Nick Raszeja, Assistant Strength Coach for Syracuse University Football, shares his journey from athlete to coach and the mindset that fueled his rise in strength and conditioning. He discusses the importance of hard work, discipline, and adaptability, along with insights on transitioning roles, building relationships, and continuously improving as a coach. This episode provides practical advice for young professionals looking to establish themselves in the field while staying grounded in core principles.
Key Takeaways
- Hard work and discipline are the foundation of long-term success
- Transitioning from athlete to coach requires humility and adaptability
- Building strong relationships is critical in coaching environments
- Continuous learning and self-investment set great coaches apart
- Outworking others is a mindset that drives growth and opportunity
Quote
“Hard Work and Discipline” — Nick Raszeja
Samson:
you talked about, you know, obviously growing in your art of coaching, you know, are there any core principles or anything that you’ve learned over the years like that you really stuck that stuck with you and you really take with you every job you go like kind of your core structures or core principles that you have.
Nick Raszeja:
⁓ so the biggest thing I’ve kind of already talked about, but just like hard work and discipline. Those are two things that are going to stick with me for the rest of my life, because that’s what got me to the point where I’m now. ⁓ so I mean, growing up, all I knew was hard work. ⁓ that’s how I excelled in athletics. And that’s basically my core principle as a, as a strength coach is that I may not be the best strength coach or I may not be, ⁓ you know, the best at whatever topic that.
You know, this coach wants me to talk about or wants me to present to the team or whatever the case may be, but I’m going to work really, really hard to make sure that if I don’t know something, I’m going to learn it.
Samson:
What’s going on Sampson Strength Coach collective listeners? On today’s episode, have Nick Rage, Assistant Strength Coach for Syracuse, my hometown, ⁓ Syracuse University, Orangemen football. Nick, thank you so much for coming on,
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, thanks man. Thanks for having me. Excited to do this.
Samson:
I’m stoked about it. I’ve heard your name obviously for years for our listeners. You know, this is the we were talking about a little bit pre-show, right? We call it like co-parenting. Maybe I’m the one who named that term. Okay. ⁓ Of Patrick Brooks, who’s crushing it down there. Former guest on the show. Now the assistant strength coach for, or sorry, assistant strength coach with Arkansas State working with women’s basketball. So he’s always kind of told me about you. So I’m excited to get connected with you and learn a little bit more.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, no doubt. crazy how this whole process works out, this whole field works out, and how small it is. I’m awesome that Patrick came to work for you, and I love Patrick because he’s a good dude. And it’s just fun to see how it all works out in the end.
Samson:
It’s awesome, man. Seriously, like you said, like everything’s way more connected than you think it is. And so I’m glad that we could finally get connected and officially meet each other. So with that being said, can you kind of just give me a background of your career, you know, different experiences with the training conditioning, where you’ve been and then what’s led you to Syracuse?
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, for sure. ⁓ So to be honest, never knew strength coaching was a thing. It’s never something that I ever really truly thought about when I was growing up or knew about. ⁓ So like most people, I would say growing up, I had aspirations to play professional football. ⁓ And I thought that was gonna happen and there’s no way that it possibly couldn’t happen. So growing up, I pretty much played every sport I could. My dad actually, coached me in soccer when I was real little.
played soccer until about fourth grade and Fourth grade was actually when I started playing Football and I was actually allowed to have pads on a fourth grade And so I started my my football journey there ⁓ Now when I was there I was not a good athlete whatsoever the league kind of had a rule at that point where Everyone on the team had to play a minimum of eight plays But they did not have to play any more than that if the coach didn’t feel like they needed to
So my first two years of playing football, I was that guy where I only played the minimum eight plays a game. I actually started as an offensive lineman for, you know, I’m not a very big guy right now. I’m five, nine, 200 pounds. I’m obviously much smaller back then. Yeah. So I wasn’t a very good football player when I started actually switch leagues became a really good football player at a young age and this other league, which I guess the talent level is probably a little bit less, but kind of built my confidence a little bit as a football player.
Obviously that carried on, know through middle school and through high school. So I played football For starts from fourth grade. I started playing basketball in the seventh grade just because my friends were doing on the side So I was kind of always involved around with athletics And I really didn’t know you know what I wanted to do in terms of you how I was gonna make it to the next level essentially, you know high school came rolling around and
I started lifting for the first time in eighth grade. I was a smaller guy. I didn’t really have any experience, you know, with lifting or, you know, doing any kind of training before this. ⁓ middle school coach at the time actually kind of pulled me to the side and I started working with him a few times a week. the very basic introductory things in the weight room. Teach me how to bench, you know, teach me how to squat, all the, you know, the fundamentals of strength and conditioning. Started that in eighth grade. And honestly, I fell in love with that right away. ⁓
Eventually, obviously led me to my first high school off season in high school. You know, I played all four years of high school sports, loved the weight room, loved training. I loved the conditioning aspect part of it because to me, I thought that was always going to be how I was going to make it. I was just going to outwork everybody. And I knew I wasn’t the greatest athlete, but I didn’t think that really mattered at the time. I thought I was going to outwork everybody, out train everyone. And then naturally that’s just going to, you know, carry me over to be.
