Blaine Johnson, Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Performance at Rider University, joins the Samson Strength Coach Collective to unpack his journey through the New Jersey college coaching landscape and what it really takes to build a program from nothing. From his early days learning the field at Rutgers and FDU, to becoming the first strength coach in Drew University history, Blaine shares the reality of limited space, limited racks, and the pressure of managing dozens of teams. He also explains how organization, boundaries, and relationships keep him effective, and offers clear advice for young coaches on mentorship, learning the craft, and advocating for longevity in the profession.
Key Takeaways
- Building a program from scratch starts with shaping expectations, roles, and rules, not just writing training.
- Limited equipment can sharpen coaching, forcing better teaching, creativity, and smarter training options.
- Buy-in often falls into three buckets: over-enthusiastic, willing but inconsistent, and resistant, trust builds over time.
- Organization and preparation reduce stress, improve coaching quality, and make long days manageable.
- Career growth often comes through relationships, reputation, and people willing to vouch for you.
- Young coaches should study the lifestyle realities of the profession, not just the training theory.
- Saying no at the right times protects your ability to show up with energy and clarity for athletes.
Quote:
“My first year was reinvent the wheel times a hundred. We didn’t have enough racks or barbells, so I had to change how I trained and grow up fast.”
– Blaine Johnson
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Blaine Johnson:
my first year was reinvent the wheel times a hundred, you know, like just for like context, like my first year, most teams couldn’t do anything barbell related because there wasn’t enough racks. I couldn’t go 15 and 15 at a rack. It was just something that like I had to reinvent my wheel of training and get back to
intensifying techniques that I hadn’t done in years or okay, let’s get into some hammering down dumbbell movements that I haven’t done in ages things like that where I’m coming from like I said NJIT all the bells and whistles brand new weight room, know force plates ⁓ Elite form like anything I could need to like all right. We don’t have enough barbells to use It was different. It was definitely different. It was something that ⁓
It took a lot of growing up
Connor Agnew:
What’s going on Samson Strength Coach Collective listeners on today’s episode, we have Blaine Johnson, who is assistant athletic director for sports performance at Rider University. Blaine, thank you so much for coming on, man.
Blaine Johnson:
Thank you for having me really excited to get in here really excited to talk. So of course, thank you for having me on I’m really excited
Connor Agnew:
Absolutely.
Well, I’m stoked about it too. Obviously just talking to you pre show a little bit. You’ve had some really cool experiences. I can’t wait to dive into those. ⁓ And for our listeners, we talked about this just briefly, but I didn’t know that you were friends with Dave Downey.
Blaine Johnson:
Yep, that’s my guy. Dave was my first director. He was kind of one of the pivotal figures that got me in the field and kind of gave me that confidence to really stick with it. So that’s been my guy since day one.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. I’m stoked to hear it. We had a great episode, obviously through some Pokemon talk there as well too. You’re a big Pokemon guy? All right, well we’ll save the fun question for the end then. So in the meantime, can you just give us a breakdown of your career? What’s led you to ride at university?
Blaine Johnson:
Very much so, still am.
Easy.
Yeah, of course. So, ⁓ you know, I feel like everybody has the same introduction with how we got into the field. Mine was a little bit different. I kind of thought I was going to stick with college athletics, ended up not working out for me. I moved back home and really fell in love with training. ⁓ Always planned to be in some form of the health field, medical field, something like that. ⁓ I.
Got into college, got all the way through my degree, and at the very end of my degree, kind of found strength and conditioning. My funny story is that I always used to watch the off-season training videos for college footballs. I remember vividly watching Paul Jackson videos at Ole Miss and stuff like that. I mean, wow, that’s cool, but that has to be old players running this, or that has to be… ⁓
NFL guys doing that. So I didn’t even know that was like a real job. I thought it was just something that like, you know, you have to be this level to get there. So I kind of found my way and my senior internship was like, like, let me check around the local schools and ended up getting in at Rutgers. And that kind of blossomed this love. Went from Rutgers to FDU as a grad assistant where that’s where I met Dave Downey.
⁓ Again, that was my guy. He gave me some confidence at a very early age that I didn’t think I had and moved to ⁓ NJIT. I was an assistant strength coach there while I was finishing at FDU. So again, kind of gave me that confidence early on that like if they believe in me before I’ve technically finished and like I’m doing something right.
Moved on from NJIT to Drew University where I was the director of strength and conditioning there for two years. And then most recently moved to Rider University where I’ve been the assistant AD for right now, I believe we’re on month seven or eight. We’re still pretty new in this, so we’re chugging along.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. And I love that experience. And one of my favorite things that you mentioned there is kind of the exciting piece of finding videos of strength and conditioning online. ⁓ know, I’ve, one of my first introductions was watching Scott Cochran do a tour of the Alabama football. And I’m sure as you can see, you’re nodding your head, you’re familiar with it, ⁓
One of the things that we always talk about is kind of the negatives of social media and how it can be detrimental. But one of the cool things that’s come out with social media is ultimately exposure to a really cool career. Because like you said, you see the videos when you were our age, I’m sure we’re the similar age. And ultimately it’s like, okay, great. Well, this must be a foreign player. Because I kind of thought the same thing. I was like, wow, this must be a very exclusive club, very hard to get into. But now social media has kind of turned into a thing where people can kind of dispel the message and make it a lot clearer.
and give a lot of exposure to the field. think that’s pretty cool.
