Hiring the Right Leader for Sport Performance? Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees.

I’ve watched this field change before my eyes. Speaking from my own personal experience, there was no established sport science framework in place when I first arrived. No clear path. It was a blank canvas—both daunting and freeing. And over the years, while working side-by-side with our Women’s Basketball and Volleyball teams, I saw the small ember of curiosity catch and turn into a slow, steady fire. Routine use of force plates came in. So did wearable workload monitoring.

We, including my counterpart working with Men's Basketball, started building better systems for communication, tracking athlete data, and supporting the very needs of the athlete. We weren’t following a trend—we were solving real, daily challenges that were impacting real student-athletes.

And yet, the biggest breakthrough wasn’t some sensor or metric. It was the realization that no system survives long without the right person guiding the machine.

"Leadership—quiet, consistent, aligned leadership—is what builds staying power."

Here’s what athletic departments need to know when hiring someone to lead their sports science and holistic health and performance departments: credentials matter, yes. But context, experience, and culture-building matter more.

Way. More.

Titles are cheap. Anyone can get one. But ask yourself this—has this person ever had to program a training session on a red-eye flight back from the East Coast? Have they juggled post-tournament recovery, midterms, and three different athlete personalities who are all processing burnout differently? Because that’s the real job. And if your candidate hasn’t sat in that kind of tension, you’ll feel it when they start leading—because they won’t be able to anticipate the chaos that always shows up in college sport.

When I started layering sport science principles into our team’s workflow, it wasn’t smooth. We didn’t have a clear roadmap. Some coaches were skeptical. Some athletes were resistant. And none of it was solved with policy and branding. It was solved with presence—by listening to staff frustrations, making small process changes, and working the problems shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

Leadership can’t be faked. You either show up consistently when things go sideways—or you don’t. And the programs that bring in people who’ve lived this work—not just observed it from 10,000 feet—are the ones that start gaining real traction. You don't have to look too far to recognize great programs across the country and the dedication, sacrifice, and work-ethic required to get the engine started.

What looks like innovation from the outside is often just old-school grit applied in smarter ways. Find people who’ve felt that pressure before. They won’t panic when it returns.

You don’t need to scroll LinkedIn to know someone’s worth. You just need to follow the breadcrumbs they left behind. Have they built anything lasting? Did the performance staff that worked under them stay, grow, and get better? Are there systems still in place at their previous stops that carry their fingerprints? If not, you’ve got a figurehead—not a builder.

When we started integrating tech with our Women’s Basketball team, it wasn’t flashy. It was messy. But the work left a mark—our warm-ups got sharper, our recovery windows were tighter, and our communication across departments actually improved. That wasn’t because I dropped in with a script. It was because I listened, made mistakes, course-corrected, and stuck around long enough to see the results unfold season over season.

You want to see progress? Talk to the athletic trainer that worked next to them. Ask the dietitian how that leader handled competing demands. Call the athletes—not the stars, but the walk-ons. That’s where you’ll hear the real truth.

Longevity in this field doesn’t come from charisma. It comes from steady, behind-the-scenes work that gets noticed more in hindsight than in headlines. Vet the trail they left behind. It’ll tell you more than any keynote speech or Twitter thread.

Let’s not sugarcoat it—there’s an obsession with credentials in college athletics. Everyone wants the “most certified” person in the room. And sure, education is great. I’ve learned a ton from textbooks, conferences, and certifications. But no one ever got a broken athlete back to the court using acronyms. They did it by connecting the dots between rehab, load management, team goals, and psychology. That takes experience and leadership.

I’ve sat in meetings where people with every credential under the sun couldn’t get through to their staff because they lacked "people skills". I’ve also worked with practitioners with fewer letters after their name but who knew how to lead with trust, communication, and clarity. I’d pick the latter every time.

Leadership, in this context, looks like:

• Knowing when to back off and when to push.
• Being able to resolve internal conflict without creating silos.
• Understanding how to hold a standard while still supporting autonomy.
• Creating space for younger staff to grow without feeling threatened by their ideas.

And above all, leadership means showing up—early, late, on days when you don’t feel like it—and demonstrating what a cohesive performance environment feels like. That’s something no certification can teach.

If your head of performance can’t manage people, they won’t manage progress. It’s that simple.

Let’s just say it: some of the loudest voices online are the least qualified to lead real people. There’s a massive gap between posting catchy graphics and building effective systems across departments that historically don’t communicate well. Social media is a marketing tool. It’s not a vetting tool.

I’ve seen people with slick online brands fumble their way through internal meetings because they didn’t understand how sport coaches operate, or how to align training plans with competitive calendars, or even how to give feedback without alienating their support staff.

You want someone with reps—not clicks.

Ask Yourself This:

• Have they built internal S&C and Sport Science education systems?
• Did they navigate an athletic director change without letting the department crumble?
• Have they earned trust from sports medicine and strength staff in high-pressure moments?

When you hire someone based solely on their content, you’re rolling the dice on whether they can lead a diverse team across departments, personalities, and priorities. And spoiler alert: most can’t.

Ask better questions. Vet their references with depth. And if possible, spend time in their environment before you hand them the keys to yours.

This part’s personal. At the beginning on my tenure, University of Colorado didn’t hand me a roadmap. We created one, year by year, with Women’s Basketball and Volleyball as our proving ground. We tested jump profiling, refined readiness protocols, and got better at asking “why” before throwing new tools into the mix.

But the throughline? We had leaders—coaches, administrators, support staff—who were willing to put ego aside for the sake of athlete well-being.

That’s what EVERY program deserves.

Leadership in performance isn’t about big ideas. It’s about humble action. It’s about keeping the vision intact even when things aren’t convenient—when two staff members butt heads, when data doesn’t match outcomes, or when a kid’s body starts breaking down under the weight of a long season.

Hire someone who treats their role like a craft, not a career move. Who protects the people doing the work while still pushing for growth. Who doesn’t need applause to keep showing up at 6 a.m. lifts and 8 p.m. debriefs.

Athletes thrive when their environment is consistent, clear, and full of care. That only happens when someone is truly looking out for the whole system—not just their slice of it.

Find that person. Give them support. Then get out of their way.

What works in one athletic department won’t always translate to another. But if you get the people part right—if you hire someone who’s lived this work, learned through mistakes, and grown alongside the athletes they serve—you’re setting the stage for something real to take root.

"There’s no plug-and-play model for building a healthy, high-performing department."

Skip the gimmicks. Pick the one who knows how to build from the ground up, because they’ve done it before. And if you’re lucky enough to find that leader?

Let them do what they do best—quietly, consistently, and with purpose.