An NFL football player is what I truly thought at the time So, you know, played like I said, I high school football for four years. ⁓ My I actually started playing basketball my freshman year of High school as well just for fun. I some guys on the team. I want to stay active So I did that actually ended up so my last game of my sophomore year of football Heading right into basketball season actually broke my collarbone So I kind of miss that following your basketball season kind of stopped doing that
⁓ and then, know, took basically the rest of that winter, ⁓ spring off going into my junior year. my football coach at the time, after my junior year season, he wanted me to get faster. So that’s when I got introduced to track. I did it as something just, you know, to get faster as a hobby, to stay in shape, not necessarily something that I was going to truly compete at and do well at, but maybe it’ll give me the little bit of edge I needed to come a little bit faster, which will help me as a football player.
then ultimately, you know, hopefully get recruited. ⁓ But so I did that during the spring of my junior year going to my senior year of high school. I really wasn’t getting recruited. I didn’t really understand the whole recruiting process and how it worked. I’ve been talking to a bunch of small schools, division two schools, division three schools. ⁓ Like I said, I didn’t really know how the whole process worked, ⁓ but ended up choosing to go to LaGrange College. LaGrange College is a division three school down in Georgia. I knew if I went down there, I’d have the opportunity to play right away.
and play early, which that’s truly something that I was looking for in a school. And kind of like what I said earlier, I just thought that it didn’t really matter where I went or how big I was or what my athletic ability was. I was just going to work until I made it to the pros. So I ended up going down there. And then after about two years, reality kind of truly set in for me at that point. I’m like, okay, I’m 5’9″, I’m 185, 195 pounds. I’m not going to play professional football.
It’s just not in the cards. And so what’s next? ⁓ I knew that I wanted to, to coach. love football. You know, even at the time, obviously in college, I was training really hard. I fell in love with the work with the weight room there. had a few different strength coaches. ⁓ But I never saw that as something that I didn’t really think of as a job because especially with division three athletes, athletics, if you’re not familiar with them, ⁓ the strength coaches there also worked as a position coach.
So I just thought it was something you kind of do on the side. And I didn’t really realize that this could ultimately be become a profession. ⁓ So my head coach is actually after my junior year of college football. His name is Matt Mummy. At the time it was Matt Mummy. ⁓ He knew that I wanted to get into coaching. So basically he said, hey, stick it out for two more years. Obviously play at the highest level you can play. If nothing works out, I want you to come back and potentially be a graduate assistant for me as a football coach.
So I was like, okay, cool, you know, that’s awesome. You know, during school, I did study exercise science and that was just because I didn’t want to necessarily learn anything else. It had the word exercise in it. And so I’m like, all right, cool. I’m gonna go to school. I’m gonna learn about the body. I’m gonna learn different exercise, but I don’t really, school wasn’t necessarily my thing. I was always good at it and I made good grades. I graduated above 3.0, but it was just never my thing.
Chose this this major exercise science. ⁓ I did that and then you know, like I said my junior year I got potentially offered the chance to come back in coach position ⁓ as a graduate assistant. So kind of long story short going into I finished my senior year playing football in the fall and in January of my basically my spring semester of my senior year. So I one more semester. There’s kind of a switch in the program of ⁓
We were going to train the shrine coach at the time left took a different job and the exercise science department at LaGrange was actually asked to take over the Football training for that offseason and since at that time I knew I was getting ready to be GA ⁓ Coach asked me if I would go do an intern basically an internship with them and be around the weight room and just kind of learn from them and You know that’ll kind of naturally transition me potentially into this GA position. So
I worked with them ⁓ for about three or four weeks. Long story short, the way they train, looking back on it, to me, it was really good training, but the kind of the mindset and the attitude and just kind of the way they went about things wasn’t traditional in terms of what football coaches want to see in a weight room. ⁓ So there’s a few disagreements. Long story short, that exercise department ended up not working with football anymore. And so.
Being a division three school, you don’t just make a phone call and the new strength coach comes in and you’re just rolling and everything is good. We didn’t necessarily have anybody. Um, so since I was already doing an internship, internship with them, um, our coach was like, Hey, you got the team, um, train the team. And I’m like, you know, I was kind of thrown off at that point. It was actually myself and one of my former college roommates at the time, his name is Davis Conley. He actually ended up becoming a head strength coach. Um, he’s actually not in the profession anymore.