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, for sure. And it was one of those things where I was like, OK, what are they doing to get ready? Because again, everyone back then, was D1 aspirations, you know, everyone’s trying to get to that next level. And how do I do it? What are they doing? And again, at that time, we’re watching Ole Miss. I’m watching like AJ Brown do like speed like no, no, no, no, no, no. That’s never going to happen. But the idea of like this is not something that I could ever get to.
Like that never crossed my mind that I could ever work at a power four school or you could be a, you know, assistant AD at a division one school. If you haven’t been a D1 athlete, if you haven’t been at the pro level, if you haven’t been at the high collegiate level. So definitely something that like took some, some digging and diving once we got deep into the field.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, but look at you now, Assistant AD is always a great come up. One other thing.
And then I want to mention too, in the beginning of this is what I think is really cool is I remember Dave and I had a long conversation about how his first experience wasn’t so great. And instead of actually instilling confidence in him, he had a lot of confidence taken from him and questioning if he should be a strength coach or being, think he was directly told like, this is not going to work out for you. So one thing that I think is really awesome about that is he’s now spun it on his side. And he, like you said, literally instilled confidence in you and helped you down the rest of your career, because that was somebody who said, Hey, you
can do this, you can be a great coach and he’s really helped you out. So I think that is ⁓ very awesome to see the transition. It’s cool to me to see how negative experiences can kind of be shaped to positive experience for others and then give you confidence to continue on in your career. I think that’s awesome.
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, for sure. Like I came out of I came out of my internship and my internship was great. The Rutgers staff was great. ⁓ My internship director there, ⁓ Becky Bonaventura, she was great. She’s now I believe the associate AD there. I forget the exact title, but they were great. I’ve learned so much from them. They were all wonderful to me. But my experience there was I learned how much I didn’t know. So, you know, I went in pretty fresh, pretty new. I was probably the least qualified.
in terms of coaching background. I knew a lot. knew I was a science guy, but like, I had no idea how to lead a room. I had no idea how to be in front of, you know, 40 athletes. So like, I came out and was confident, but I was like, oh, there’s a lot, there’s a lot on the table here. And so when I got to FDU, it was like, okay, I need to be like, for lack of a better term, like thrown to the wolves. Like I need to just do it. And that’s kind of where
Knowing Dave story when he talks about Moravian when he gets the Moravian say, okay, I know this guy needs help. I know he’s going to just be like, all right, you got this today. You know, that’s kind of what it was. I showed up to FDU within a month. It’s like, all right, everyone’s back for class. Everyone’s back for lifts. Like what are you doing? So that’s what I needed. And then, you know, the confidence to just be like, you got it. Like you’re fine. So that’s exactly what I needed.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. And I love it too. The, you know, just kind of the gentle parenting part of the internship and GA experiences, you know, where it’s like, man, you’re fine. You got it. You know, cause I remember at the time when I first started coaching, I felt like the world was falling apart. If I said one wrong thing or if I made one little mistake when everybody knows it’s obviously not a huge deal. So I’m very glad that Dave could do that for you. You know, in your experiences, you mentioned ⁓ working at different colleges who may not have had a fully developed strength and conditioning program.
We’re starting a new one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you created the SNC department at Drew University, right?
Blaine Johnson:
That is correct. Yeah, I was the first hire of its kind in school history.
Connor Agnew:
It is nuts. mean, you talk about needing confidence to go in there. ⁓ Ultimately, can you just break down that experience for me, what it was like being the first strength coach, ⁓ especially early on in your career? What were the things that you focused on bringing to the school? I mean, I’ve got a lot of questions to be honest. I’ll just shut up and let you roll.
Blaine Johnson:
course, yeah. like, I always say, and I’ve made it a point to tell my interns and stuff this in the past, that my career path makes no sense. None at all. I’ve been able somehow to stay in New Jersey my entire career. I’ve never been more than 70 miles away from home. So like, my SNC path compared to other people’s makes zero sense. But ⁓ at Drew, you know, I had just come out of
I had finished my GA ship that May and had been an assistant strength coach for seven months at that point. So I was doing both at the same time. And then, you know, like I said, got hired and they’re like, all right, this is your baby. Here’s, here’s what you can shape. Tell us what we need to do. Because again, Drew is a
Small Division III school in the Landmark Conference, if you guys don’t know the Landmark Conference, it’s a very ⁓ Eastern PA based Division III Catholic University, Susquehanna, Moravian, a lot of schools that have been around a long time. ⁓ So they were like, we see the shift in college athletics. We know this is now vital to successive programs. We don’t know what to do. Tell us what we need to do. Here’s what we have.
Here’s where we wanna be, here’s where we think we can get to, how do we get there? And so my first walkthrough of campus, they had three weight rooms. One was like a machine and cardio room. The second was a public weight room to students, faculty, staff, yada yada yada. And the third was what they called the athletes only weight room, which was in a small corner of racquetball courts.
in the far side and it was like a single strip straight front to back maybe.
