Jenee Rago

I started my journey in collegiate strength and conditioning in 2012 as an intern, though this wasn't my original plan. When I went to undergrad, I knew I wanted to be involved in sport - I was a collegiate soccer player and loved the game, but I didn't want to be a soccer coach. So by default, I went the athletic training route with a double major in psychology, thinking I could be an athletic trainer or go down the sports psychology route. But as I started taking those classes, I didn't really feel like that was exactly the calling for me. Everything changed during a May term trip to Colorado where we got to view the Olympic Training Center, Air Force Academy, and met with the athletic trainer at the Colorado Rockies. That's when I learned that strength and conditioning was actually a profession where you got to be in the weight room, train athletes for sports performance, and merge injury prevention and sports psych as well as improve performance. At that point, it opened my eyes to what this profession actually is, and I was able to adjust my major and haven't looked back since. I progressed through the ranks from intern to graduate assistant to professional intern to assistant, working across Division I, II, and III levels. Now, as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Aurora University, I directly oversee our entire department of 25 sports and nearly 800 student athletes. I also teach program design courses as an adjunct professor for exercise science and serve as internship coordinator with a heavy focus on coach development and mentorship. One of my proudest moments was achieving the personal goal of being a female strength and conditioning coach in a field where females are not dominant and being able to move myself into the head of the department.