⁓ But me and him ⁓ we were in the weight room and our head coach was like, okay cool You guys essentially run the team program for him. Let’s see what you got and I did the best I could at that time. I had no idea what I was truly doing You know watch a bunch of videos on YouTube and you know from past experiences from my strength coaches I previously had a look range. I’m a guy this what we’re gonna do and so me and him kind of led the program and we Led the rest of the offseason
Which it was kind of a you know crazy thing looking back at it because Monday through Friday we were I was still a college student I was still you know, we were training the team Monday through Friday and then Friday night Saturday I was gonna go hang out with the team on whatever local bar we were at because they’re still all my friends then it comes Monday rolling back around and I 6 a.m. Back in the weight room yelling and screaming accustomed amount I’m like, no, it was it was definitely a pretty wild experience but as I was doing this whole process I still
I still don’t want to be a strength coach. It’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a football coach. So I officially got the offer to be a GA after that semester. And my role as a GA was to be the defensive back coach. And then I would also be the head strength coach. So essentially I just kind of did it. I did the head strength coaching part on the side because I wanted to be a football coach. So for two years I did that. I learned a ton in the process.
It was definitely something that if I could go back on, I would do a ton of different things differently in terms of my coaching philosophy and the X’s and O’s of the actual program that I was writing because essentially I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just kind of taking what I learned in school at the time and keeping it really basic and just trying to train these guys to the best of my ability.
So during the, the first year of my GI was definitely focused on being a, a, a football coach and the strength coaching thing was kind of a, ⁓ secondhand thought. But as I kept learning and going on and growing, ⁓ I kind of spent a lot more of my time, ⁓ researching the weight room.
And I found more of my, you know, leisure time. was into books. was listening to different podcasts. I was on YouTube at the time and I was watching the Scott Cochran videos and Paul Jack, Paul Jackson videos and Jeff Dillman videos and all these cool videos that were these high level strength. Those who were putting out this time. So I’m like, you know what? I’m just going to try to replicate what they do. put it in my own twist and make that my way room. ⁓ so I did that.
Finished out my two years as a GA and at that point I’m like, okay, know what? I think I want to give this whole strength coaching thing a try so Toward the end I applied to not necessarily applied I reached out to every single division one school ⁓ FCS school division to school and just like hey, this is who I am This is my experience, you know, I’m certified at this point Do you have any kind of assistant role part-time role even another potential GA position? anything that I could do to get
some kind of employment at this point, because I was kind of struggling to find a job. Didn’t really hear back from anyone besides schools that were looking for at the time summer interns. And I did not necessarily want to do that, but I knew I couldn’t stay at LaGrange. My time there was done. I couldn’t find any full-time work. So I’m like, okay, maybe this is something that I should try to take on. So I ended up going to the University of South Carolina the summer of 2018.
under coach Jeff Dillman, who, like I said, I kind of watched a lot of his YouTube videos in the last year or so, kind of trying to learn from him. And so I spent the summer down there, learned a ton. There’s a lot of really good strength coaches on staff at that time. Bellrose was on that staff, Corey Miller, John Griffin, Chase Dodd, all these guys who are either now in the professional level or at high level college football still.
so I had great mentors at the time that I truly, truly didn’t realize and truly probably didn’t appreciate as much as I, I should have when I was there. ⁓ but I spent the summer there, learned a ton from them, ⁓ around early August. ⁓ so LaGrange actually hasn’t started playing football yet. there was a head coaching switch there, defensive coordinator who I worked under actually got promoted to the head coach. ⁓ he called me up and was like, Hey,
⁓ I know you don’t necessarily probably want to come back here, but I need a defensive coordinator and I need a head strike coach. So I’m like, all right, I just spent basically the last, you know, year or so deciding that I wasn’t going to become a football coach anymore. Even though I enjoyed it. love coaching on the field. ⁓ I hated the film and I hated the recruiting that kind of came along with football coach, which that’s kind of what ultimately led me to become a shrine coach.
But when he called me back and was like, listen, I need a defensive coordinator. I need a head strained coach. You’re not making any money. I have some money to offer you. It’s not much, but would you be willing to do this? And I had to do it. I had to say yes. So drove back down to Georgia, ⁓ became the defensive coordinator, became the head strained coach out of Grange. ⁓ so I was definitely wearing the dual hats there. Once again, I loved, I love coaching football. ⁓ I love calling plays. That was an unbelievable experience. ⁓
But kind of like similar pattern toward the end of my graduate assistantship, I didn’t really care about the on-field football. I just wanted to learn as much as I could about the weight room. So I spent another, it about two and a half years at LaGrange doing both. I’m like, okay, I can’t do this to myself anymore. I wanna go pursue what I actually wanna pursue long-term. And so I started reaching out again, ended up getting a job at Tennessee State University under head training coach, Tyler.
Tyler Miles, he was actually most recently, know, Florida’s head football shrine coach last couple years. So he gave me a chance, went up there. worked with women’s basketball, I worked with softball, and then I assisted with football. I did that for about seven months. During that, that was 2020, so that was like the heart of COVID, and we had all that going on. We ended up playing our football season in the…
Spring of that year, 2021. So everything was kind of crazy at the time. ⁓ Head coach, he got removed from football. Tennessee state actually hired Eddie George to come in to be their new football coach at the time. We got pushed out of football. And basically what happened was I got turned over to every Olympic sport at that time. Tyler, he ended up leaving. He went somewhere else. So I had every, every Olympic team at that point. So men, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball.