60 feet long. it was my first year was reinvent the wheel times a hundred, you know, like just for like context, like my first year, most teams couldn’t do anything barbell related because there wasn’t enough racks. I couldn’t go 15 and 15 at a rack. It was just something that like I had to reinvent my wheel of training and get back to
intensifying techniques that I hadn’t done in years or okay, let’s get into some hammering down dumbbell movements that I haven’t done in ages things like that where I’m coming from like I said NJIT all the bells and whistles brand new weight room, know force plates ⁓ Elite form like anything I could need to like all right. We don’t have enough barbells to use It was different. It was definitely different. It was something that ⁓
It took a lot of growing up just in terms of like, all right, I now have to do all the administrative stuff. I have to do all of the contact with all the coaches. have to set the laws of the land for the weight room, my department, ⁓ my time, you know, how much time I spend here. Do I give them everything that they want or do I keep myself, you know, somewhat reined in so that I’m not a dead body come May?
So it was definitely a challenge the first year. I would say definitely a challenge of the first year. ⁓ As we got into the second year, I think we got into the flow of things. We were able to kind of build out the space a little bit. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted. You know, we did a lot of demolition with this stuff ourself. So knocking down walls, tearing up floors, ⁓ spacing things out. I built equipment myself. I moved all the equipment in myself.
It was a challenge, but those two years were very, very rewarding.
Connor Agnew:
This story is giving me juice right now, I’m telling you, because it’s just so exciting. One, to hear that you’re the type of person who likes getting thrown in the fire, like you mentioned, when you were first doing your GA at FDU. And then now you truly, I mean, you’re getting thrown in the fire 1,000 % because now, I think I’m nine years in, I can’t even really know exactly, it’s straight to conditioning, but.
I just started having to do administrative stuff and it sucks, you know? And so I can’t imagine not only having to do administrative stuff, but also starting a brand new department and doing my own demolition and figuring these things out. But what’s so exciting about it to me and why get what’s giving me energy right now is because ultimately if you can make it through those times are so transformative. It can change who you are as a coach. And then like you said, you had all the bells and whistles. Now you’ve got to kind of figure out, okay, how do I coach these dumbbell movements? How do I get these?
athletes to buy into what I’m doing. So ⁓ it’s exciting because then now you’re at Rider and you’re able to have a little bit more resources and figure things out a little bit further. And I think it really makes a big difference for your full career. ⁓ What were the biggest challenges that you faced while starting the strength and conditioning department? Besides obviously having to go full Tim the tool man on your own projects, but what were the biggest things that you faced?
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, I mean, I would say early on shaping what people’s idea of what a strength coach was. And that sounds silly, but a lot of them were were so excited. Like I will I will give Drew University the most credit in the world. They treated me so well. They were so appreciative. I felt like I knew my worth there. Like they were great. But.
Sometimes people were a little overzealous of what they wanted me to do or thought I was capable of with resources, with time. At jury university, I had 25 varsity sports. like, I necessarily can’t be there to do every conditioning session you have. You know, like.
And it drew, we were on a spaced out athletic and academic schedule. They didn’t get priority registration and things like that. Again, small D3 liberal arts school, like, so 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for morning lifts and then like 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for p.m. maybe a little bit earlier, depending on the day for classes. But that’s when athletic stuff would go on as well. So like,
Hey, you know, pretty good rule of thumb. If you’re able to have practice, I have lifts going on. You know, it’s just kind of how the schedule is working. So it’s like, Hey, I could run your conditioning at 1pm, but you’re going to have 15 % of your roster there. So just one of those things of like, Hey, we need to, you know, remember I have 20 other teams today to worry about. Um, I would say a big one would be.
You know, when you walk in, even at other schools that I’ve walked in at, like Rider, like NJIT, when you take over, you’re changing them from what they know to what you want. At Drew, I took basically all of them from zero to what I want. So I went from either, you know, at Rider, at least I walked in and I could say, okay, for the most part, the sophomores through the seniors,
at least have some level of training knowledge. At Drew, was like, okay, everyone has a base level of like zero. So it was kind of resetting their mind on like what.
all the movements are, what they should look like, how it should feel, the whole nine there. So it was definitely a challenge of like, I have 500 athletes that I need to rewire.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, I think that’s a huge challenge. I mean, I can’t imagine having to go through that and having to, I mean, essentially get everybody to buy in and then on top of that, get everybody to completely change what their philosophy is on training or what they’ve been doing previously. But, you know, I don’t think it sounds silly at all to say that it’s tough to have people so invested that they’re trying to get you to too many things. Because I can only imagine all the Instagram reels that, you know, these coaches see and all these different things that are shared.
or what they hear from other coaches about what strength coaches can provide can really make a huge difference in what they see. So ultimately, when you’re there, you’re trying to rewire these athletes’ performance pieces. You’re trying to help them get better. Did you have trouble with anybody buying in because they didn’t have a strength coach previously? Were you trying to get anybody to believe in the strength and conditioning aspect?
Blaine Johnson:
It was usually, I would say, 33-33-33 split for me. It was either…
so bought in that like I had to reel them back in sometimes. Like, okay, good, we don’t need to be here six days a week. I don’t need to write you three extra days of Lyft on top of what we’re doing. you’re, we’re good. The, I like this, but it’s tough because it’s now added onto my day that I’ve never had before. They’re like, I like showing up, but like there’s some days I’m just not here. There’s some days that I’m fighting through it.
and then the other 33 % loathed my existence. They might like me as a person, but the idea that they have to get up at 7am to come to an 8 o’clock lift would be the bane of their existence.
But I would say for the most part, kids were great. They were bought in. And again, that might have taken a year. That might have taken the trust of, like lifting in season, I’m not gonna kill you. know, lifting a little bit heavier during the course of the year, I’m not trying to put you in the dirt. Like, just trust me. Year two, 10 times better with that. Okay, hey coach, I, you know.
