championship.

Rachels also helped guide Newberry’s wrestling team to a Super II Regional championship and coached the 2022 SAC indoor weight throw champion.

Rachels interned on the strength and conditioning staffs at both Coastal Carolina and Newberry.

At Coastal Carolina, Rachels was involved with multiple Olympic sports programs while assisting with the Chanticleers football team.

Director of Strength and Conditioning

3RD YEAR AT NSU

After more than four years at Newberry College, Erik Schwager joined the Northwestern State Athletic Department as its director of strength and conditioning In March 2020.

Schwager comes to NSU after serving as the director of strength, conditioning and athletic performance at Newberry, where he helped the Wolves capture the 2016 Southern Atlantic Conference football championship.

At Newberry, Schwager was in charge of a 22-sport program and directly designed and implemented all facets of strength and conditioning for the Wolves’ football, women’s soccer and softball programs while managing a staff of three assistants.

Schwager comes to Natchitoches with a varied background that includes stops at Hartford, where he worked with Major League Baseball first-round selection Sean Newcomb, Limestone College and with the Batavia Muckdogs, a Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

He also has experience at Princeton, Michigan State and South Florida and was the owner and director of H.I.T. Advanced Training, LLC.

Schwager is a 2009 graduate of Lock Haven University and earned his master’s from California University of Pennsylvania in 2012.

He is a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified strength and conditioning specialist, a National Speed and Explosion Association certified speed specialist and the NASE state director for Connecticut, a National Academy of Sports Medicine PES certified performance enhancement specialist and is CPR/AED certified.

Kiasha TRAMMELL

Director of Equipment Operations

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Kiasha Trammell was named Northwestern State’s director of equipment operations in March, taking over direction of all inventory for NSU athletics.

Trammell joined the NSU staff after serving as an assistant equipment manager at her alma mater, the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Trammell spent two-plus years working on the UAPB equipment staff, climbing from student assistant to assistant manager.

A two-time UAPB graduate who completed her master’s degree in secondary education in May 2022, Trammell also worked the 2022 East-West Shrine Bowl, assisting head equipment manager Nick Determan.

Trammell has taken part in the 2022 Virtual NFL Women’s Forum as well as the HBCU NFL Careers in Football Forum.

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Mitchell Volino is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, assisting with the Demons’ defensive line.

An offensive lineman at Stetson and at Delaware, Volino spent the 2021 season as a student assistant at Delaware, working with the Blue Hens’ defensive line. In his role Volino evaluated film of opposing teams and recorded sideline data for the Delaware coaching staff.

Volino was a football operations intern for two years with Delaware from 20192021 after playing one season for the Blue Hens.

He spent one season at Stetson as an offensive lineman.

A Millbrook, New York, native, Volino earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Delaware in May 2022 and is pursuing a master’s degree in adult learning and development at Northwestern State.

Christian WILLIAMS

Administrative Graduate Assistant

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Christian Williams is in his first season as part of the Northwestern State coaching staff, working with the Demons’ running backs.

A running back at Humboldt State and a team captain at William Penn, Williams played professionally overseas for Juventude Futbol Americano in Brazil and for the Mexico City Mayas in the Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional in Mexico.

Williams comes to NSU after spending nearly two years at Lincoln University in California as the running backs coach and recruiting coordintor. At Lincoln, Williams was responsible for monitoring academic concerns for student-athletes as well as assisting with team operations.

Prior to a short stint at American River Community College where he coached linebackers, Williams spent one season as the defensive backs coach at Pacific University in Oregon.

Williams began his coaching career as a student assistant at William Penn before spending one season as a graduate assistant and assistant recruiting coordinator at Lindenwood University-Bellville.

A 2017 graduate of William Penn in sports and recreation management, Williams is pursuing a master’s degree in health and human performance at Northwestern State.

Head Team Physician

1ST YEAR AT NSU

Dr. William Zeichner, a longstanding practicing physician in Natchitoches, is in his first year as Northwestern State’s head team physician.

Zeichner began his surgical and family practice in Natchitoches in 1986 and has served the community in various roles, including an earlier stint as the Lady Demon soccer team’s volunteer doctor from 2006-11.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Zeichner is an undergraduate of University of Vermont, who earned his MD from Guadalajara (UAG) and completed his five-year surgical residency at Detroit Medical Center.

Zeichner followed his residency by taking a fellowship in transplantation surgery and a vascular fellowship at Atlanta Medical Center (Medical College of Georgia). He then was a clinical assistant professor at LSUS harvesting kidneys in 1985.

Zeichner currently is Chief of Staff at Natchitoches Regional Medical Center where he has been on active staff in surgery and emergency medicine with special privileges in wound care/hyperbaric medicine, robotic surgery and endoscopy. He has a fellowship in the American College of Surgeons, International College of Surgeons and American Professional Wound Care Association. He is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, American Society of Addiction Medicine, is board eligible in Addiction Medicine and is a Credentialed ImPACT Consultant (CIC) in traumatic brain injury. He is ATLS, ACLS, PALS certified.

Zeichner and his wife, Trish, have two sons, Daniel and Ben, both of whom followed their father’s footsteps in the medical profession.