I was kind of handling all that. Did that for about the next three or four months. But I knew the Olympic side wasn’t necessarily for me. I love coaching women’s basketball. I loved working with softball, but ultimately I’m a football guy. I wanted to be around football. And so as long as I had that football itch and I could kind of handle it at TSU and still do both, I was completely cool with doing all that.
But once I lost that football side of me, I knew that I wanted to get back to football. ⁓ And so the timeline now, this is around August of 2021. So I spent about a year at Tennessee State. ⁓ I’ve been in contact with the, his name is Coach Chris Laskowski. He was the head strength coach at Charlotte. I had kind of communicated with him for the last three, four years, just kind of reaching out to him, asking questions, getting to know him a little bit. actually reached out to him and I was like, hey,
This is my current situation. Do you have anything going on? Even if it’s a possible internship, I might ended up, you know, cause my parents are, I grew up in Charlotte or right below Charlotte in Fort Mill, South Carolina. So my parents are from that area. I reached out to them. I’m like, Hey, listen, I may end up coming back and living in this area for a while. Do you even have a possible internship that I could do? And he reached out to me right away. He’s like, Hey, actually one of my assistants just left. took another job. I’m looking to hire someone else. Would you be interested?
And I said, absolutely. Ended up flying down on a plane, ⁓ interviewed in person with him for about two days, got hired. And so then, you know, my career at UNC Charlotte kind of got off and rolling from there. Spent two years working under him. ⁓ At the time, you know, after that second year, we did not have a very successful season. Head coach at the time ended up getting fired. Whole staff gets fired. Strength staff gets fired. And then the new coach gets hired.
Biff Poggi, which he is a very interesting man. He was a very awesome guy to work for as well. Definitely in his own kind of way. But he brought in a guy named Lewis Corolla, which I’m sure a lot of people are very familiar with. I of course knew who he was. I had never talked to him before. I had never met him before. I didn’t know who he was. Or I know who he was, but I didn’t know. We never spoke before.
The DFO at the time, actually reached out to me and was like, hey, somebody needs to go pick up this Lewis Krala guy from the airport when he was first arriving into town. And I was like, you know what, I’ll go do it. I’ll go pick him up and maybe get to know him a little bit. So went and picked him up from the airport, had our first conversation. And then luckily from there, he saw something in me. He kept me on staff. So I was able to work with him for a year at Charlotte.
Which is kind of what led me to, to Syracuse. So his best friend is coach Chad Smith, who is the director of football performance here at Syracuse. And at the time I was, you know, I was at Charlotte, I was actually working out in the white room. ⁓ coach Chad just got the Syracuse shop. He called coach Lou and he was like, Hey, I’m looking for this kind of person. at Syracuse as of right now, we use a stat support GPS system. That’s what we use at Charlotte under coach Lou. I took over running the GPS for him.
So he called Coach Lewis, like, I need a guy who knows how to operate stats for this kind of shrine coach. Do you have anybody? And basically Coach Lew opened his office doors. Hey Nick, you want to work at Syracuse? And I was like, yes, hell yeah, I do. Got the phone, talked to Coach Chad Smith right there. And that was my first interaction with him. And one thing led to another and ended up getting the job here. And now I’ve been at Syracuse for the last three years now.
Samson:
Dude, let’s go, man. What an awesome story. And what a unique story too, you know, because it’s always, you know, you hear a lot of times within football, the coaches will start out as position coach and then work within straining conditioning. And then if they ultimately decide on straining conditioning or, you know, position coaching and sticking with football, but to hear you having to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and then ultimately making your decision for straining conditioning is so cool. I mean, it’s just.
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
It’s something where it gives you an inside perspective, right? You’ve been a defensive coordinator now. You’re obviously a lot of players, know, or lot of strength coaches used to be former players, but actually running the show and having to call plays and do that stuff ⁓ is a little bit different than just playing it, I’m sure. So it’s cool to hear that you ultimately kind of went back and forth and I’m glad that you picked strength and conditioning. I mean, I just love to hear how it all worked out. You know, we have very similar stories. Like I remember
very much feeling the same, right? There’s no way I’m not going to go to the NFL. Like, you know, I’m going to be probably second round draft bake. I’ll be okay with it. You know, like whatever. And then I’ll settle, you know, a hundred percent. And then I remember there was just like different events that just kind of happened where I remember I was really good at wrestling in ninth grade. And then all of sudden I started wrestling people who were technically good and not just people who I could out muscle. And I started losing there. And then I remember within football, like I was really good at, you know, hitting people.
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, I can live with that.