We felt good going into conference play last year. I trust what you’re going to give us, things like that. definitely, trust over time. The stronger those bonds were with those kids, the better it got.
Connor Agnew:
Well, I love that and I love ⁓ having the experience of having people who want to go way too hard because I’ve certainly had that before. ⁓ But then again, too, having people who you’re just trying to get excited about even just being there at 6 a.m. not very fun. And that’s where having a little extra juice can really help you out a little bit. ⁓ So you have all these experiences at Drew and then ultimately you have to bring them over to Ryder. How’s your experience been at Ryder running?
department now with a little bit ⁓ different of resource set up and a little bit different of a competition level.
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, so Ryder, I always like to say, is one of the weirdest experiences I’ve had because Ryder for me is home. So I grew up 15 minutes down the road from here. In high school, a lot of our state baseball championships were held here. I’ve had friends go here as students and as athletes. So Ryder for me is almost a little bit surreal because it’s the closest I could ever get to home in my career moving forward.
⁓ In terms of the steps, it’s been great. ⁓ Me and the previous coach here, Jordan Downs, who took over my alma mater Rowan University in South Jersey, we’ve talked a bunch. He was the first coach they hired here last year. So, you know, getting his ideas from last year, what he was doing with them last year, kind of the ideas he had and what direction he was going in versus the one that I’m going in. ⁓
I would say the biggest thing, at least so far, that’s been a big difference between here and Drew. It’s just one, kids are definitely a little bit more already in tune with what SNC is, how it should go, what steps are needed, what I need from them. And there is a little bit better of an understanding that it’s a lot on me. So these kids have been a little bit better with understanding that like…
Blaine’s busy. Like I’m not gonna get in his head too much today or getting his hair too much. I know he’s got stuff going on. So they’ve been great with that. I think being this close to campus has also helped me a ton because I am able to be a little bit more flexible of I can be there, you know, almost every game day. I can pop in and be there on the weekends because I’m big on, you know, showing up. I’m big on showing your face. So, you know, being able to pop in.
Even if it’s I see 20 minutes of a game like the kids appreciate that a ton. Administration’s been great that side of things, you know, they very much understand that this is the new world of college athletics. You need to be in a strength and conditioning program to one, you know, just stay afloat to to even then go into excelling and exceeding sports and having, you know, fighting chances against some of these powerhouses that, you know, we’re going up against now in the the NIL world and things like that.
We’re kind of in a limbo space now. We have plans to expand our varsity weight room. We moved into a temporary space because the space we were in, they expanded. So working out of a temp space now can be a little bit challenging, but again, compared to what I was doing at Drew, it’s a cakewalk. I have all the space in the world. I have anything I need. It’s just kind of not the flashiest thing right now. We’re just kind of working on getting that finished up, but.
It’s definitely moving forward and progressing in a great way.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. And that’s, again, that’s why experiences like the one you had in true are so valuable, right? It’s because, ⁓ even if you don’t have, like you said, the full bells and whistles and the, ⁓ elite performance equipment and whatever it may be, of a power for one, some of the top schools in the country, ⁓ you ultimately had to deal with even less resources previously. So now you can kind of find a way to navigate it and make it really work. ⁓ one of the things I’m very curious about is you have a lot of teams, you’ve had a lot of teams your whole career. How do you manage?
manage that at home? How do you manage your own time? How do you make time for yourself? Because I think that’s a tough thing to do, especially like you say, you’re trying to show up for game days, you’re trying to be there. ⁓ But obviously you got to take care of Blaine too. What are the things that you do to ensure that?
Blaine Johnson:
So again, administration’s been great to me. They very much understand that like, I’ll just go for an example. My Wednesdays, I have lifts at 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m. So my lifts are done by six. Or done by six, my lifts are done by 10. My next lift isn’t until 4.30 p.m. So I don’t have 4.30, 5.30, 6.30. They’re cool with like, hey, go home.
If you don’t have anything. And again, this is a little bit different because we’re working out of a temp space that’s managed by our student rec center. So it’s not like when I leave, kids can’t like go in and get their own lift in or something like that. It’s monitored by them. So it’s not like just leaving an open gym have at it. So they’ve been great at like, go like do your chores, like, you know, go get your like weekly shopping done.
get your meal preps done, stuff like that. So they’ve been great with that. Some days are a little bit different. Some days I’ll be on campus, those 13, 14, 15, 16, those long days. And then there’s other days where it’s like, realistically, I’m on campus for my eight lifts of the day. And the other hours of the day, I’m kind of doing my own stuff at home. I’m programming from the couch, whatever it may be. Big thing has been.
When I’m off campus and it’s not like a day of week, I’m off campus. You know, I’ll touch that email later. If it’s not something that’s going to be of dire need moving forward, I’m just going to kind of leave it if it’s a kid asking for something silly, like, hey, I’ll touch that Monday. ⁓
Personal side, big golfer. So once a week, usually I’ll try to get in at least a sim or something like that in my free time, even like a middle of the day. Hit some balls at a driving range out by there, and I’m cool, calm, and collected the rest of the day. ⁓ But I would say the biggest thing to kind of keep me is just being organized. I think being overly organized with this many teams and stuff kind of keeps that.
that anxiety and that kind of lingering overhead feeling of how much I have going on kind of at ease. At least I know if I know I’m prepared for these four back to back to back lifts, at least I know I’m good so I can just get through it, power through it. Big thing and it’s sometimes tough to balance is that emotional balance of like, I just had six hours, I probably had 200 athletes roll through the weight room.
