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Jeff Connors enters his ninth spring as Carolina's Strength and Conditioning Coordinator and his eighth as an assistant athletic director. While his primary focus is the football team's strength and conditioning, Connors oversees the department's entire strength and conditioning program and also works specifically with the women's basketball team. Connors has been honored as a Master Strength & Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches association (CSCCa). The Master Strength & Conditioning Coach certification is the highest honor that can be achieved as a strength and conditioning coach, representing professionalism, knowledge, experience, expertise and longevity in the field. Connors has helped develop some of the top players in Carolina's program, including Julius Peppers, Ronald Curry, David Thornton, Kentwan Balmer, Hakeem Nicks, Brooks Foster and Garrett Reynolds. In four years under Connors' direction, Balmer increased his overall strength and agility and became a first-round NFL draft choice. Connors' conditioning program was one of the reasons Carolina outscored its opponents by 63 points in the second half in 2008. In 2004, players pointed to Connors' work as a reason the Tar Heels won three of the last four regular-season contests and earned a berth in the Continental Tire Bowl. Since Connors began working with the women's basketball team, the Tar Heels have won four ACC championships, made two Final Four appearances and one Elite Eight appearance. Connors came to Carolina after spending 10 seasons as East Carolina's Director of Strength & Conditioning. Under Connors, the Pirates were one of the best fourth-quarter teams in the country. In 1996, the ECU defense did not allow a point in the fourth quarter until the seventh game of the season and in 1999, the Pirates outscored their opponents, 102-56, in the final period. In 2000, ECU had a 94-57 advantage in the fourth quarter. Connors' was the head strength and conditioning coach at Bucknell prior to his experience at East Carolina. Several of Connors' former assistants are now head strength and conditioning coaches at other universities, including: Tom Howley, Director of Strength & Conditioning at Cornell; Jay Butler, Director of Strength & Conditioning at Rutgers; Jennifer Jones, Head Coach of Strength & Conditioning for Women's Sports at Texas A&M; Sonny Sano, Director of Strength & Conditioning at Ohio; Toby Jacobi, Strength & Conditioning Coach at Charleston Southern; Josh Bush, Head Strength Coach, Morgan State; Wes Herlocker, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach, Wofford; Aaron Walker, Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Elon. Connors was the featured speaker at the 1995 National Strength and Conditioning Association Conference in Phoenix, the 1996 NSCA Conference in Atlanta and the 2003 NSCA Conference. In 1996, he was the Regional Director of the Year and was nominated for National Strength Coach of the Year in 1991. Connors was a competitive powerlifter and has won four state titles in powerlifting and has been ranked as high as fourth nationally. He holds Level I certification in Olympic Weight Lifting by the U.S. Weight Lifting Federation. A 1980 graduate of Salem (W. Va.) College, Connors was a four-year starter at cornerback and was team captain as a senior. He led Salem in interceptions as a sophomore and junior. After college, Connors served as a police officer in South Florida for two years. Prior to becoming a strength coach, Connors coached high school football and wrestling at The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, Fla., and he coached linebackers at the Tennessee Military Institute in Sweetwater, Tenn. Connors and his wife, Michele, have a daughter, Kaitlin, and a son, Beau.
The Connors File |
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