Samson:
and being powerful and doing those things. And then as soon as I started having the pass cover and do all the things that actually matter within football, I really started to suck. And they started pulling me a little bit more and more as we kind of got further along in my career. And I remember kind of coming to the same realization like, hey, this may not end up being for me. But the mentality was the same, right? It’s like, I’m just going to outwork everybody to get there. You know, that’s how I’m going to find my success. And I actually even remember reading a book. It was like a kid’s book. I can’t remember what the author’s name was, but
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
⁓ It’s like, you know, basically it was a dad talking to his son about football when he first got to college and it was like Yeah, you’re fifth on the depth chart right now All you gotta do is outwork the fourth and all I gotta do is outwork the third and then the second and the first and then also, know All of this different type of stuff and I remember being like hell Yeah, that’s gonna be me and then I slowly figured out obviously wasn’t even gonna be me I didn’t even make it to the college level like you did ⁓ But you know that mentality of I’m just gonna outwork everybody, you know, I think really takes you far and to me I don’t I don’t want to put words in your mouth, right? But to me it’s almost why
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
you prefer the strength and conditioning aspect a little bit, right? Because you can take that energy and refocus it into, okay, these are the people who have the natural talent to do it. And I can teach them to work hard and I can teach them to outwork everybody. And they’re the ones who can make it to the next level. Does that ring true for you at all? Does that sound like something that’s right?
Nick Raszeja:
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, my personal experience and like I knew you know, I knew I was only gonna get so fast ⁓ So speed necessarily was my thing but the weight room I knew that and I truly believe that anyone can get as strong as they possibly want to ⁓ as long as they work hard and Now that I’m you know became a strength coach I try to just instill that motto that listen you have all the tools in the world if you can just work really hard and you can Build muscle and you can do these certain things
you can reach levels that is high, you know, as you could potentially, you know, have in your life. So yeah, I definitely try to take, you know, what I tried to do and just instill those values and those ideas into the players so that now that they have the tools, can, you know, they can take it as far as they possibly can.
Samson:
Yeah, we’ve got a running joke from high school actually, where we called it hoop dreams. I was like, maybe I could just, football is not going to work out. Maybe I could just work so hard at basketball that I can be a walk on and then maybe I’ll get it in the game my senior year or something like that. And so it was like kind of a running joke, but I brought it to basketball now, obviously working with basketball. So we call it like hoop dreams, but the guys.
Nick Raszeja:
Right.
Samson:
who I work with actually have the talent to be able to go do those things. Right. And were talking pre-show one of our, you know, bigs just committed to Syracuse. And it’s obviously a very high level program that he’s committed to and he has a chance to go pro. And so it’s so cool to be able to instill that mentality into people who have the skills to do it. Right. Instead of just kind of chasing something that might not work out for myself or for you. But you watch these people develop and you watch them go pro. And it’s like the most exciting thing in the world. I love it. Yeah.
Nick Raszeja:
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Samson:
So, you you mentioned, you know, obviously your, your head strength coach, pretty much your junior and senior year, right. ⁓ and it was that just senior.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, so
the spring semester of my senior year of college, ⁓ that was my first experience being a head strength coach, if you want to call it that.
Samson:
Okay, yep.
Yeah,
but I mean, it’s drinking water through a fire hose, I’m sure, and just trying to figure out, you know, how to do the basic things that you talked about having a unique relationship where, mean, I couldn’t imagine like you’re going out to have beers with the guys and then on Monday morning, you’re going back and training them and got to hold them accountable and do all these things. Like, I’m curious, you know, from that experience, your first time running the weight room to now, how do you feel like you’ve grown as a coach? What are the main areas you feel like you’ve gotten better and really grown in?
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah.
I think the biggest area I’ve gotten better is, is just the art of coaching. ⁓ I didn’t really know how to coach or what I was coaching or what to look for as a coach. So just being, you know, around the athletes for, I’ve been doing this now, this is going on year 10 ⁓ with some form of coaching. So just getting the experience and being on the floor and just coaching all different kinds of athletes from all different backgrounds.
⁓ You know that that’s that’s one thing that I just you know, I’ve just gotten better at the art of coaching because every kid learns differently And you in order to reach everyone because that’s our goal our goal is ultimately to reach every kid
So if that’s you know a more ⁓ hands-on coaching approach or a more verbal coaching approach You know that that’s just something that I’ve definitely gotten better with ⁓
Samson:
No doubt. And that’s why I love doing this podcast, right? Cause we don’t really talk about sets and reps a lot. We talk about, you know, kind of more of the art of coaching and the soft skills side, which is exciting to me. And that’s why I like coaching. You know, one thing, this is just kind of a selfish personal question. I’ve always been curious about it, right? Cause I worked with the football staff for a while. I was a, you know, intern slash GA, whatever you want to call it. ⁓ You know, but then ultimately moved to Olympic sports. And then the setup within basketball is
You might be an assistant for a couple of years and then you’re pretty much going to be a head strength coach for the rest of your career. Obviously within football, you know, that’s a little bit of a different pathway where you were a head strength coach, you know, multiple times. And then now operating as an assistant strength coach, you know, how has that experience been going from head to assistant? Not in a negative way whatsoever, but I mean, obviously there’s different demands of the job, ⁓ you know, and operating under kind of a different, ⁓ you know, I guess operation style, if that makes sense.
Nick Raszeja:
Mmm.