Mentally, I’m dumped emotionally. I’m dumped. Let me just get like some reset time of like I’m gonna sit in silence for a little bit Let me like listen to a podcast or let me just throw on something and just kind of like recharge that battery and then I’m good
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, I love those techniques and I think it’s really valuable to have specific things that you can reach to. I love one of the key things that you bring up there is preparation to me. ⁓ ultimately it sounds so simple, right?
What I found out was the more prepared I was or the more organized I was, the easier it was, like you said, just to kind of power through things. Or you spent already spent all this time programming. You’ve got all the lifts ready. You don’t have to worry about printing out cards or getting it uploaded to the team build or whatever it may be. You’ve already got it prepared. So you can really just take the next steps and just go through the lifts and have a fun time with them and focus on the athletes while they’re in there. And then spend the time recharging afterwards. I’ve never spent more time preparing and felt upset about it.
Right. ⁓ so I think that can make a huge difference. What’s your handicap for golf?
Blaine Johnson:
So currently I’m sitting at about
I think I’m a 14-8. Not bad, but I’m not good at all. But it’s been, especially at Drew when the summers were much bigger and it was like, okay, the moment these kids step off campus, there’s nothing to do. You know, that kind of really skyrocketed the game a little bit.
Connor Agnew:
which is always good, that’s great to hear. ⁓ I’m not a huge golfer. And in fact, one of our boosters for the basketball team invited me over to go hit balls on his simulator. And I mean, it was embarrassing. I was so glad we weren’t in a public space. And at the end, he was like, hey, man, maybe it’s not for you. I got the Dave Downey talk. But I went the other direction with it, and I decided to stop. So I’m glad to hear you’ve had some success with it.
We’ve talked about, you know, in the same line of successes, we talked about some of the challenges that Drew and starting up at Ryder, what are some of your success stories? What are some things that have really kept you going and made you excited about strength and conditioning and want to continue to develop these programs?
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, of course. So like I said, my first year was like almost like a shell shock to me of like how much has to go into it. And I started to understand, and appreciate more and more the people that I learned from. It’s like, oh, I kind of understand why you’re in the office till nine o’clock at night some days. Because back when I was an intern, I’d be like, why are they still here? What on earth could they be doing here? You know, building out that full schedule that flowed well, getting every team in.
When you know, there’s one of me there’s 24 hours in a day. I don’t want to spend 24 hours there. So, okay, let’s cut that in half. There’s 12 hours in the day. How do I fit everyone in here? So being able to fit everyone in was a win in itself, especially now at Rider as well where it’s like, okay, I’m a one man show. How many people can I fit in a day? you know, when I get to the end of the day, it’s like, wow, we powered through, you know, 10 lifts today.
and I’m still ready to go. Like I got more in me has been big. And again, learning that that’s not necessarily like the best thing. Like I’d love to be able to cut that down. like when I look back and I’m like, wow, when I was a juror, I coached over, you know, 700 student athletes. And when I left, all the messages weren’t like gonna miss like gonna miss your back squats on Monday. Like when it turns into like thank you for everything you did for this program, like
thank you for reshaping the athletic department, stuff like that. I got into this to kind of be what I didn’t have, for lack of a better term. What I fell in love with coaching was the relationships. So when I was getting those texts and stuff when I leave that like, two years fears like a small microcosm on the course of a career, but like when I think of it as like a bunch of those kids spent half of their college career with me.
that short four years, know, if I made a big enough stamp on them that like they felt moved to make sure that I know that like I was appreciated that I made a mark on them. Like that was more than I could ever ask for. Same thing ⁓ with with Ryder ⁓ stepping in and already getting like, yeah, the kids love you. Like they’ve already talked about that like.
They’re excited to go to Lyft. They’re excited to be there has been great in terms of like non-personal relationships and stuff. Building out that weight room at Drew was great. It wasn’t exactly what I envisioned, but every time I kind of go look at videos or I see it in use, I’m like, we physically did that. Like that wasn’t like pen and paper. It’s like I physically got in there and
helped build that. So that was big, that was massive. And it’s something that like, I still get a little bit happy about today. That’s like, you know what, like, even if it’s not exactly what I want, even if, you know, down the line, we rip it up immediately, that like, okay, we started the change that this school drastically needed. You know, that’s been, that’s been incredible to think about.
I would also say getting the needle moving in both of those schools with nutrition and stuff like that’s been big. Our goal and my goal with everywhere is like Dave to start a nutrition station at each school to get a better relationship with the dieticians, the nutritionists on campus. Trying to move needles the best we can.
better help student athletes with only being one of me or like Dave talks about, one or two dieticians on campus where we can’t have one for every sport, things like that. So getting the ball rolling with other departments and connecting and creating a bigger sports performance spectrum has been big for me.
Connor Agnew:
Well, again, the affirmation piece is always huge, right? It’s always good to hear ⁓ these messages, specifically from the athletes themselves too, that they appreciate what you’re doing or they appreciate what you did for two years of their career. So I’m really glad you were able to have that experience. And then to get to hear about the weight room is always exciting to me because I think back to, you know, what was it?
I can’t remember what the official term for it was, but the people who had the most enjoyment in their career were typically construction workers because they actually got to see ⁓ what they built and see the project through completion. so you got to experience a little microcosm of that by building the weight room yourself, especially breaking down your own walls and everything, which is still to me is pretty exciting.
So it’s awesome to see those and see that continued success. But like you said, it’s all about setting people off on the right path, right? You’re setting the university off on the right path. You’re taking it in the direction that it needs to go. And it doesn’t have to be perfect when you first start out. And I think that’s a really good lesson within there. It doesn’t have to be this amazing elite. Now all of a sudden Drew is the number one university in the country with the best weight room possible. But.
You took the steps, you went from having a 60 foot light room to ultimately being able to progress it and then being the change for people in the future, which is huge, right? Because in a career that’s as transient as strength and conditioning where unfortunately different opportunities pop up, you’ll have to move around and you won’t be able to typically be there at the same school for 20, 30 years. A big piece of it is leaving your mark and seeing people continue to have success after you leave.
I love seeing that aspect and I love hearing that from you. This next question, I always like to ask this too for people who have a kind of a career path such as yourself. And I want you to brag on yourself a little bit here, okay? know, obviously ⁓ moving from GA to assistant strength coach to then director at two different schools ⁓ is a pretty meteoric rise. And there’s a lot of cool stuff that comes with it and there’s a lot of challenges that come with it, like we’ve mentioned, you know, but what do you attribute your ability to?
kind of climb that ladder quickly too. How do you believe that you’ve been able to see that success and achieve these different positions quickly?
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, so I’m going to say and I’m going to start it, I’ll pat myself on the back later, but I’m going to say a lot of it’s luck. I say luck with an asterisk because I know a lot of great people, a lot of great people have vouched for me and have done incredible things for my career by putting their stamp of approval on me.
You know, and it’s kind of worked out great that all my connections have kind of connected themselves. You know, when I was at Rutgers and was kind of looking into being a GA, Dave had gone to Rutgers. He knew the staff there. Boom. When I went from, you know, FDU to NJIT mid GA ship, they knew Dave there. Boom. When I went from NJIT to Drew,
The staff kind of knew of each other. You know, they trusted his opinion because he was there for a while. Bobby Fisk there. Boom was connected there. And then, you know, again, staff at NJIT knew the staff at Rider very well. You know, they reached out to someone there and said, would you like this? And he said, kind of similar to your story ⁓ at Texas Tech, where they were like, hey, I don’t really want it, but if you like me, go with Blaine. You know, so just kind of one of those things that like
I’ve kind of lucked into a lot of these positions being open, but a lot of people have kind of put their stamp of approval on me and kind of said, you know, if you want a good choice, if you want someone who’s going to be there, if you want someone who’s going to be all into your program, go with Blaine. ⁓ I will always say that I think a lot of it for me has been my science base at a young, young starting age was great. I was a science kid. I was a nerd, you know, like,
I grew up like loving training, loving the science of it. So by the time I got to Rutgers, I could program decent. could, and again, we still go look back and we talk about it all the time, go look back at your first programs and they’re laughable. But compared to where I think a lot of kids fresh out of college would be, I think I was at an advanced level, but it was just learning how to practically get that in front of athletes and go from there. So I think a lot of people, when I could sit down,
and talk periodization, talk triphasic, talk conjugate, fresh out of school at a level that was pretty comparable to a starting level coach. I think they were more impressed with that. But it was just like, you need to get better with your interpersonal skills. How do you communicate this to athletes? How do you find your voice? I’m the big dude, but I’m quiet. I’ll be truthful. I’m usually a…
a dead silent. I could go a whole day without speaking. You would never know. So for me, was like, OK, how do I find that coach voice? How do I go from there? Blaine could talk with the best of them, but how does he relay that to students and things like that? ⁓ And they always talk about if you
want to be at a certain level, work and act like you’re already at that level. So, you know, when you’re an intern, you know, act like you want to be treated. If you want to be treated like a higher level intern, almost like in a full functioning assistant, act like that, you know, take initiative like that. And that’s something that I took very early on. I’m like, hey, what can I do to increase my value in this role? What can I do to be better prepared? What do you do?
in your role that I will never do in my role? The administrative side, how do you budget? How do you map out a weight room? That’s sitting down as a GA talking to Dave when I was at FDU or FDU when I was at NJIT. How did you guys build this weight room? What went into it? ⁓ What do you have to do on a daily basis that I wouldn’t think about that I would need at the next level? And again, that directly went into Drew like,
You know, it takes a village. like when I got to true and I’m like, yo, I’m lost. What like would you do here? What could I do better to kind of better suit myself here? And, kind of using my resources to kind of not only grow, but when you go back and talk to your resources and they’re like, ⁓ he’s progressing. He’s he’s in a better state than when he left us, you know, going back and talking to people. So not only can they say, well, I only knew him as an intern.
or something. only knew him as a GA, but like, okay, I can tell that he’s progressed as a coach to this level that now he’s ready to move on to things like that. you know, I think this is.
I think this will be at the end of this year, the end of year six. And like you said, of gone from didn’t know this was a career to assistant AD. So definitely a full swing, definitely been a wild journey to get there. like you said, of ⁓ Dave said it one time, he’s like, you kind of took the fast track and you didn’t even know it.