Yeah, no, for sure. Honestly, I’ve kind of, I’ve kind of, no matter where I was or what job I had, I kind of treated them all the same. It was my job to work with whatever athlete I was working with at the time and make them the best possible person, whether that’s in a head roll. The only difference to me is, you know, just kind of the level of, I wouldn’t say like instant respect or instant, you know, kind of power that you kind of take on as a head strain coach. When you become assistant,
You you kind of lose a little bit of that because you don’t want to ever overstep the head shrank coach or, know, anyone who’s above you in terms of like, you know, coaching on the floor or just kind of general. Um, I guess the mantra of being a head shrank coach versus an assistant shrank coach. Um, so I guess that part is, is, is a little different, but anywhere I’ve gone, no matter what role I’ve, I just try to coach the best of my ability and coach as hard as I can. So whether it’s being an assistant or a shrank coach, like I really haven’t felt much different to be honest with you.
It’s just kind of been, I just like to coach and whatever aspect that may be, that’s just kind of how it works out.
Samson:
No doubt. And I love that mentality. And, you know, I mean, it is true too, right? Like, you know, I don’t know how you guys break up position groups or how you separate, you know, who you coach, but like, you know, even if it’s rotating groups throughout the, you know, month or weeks, whatever it is, or if you just have your specific position groups, you’re the head strength coach of that group for that day. Like that’s how it operates. So ultimately there’s still gotta be a lot of head coach, you know, kind of mentality to it. And I love that, you know, I say the only benefit.
⁓ that I really always emphasize with being the assistant strength coach is not having to go to all the administrative meetings. I like that a lot better for sure.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, no doubt. ⁓ But here at Syracuse, that’s not really the case. I actually, yeah, I actually do, you know, we go to every single staff meeting ⁓ that we have. So we’re pretty involved in all that recruiting as well. Anytime we have official visits, we go to all the official visit dinners and all the different talks that we have to do. So we are pretty heavily involved in that kind of stuff.
Samson:
No joke.
that’s awesome. Maybe they just didn’t like me then. Maybe I’m just finding it out right now.
That might’ve been the case.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe that’s what it was. But you
were talking a second ago about, know, how we kind of break it up. We don’t necessarily have, don’t work with just the bigs or just the skillers or just the mids. We kind of mix it up and we work with everybody. But the way that coach Chad has us operate is he gives us the freedom to, to coach how we coach. ⁓ We are, a lot of times we are broken up into different groups, whether we’re doing station work.
or things of that nature. so when we’re running that station, like you said, we are the head train coach of that station at that time. of course, doing it, how we want to do it as a staff and how he wants things run, ⁓ maybe putting our little spin on it with, how we, how we approach it. but yeah, we are the head shrink coach at that time, ⁓ of that area. And, know, that’s something that I can really appreciate, because we’re definitely not a staff where it’s just one guy’s coaching and everyone else is just kind of, you know, falling around in the background. ⁓ we coach, we.
coach very hard and we all kind of have our specific roles within the current organization that ⁓ he truly allows us to be the coaches that we came here to be, if that kind of makes sense. And kind of within the program as well, as I’ve gotten to know Coach Chad a little bit better, I’ve actually been more more involved in the actual programming that we do here. ⁓ Last summer, I actually wrote the entire basically squat program.
⁓ for the summer and actually ran it or I, you know, I wrote it up for this entire spring or I guess winter spring ⁓ off season section as well. And that’s going to continue into the summer as well. So although, like I said, I’m not the head strike coach, I do get some responsibilities that ⁓ almost makes me feel like I’m the head strike coach of certain things at certain times.
Samson:
No doubt. that, mean, to me, that’s an awesome way to run a staff, right? Because there’s a lot of ownership within that. And there’s a lot of different things where, ⁓ you know, obviously you get to feel valued and feel like you’re bringing as much as you can to the table. I love that he lets you guys be your own coach too, because, you know, I’ve been forced to coach differently in the past, not within football actually, in a different position. And, you know, it sucks. Like you go in every day and you kind of got to put on this mask of like being a different person. And I’m like, I’m not this type of guy.
I don’t like coaching like this. And so I’m, know, it just drains you. And I remember that was probably the most burnt out I’ve ever felt in the field was those times where I couldn’t really be myself. And I had to coach in a completely different way. And, you know, I remember like interactions with athletes and I was like, this sucks. Like, you know, you don’t like this. I don’t like this. Neither of us are getting better, you know, and it’s just not conducive to success for either of us. So I’m glad to hear they let you guys be yourselves too, because that’s a huge part of the deal.
Nick Raszeja:
Yep, absolutely, absolutely. And I think we all have, you know, similar but very different personalities, at least on this current staff. it’s how we operate is pretty cool. ⁓ You know, everybody comes from different backgrounds and I’m not necessarily a big like rah rah kind of guy when I’m coaching, ⁓ but I’m not asked to be. And so I think that’s, I think that’s pretty cool. ⁓ He doesn’t want us to do something that we are not good at or comfortable with or someone that we are not just to.
bring fake juice or any of kind of situations. So we just coach based on our personality and I think that works for us.