Connor Agnew:
Well, I mean, again, I appreciate your…
⁓ one humility and saying that a lot of it is luck. but to me again, I can’t remember what the quote is. I always botch it. So I’m bad with quotes, man. That’s like kind of my personal thing. I like get half the quote, right. ⁓ but essentially was it luck is when preparation meets opportunity, right? so ultimately, yes, there was some luck in that, but I think you bring up a great point too. Like it’s not just, okay, Blaine’s just an intern. So, you know, I’m not really developing this great relationship with him. It’s no, I asked a lot of questions and, ⁓ those things helped me get to the next level.
develop these good relationships so that I could be recommended for future positions too. So I appreciate the humility, but it certainly sounds like there’s a lot of things that went into the ability to go on the fast track, like you said. ⁓ This next question is going to be pretty similar, I would say, but ultimately, what advice would you give for younger coaches who are looking to get into the field, who are looking to kind of…
Blaine Johnson:
Correct.
Connor Agnew:
⁓ progress throughout the field as you have. It may be similar things to what you just mentioned, but are there anything else that you can think of that you’d really like to ⁓ mention to younger strength coaches?
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, of course. I’ll kind of go through some of the stuff that I kind of tell my interns that are big to me and then just things that maybe I would have told my younger self. Kind of things I always preach to my interns and things like that. Or if you’re new to the field, meaning like you didn’t grow up and strength coach was at the top of your list your entire life, do your digging and diving of what this field takes more than just like a degree standpoint, more than just a
you know, certification standpoint, like what are the ins and outs? What does the life of a head D three coach look like compared to the life of an assistant at a power four look like? You know, what are those differences? What’s the time commitment? How does that, you know, how does that connect with your values? You know, are you a family person? You know, I, I’m a little bit, and we’ve kind of talked, I’m a little bit younger, you know, I don’t have kids yet, things like that, but like,
When kids come around, this field is kind of tougher. It’s not something that like, if I was at Drew and had kids, that’d be a tough balance. Things like that. What are your values that are going to be big staples for you in your career? Because this career, I wish for lack of a better term, people didn’t get chewed up and spit out by it, but it is tough. It takes a different kind of person to be in this field and stick with it. And the time commitment, the emotional stress, the balance.
and the ability to not have balance. There’s sometimes where people not in this field, you kind of have to be like, can’t do it. Or sorry, I got XYZ. And for you who travels, sorry, we’re at Kent State. We’re at Virginia this week, or whatever it may be.
I would say another big thing is just be a sponge. Like I said, the biggest thing that I realized when I was in my internship was I realized what I didn’t know. And you know, I, again, we just talked about it, forget what the quote is, but he who thinks he knows all knows nothing. He who knows he knows nothing knows all whatever, like something like that. like when I,
you know, truly sat back and thought about, my goodness, the gap between what these people know and what I know and my practical application of that, like learn from everywhere. And again, we’re kind of at a different age. Like I grew up in the social media era that sometimes now I have to realize and sort through what’s like the fluff of social media. What’s the good stuff? Who’s a good follow? Who’s
someone that’s given me just some eye wash, new exercise of the week that’s there for clicks, things like that versus, know, coaches back in the day, you know, you’re looking at a library or you essentially had to find a mentor, you know, it’s very rare now that we can go look up anything on Yuri, anything that, you know, Charlie France did, anything that any of these, you know, pillars of our, of our field did.
you can find at the click of a button and soak up everything. And now it’s kind of determining what’s your style, what blend do you take from everybody versus back in the day, I think we kind of got carbon copies of each coach that just kind of transcended down. Another big one would be, and again, I think this is me kind of looking for the change in that field of like, be your biggest advocate.
You know, sometimes saying no isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Now. Within reason, you know, there’s certain things that you can’t be like, ⁓ coach, I know I got it. I know I’m supposed to travel, but just not this weekend. Like certain things, but like be your advocate. You know, realize that like if we want to be in this field for a long time, that like we can’t spend 10 years in a row getting burnt out. So that by the time we’re in our mid thirties and our forties, that like we’re ready to go into sales, you know, like.
Be your big advocate. Figure out what works for you in terms of resetting your battery, finding that family time, what’s gonna get you through a school year efficiently. We’d have to grind sometimes, but what’s gonna be that balance that kind of gets you through a year that gives the student athletes your best and gives you what you need out of life and things like that.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, the saying no piece I think is so interesting because, especially in your situation too, right? You say no to help kind of balance out, okay, I need this, like you said, for the betterment of the athletes so I can get through the year and be the best coach I can possibly be. I literally can’t physically be there, whatever it may be, there’s different reasons. But at the end of the day, it’s tough to start saying no because a lot of what got you to the level you want to be at
is by saying yes all the time and doing a lot of different things and being the person who can be there and being the old reliable, whatever it may be. So I think it’s tough to start saying no, but ultimately if you can learn that lesson early on and you can know, okay, again, it’s not just I’m saying no, because I want to go watch Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 this weekend, so I’m not going be able to travel, whatever it may be. But it’s no for a good reason and no because ultimately it’s going to help you be a better coach in the long run for your athletes.
It can be really transformative for your career. So I really appreciate you giving that to your interns because it’s a tough line to walk, but once you learn to walk it, makes a big difference in your life.
Blaine Johnson:
For sure, and it’s a fine balance. It’s realizing that the work I get done in the middle of my day is gonna be better than the work I do at the end of my day gassed out. It’s realizing that the more you can give in that short span of your athletes, the better. And if you can figure out what’s gonna help get you to get back to that level, for me,
I always say like the toughest part of my day is that gap where I got to go back because it’s like, Oh, I had the taste of that, like a little bit of freedom, things like that. So it’s like, okay, what can I do to kind of plug that juice back in and get me, get me amped up to get ready to go for that PM group or, know, what’s that thing I need to get through? I’ve had the six, seven, eight AM lifts. What’s going to get me through this nine AM lift and give them the best version of blame that I can give them and things like that, that are, you know, at the end of the day,
I’m trying to give the best version of me to my student athletes, you know, and that might not necessarily be, they get a hundred percent of Blaine every day, but they’re getting a hundred percent of what I can give them that day. It’s the same thing I expect out of them. You know, I, I won’t necessarily always get your best, but I need a hundred percent of what you’re able to give that day. So, you know, I kind of like to reciprocate the same thing that my athletes that I kind of say to myself.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you’ll always be present. You’ll always be there and give them what you got, even if it may not be 100 % for that day. I love that. Okay, so I said I’d save the fun question for the end. What is your favorite Pokemon?
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah. So we said it before. I’ve always been a big Scizor guy. I loved Scyther in Gen one. I thought he was sick. And then when Gen two came out and again, I had a younger brother. So for me it was like, okay, you get silver, I get gold, let’s trade everything we need to trade. And when that Scizor came through, when I was like probably eight or nine, I think my world changed the red and just the metal Co. It was, it was different.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Scyther’s so sick, I mean, and ultimately for Scizor to come through, I think it was an upgrade for sure. But I remember, I think as a young guy, you’re looking for somebody who just looks totally badass. And it’s absolutely those two Pokemon. So I love that pick.
Blaine Johnson:
It’s been there ever since.
Yep. And when steel
type kinda just came and was brand new, like, ⁓ forget it.
Connor Agnew:
Okay, well then, all right, one more fun question. And then I promise I’ll stop stealing your time here. shoot, just dropped my phone, sorry. ⁓ What was your favorite Pokemon game growing up?
Blaine Johnson:
So this one always sparks major, major talks. It will always either be Emerald or Platinum. I think it changes which day you ask me because they both came out. Emerald came out. was like 10 or 11. Platinum came out. I was like 13. So like they got hours of my life. And by that point it was like, okay, I knew the cheat mods.
I had the jailbreak version so we could do a lot more. And that was when it was cool to play with your friends with Pokemon. It wasn’t like, I feel like a loser to do this. So everyone’s trading every legendary or trading every starter back and forth. I would say if you ask me in general, I’ll go Emerald, but there’s a chance that if I’m feeling nostalgic, I’ll throw Platinum out there. But it’s usually always gonna be one of those two.
Connor Agnew:
I knew I liked you man, because I’m an Emerald guy through and through. Emerald came out when I was like 13, so kind of similar for Platinum for you, but I mean, like you said, hours, mean, just endless hours. And I remember I sucked at wrestling, and so we’d be traveling for wrestling and like I’d lose immediately. So I just pull out my Gameboy and then we’d be playing Emerald instead. So it was a good reprieve for me and I always appreciated Emerald. So I knew we’d get along.
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah,
it had a chokehold for a solid two. I still played Emerald more when Diamond and Pearl came out. I’d finish Diamond and Pearl and be like, all right, I’m going back to Emerald. And then when Platinum came out, I think that’s when it kind of changed. Like, ⁓ this is sick. But yeah, that was a different time.
Connor Agnew:
Well, you gotta love it. And I always appreciate Pokemon for consuming, like you said, or having to choke hold on me for hours, because I was a guy who liked Greek mythology and Pokemon. So those are my two that I stuck with and always loved.
Blaine Johnson:
Yeah, yeah, that’s been half of
my sickness time this week has been watching Percy Jackson’s
Connor Agnew:
Elite, elite, absolutely elite. I’ve read all the books, absolutely fantastic series.
So, all right, well, we’re to have to hang out off the podcast and we’ll find a way to make this work. If you’re ever in North Carolina, you got to come through because we’ve got a lot in common for sure. Well, Blaine, seriously, thank you so much for coming on the show, man. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate all your insights and it’s been really great to speak with you. If somebody wants to follow you on social media or keep up with your career or anything along those lines, what would be the best way to do that?
Blaine Johnson:
I’ll pop out.
Yeah, so ⁓ my coaching account is CoachBlainJ. ⁓ Trying to get better with it. Most of the time I’m trying to stay off my phone and lift, so sometimes I kind of get myself through that mental block of like, you can pull it out. You can take a video or two. ⁓ Yeah, that’s my, like I said, that’s my coaching account. Don’t really post coaching stuff anywhere else. Most of the time just keep it to the IG. ⁓ Happy to talk to anybody, happy to talk shop.
You know, like I said, got a lot of free time in the middle of the day. So a lot of time I like to hop on a call every now and again, see where everyone’s at, kind of see the state of the field. So happy to connect with anyone that wants to connect.
Connor Agnew:
Awesome. Well, thank you, Blaine. I appreciate you a lot, man. You’re the man. And thank you so much for coming up.
Blaine Johnson:
Of course, Coach. Thank you for having me again. I was really excited to talk. I really appreciate this.
Connor Agnew:
Absolutely do. Well, thank you and enjoy your holidays as well.
Blaine Johnson:
Thank you, you as well. Much appreciated.