Samson:
No doubt. then coaches who go on the opposite side of that always wonder why they have such high turnover on their staffs. And it’s like, well, the answer is kind of right in front of you. So I’m glad to hear that’s the situation with you. I kind of want to go back to something that you mentioned where you said you basically emailed every program in the country, explained your situation, and were able to see results from it. And you got positive. There was a net benefit to doing that. I think.
Nick Raszeja:
Yep, yep, for sure.
Samson:
It’s cool. It’s really cool that you mentioned doing that, right? Because it’s tough to put yourself out there. It’s always kind of, you know, like those cold emails or cold calls can always be a little bit awkward at first, but I’ve never seen one not really, you know, provide something, right? Whether it’s like a nugget of information that you take for the rest of your career or just more experience getting comfortable talking to new coaches. You know, I think that’s a great kind of advice piece for younger coaches. What other advice would you have for some of the younger coaches who are listening to the podcast and are really trying to make a name for themselves in the field?
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
think that ⁓ you have to truly make sure that this is something that you want to invest in and truly do for the rest of your life because it is not an easy profession to be in. It is hard to, at least in my experience, ⁓ it is hard to climb the ladder and get to a point, at least financially, where I’m like, okay, this is gonna be worth it or not, because there’s a lot of years, especially early on, that I was making very little to no money.
In order to meet for me to you know fully committed this I’m like I truly Thought that my entire time I decided to be a shrine coach I was truly gonna make it to the top level and coach, you know power five football That was all to my dream and I knew that I could get there if I just was able to stick it out long enough So to make sure that you know, this is truly that something you want to do and you’re committed to do in regardless of what happens ⁓ you’re gonna stick with it because there’s gonna be a lot of
ups and downs and lot of bumps in the road. So if this is not something you truly love and truly have passion for, then you’re going to reach a point where you’re going to decide, okay, this is not for me and you maybe I should I should do something else.
Samson:
Yeah, I think that’s great advice. you know, ultimately, like, I have a lot of people, we have a great exercise science department here. I have a lot of people come over and ask to shadow or, you know, just meet and kind of talk about training conditioning. And the main thing I tell them is you need to go to a lot of different places and you need to ask a lot of questions. And I said, and people will be very open and honest with you. And you need to find out if this is the career you actually want to do or not. Right. Because if you do want to do it, it’s going to be so rewarding. You’re going to love it.
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
You’re get to wear a t-shirt and shorts to work every day and coach athletes, watch them get better, watch free football, basketball games, whatever it is, and be completely fulfilled. But if it’s not for you, you need to find out now because you’re going to spend a lot of time struggling. There’s going to be a lot of different times where you’re going to be wondering, even if this is what you 100 % want to do, is it actually what I want to do, right? And spending those nights questioning it and trying to work your way through that process.
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
I love that piece of advice because ultimately that’s the biggest thing. And that’s where you see so many people, in my opinion, of the young strength coaches drop out so early. I think once you hit a certain threshold, like you said 10 years, I’ve been in it almost 10 years now too. I don’t know of any of my friends who are dropping out of strength and conditioning now. I know a lot who are dropping out very early on in the career. So the ones who enjoy it and know they truly love it can find success and find a lot of fulfillment out of it for sure.
Nick Raszeja:
Right, yeah.
Yeah, no doubt. I’m kind of going back to the whole email thing. ⁓ whenever I sent over whatever was 400 something emails and I the only responses that I was getting back were potential Internship position. I was like maybe this isn’t something that’s gonna work out for me because I wasn’t yeah I had already done that I was a head strain coach for a football team Division three, but you know still head strain coach of a football team and that I was not able to Get a look at any, you know
Division II jobs or assistant jobs or anything of that nature. So there was definitely a part of me at that point where like, know, maybe this is something that is not for me, but then, you know, ultimately I went to South Carolina, had a great experience there and, you know, here we are now. So I’m definitely glad that, you know, I stuck it out.
Samson:
For sure. And there’s times where you just got to stick it out. There’s times where you just got to say, you know what, I just kind of got to buck up and get through this. And then there’s always kind of a light at the end of the tunnel. You you said something too, which, you know, I kind of want to shout out somebody who you introduced me to. So you said investing in yourself. Okay. And it actually made me think of Jacob Maloof, right? Who just accepted a GA position with us. ⁓ Nick was, you know, for our listeners were, you know, I think they, if they’ve been listening consistently, no, I’ve been in the process of trying to hire GAs. And we,
put out an offer to one of Nick’s interns over at Syracuse and Jacob accepted the offer. I’m super stoked about it, but I want to shout them out because ultimately, ⁓ you know, we had a great level of conversations. We had a lot of success with, you know, just his interview questions and everything. And I was like, this is our guy. Like we need to get him ⁓ in our GA. ⁓
package, if I’m being a percent transparent is not the best, right? We’re not able to offer a tuition waiver. We’re not able to do these things that I would really like to do. And I remember Jacob actually called another one of our former GA’s, you know, and basically said, Hey, is this worth it or not? And luckily that GA had our back, you know, and said, it’s absolutely worth it. But, you know, in a world where it’s very easy to kind of take the road, that’s a little bit safer. I feel like Jacob made a, you know, obviously I’m gonna be biased and say he made a great pick, right? But
Nick Raszeja:
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
He’s invested in himself in my opinion, right? He’s going to a situation where he may not get as much money, but he knows he’s gonna get as much experience as possible. So I’m glad you introduced me to him, but I think that’s a great example of investing in yourself, right? Because ultimately he’s gonna get to run some seriously high level teams and he’s gonna get a lot of good experience. So I’m stoked for it.
Nick Raszeja:
out. Yep, for sure.
Yeah, me too. I’m fired up for him. He’s been with me for a year now, almost a year. ⁓ So yeah, I’m fired up that he’s getting the opportunity to go down there.
Samson:
Yeah. And you know, it’s really cool too. And what I’m glad is like, you know, sometimes you get coaches reach out to you and send you like, Hey, this person’s really good. Right. And interview them and they may just not be a good fit. And I was like, shit, I got to get on a podcast with Nick. And if I don’t like Jacob, you know, we’re going to have this like awkward tension, right? Turns out he’s the absolute man. And he gave me a great recommendation. So it’s always good to know that, right? Not saying that I think you would send anybody who wouldn’t fit this way, but you know, it was kind of something I was like, all right. And then we got on the phone and I spent 15 minutes with them on the first phone interview. was like, awesome.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, yeah.
Samson:
All right, then I know this is not going to be nearly as awkward as I feared it would be. yeah. Well, you you talked about, you know, obviously growing in your art of coaching, you know, are there any core principles or anything that you’ve learned over the years like that you really stuck that stuck with you and you really take with you every job you go like kind of your core structures or core principles that you have.
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. That’s awesome.
⁓ so the biggest thing I’ve kind of already talked about, but just like hard work and discipline. Those are two things that are going to stick with me for the rest of my life, because that’s what got me to the point where I’m now. ⁓ so I mean, growing up, all I knew was hard work. ⁓ that’s how I excelled in athletics. And that’s basically my core principle as a, as a strength coach is that I may not be the best strength coach or I may not be, ⁓ you know, the best at whatever topic that.
You know, this coach wants me to talk about or wants me to present to the team or whatever the case may be, but I’m going to work really, really hard to make sure that if I don’t know something, I’m going to learn it. Or if it’s something that I’m very passionate about and I already know I’m going to continue to work hard to make sure I’m even better at whatever that may be. And discipline kind of goes, you know, right in with that. So hard work and discipline, those are definitely my ⁓ two core principles that, you know, are with me as a coach.
Really, just my entire life in general, that’s just kind how I live and that’s how I do things.
Samson:
I love that man. And you know, the hard work piece for me is like, I’ve never worked harder and regretted it. Right? Like I’ve never, you know, had a problem or encountered something and then said, okay, let me do the background work to actually get better at this. And then regretted it. Right. It’s never, I never felt like I’ve wasted time. So I love the hard work aspect of it. And I love that those are your core principles. It’s, it’s awesome. I knew we’d get along right. Obviously, because Patrick’s been hyping you up and Patrick only likes cool people, but I really, I really like your philosophies and I like
Nick Raszeja:
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Samson:
who you are as a coach, man. So I’m glad we kind of got to dive into this a little deeper. I’ve got one final question for you. Okay. Most important one of the podcasts in my opinion, favorite restaurant in Syracuse.
Nick Raszeja:
That’s tough Honestly in terms like just pizza and wings ⁓ Twin trees. I’m a big I’m a big fan of twin trees I actually have one that’s less than a mile away from my from my apartment. So yeah, that’s definitely that’s definitely up there for me
Samson:
Yep, there ya go.
That’s awesome. Have you gotten a chance to check out Robbie T’s pizza yet? Okay. It’s over in Jamesville. Robbie T’s is awesome, man. And it’s Robbie. Like Robbie answers the phone. Robbie’s the one who hands you the pizza and everything. Like he’s the guy. I highly recommend that. I actually had like, that’s the only restaurant I have saved in my phone where I have like the number actually is Robbie T’s. So if I’m ever back in Syracuse, I’ll be hitting you up and I’ll be hitting Robbie up for sure. Yeah.
Nick Raszeja:
I have not. I have not. Okay.
Yep, that’s right. Yeah, let’s do it.
Let’s get some pizza.
Samson:
Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, dude. Seriously, it’s been great to get to know you. If anybody wants to reach out with any questions or kind of follow up with you, what would be the best way to either follow you on Instagram or reach out to you?
Nick Raszeja:
Yeah, Instagram or ⁓ X it’s called now ⁓ username is just coach and then underscore regi my last name RAS ZEJA that definitely the easiest way.
Samson:
Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, dude. I really appreciate it.
Nick Raszeja:
Yep, absolutely. Thank you for having me.
