Virginia Tech announced Ben Hilgart is the Hokies' new associate athletics director for strength and conditioning. Hilgart will work directly with head coach Justin Fuente and the football program, as well as oversee all aspects of performance training for varsity sports at Tech.
"Ben will be a key member of our team at Virginia Tech," Fuente said in a release. "Mike Gentry and his staff established a great standard for strength and conditioning at Virginia Tech and Ben will help set our expectations as he pushes our student-athletes to reach their full potential."
Ben Hilgart | University of New Mexico Athletics Department
Hilgart was named New Mexico's director of athletic performance in 2013, prior to that he served as the Lobos' football strength and conditioning coordinator. He oversaw all phases of strength, conditioning, rehabilitation and injury prevention. He's trained a total of 32 NFL players during his time at New Mexico, Arizona State, Ohio State and UTEP. He produced 10 first-team All-Pac 10/Pac-12 players at Arizona State. He was also responsible for a redesign of UNM's athletic performance center.
This 2012 profile on Hilgart from the Albuquerque Journal after he was hired at New Mexico provides some insight into Hilgart's approach.
"We have 164 days (actually, 162 as of this morning) until we play our first game, and I plan on using every single one that the NCAA allows me to use."
Does Hilgart favor mass over explosiveness, strength over agility, heavy weight over high repetitions? No.
He wants it all.
"I think it's a little oversimplifying," he says, "to say I'm a high-rep guy or I'm a low-rep guy. I'm all those things, and I'm none of those things.
"We do all that stuff. We're gonna do all that stuff, and at certain times of the year we're gonna stress one area more than another."
"What's gonna help me," he says, "is when we get into spring ball ... I'll be able to identify weaknesses guys have and strengths they have.
"If a guy's a great (lifter) but he's not a great football player, there are certain things we can be doing in the weight room that are gonna help make him a better football player."
Comments
Nice, any disclosure at this time of his salary?
He's going to be challenging Vance Vice for the award of best mug on staff.
http://www.golobos.com/coaches.aspx?rc=90&path=football
Nickname should be Mr. Squarejaws.
Yea I'm afraid of him.
He sure doesn't look like the kind of guy you'd want to disappoint.
If you aren't at least a little afraid of you strength coach, he probably shouldn't be your strength coach.
Has worked for anOSU, New Mexico and Arizona State. Will be interesting to see how the players take to him.
He doesn't look that tough......
Seriously though we are assembling some bad-ass coaches and if their abilities match their looks, we will be incredible.
Ok someone in the know can you explain how this works? He is over all programs but stays mostly with the football team, does that mean other programs have their own lead person? Does football have someone else who is there point man?
It is the same as when Gentry was here. The olympic sports each have a main S&C person and that person will report to Hilgart.Turns out Hilgart, Jackson and Mitchell are all on the same level and will report to John Ballein. Not sure how the rest of the hierarchy will work out, but it'll work out.
Thanks the hierarchy with this has always intrigued me.
Eh could be worse I guess. I want to know his position on squat depth (Please be ATG) and powercleans from the hang position vs. the floor (Please be floor).
For what it's worth, I've talked to a lot of professionals that strongly recommend against ATG for athletes that do a lot of quick cuts and/or lateral movement, the argument being that there's more risk but no additional reward. Regardless, I'm sure Hilgart is far more knowledgeable than any of us here.
I'm calling for all the way to the floor style for that full body workout...
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I would be out for a year if I attempted this
I jumped out of my seat when I saw his face.
Any time I get an excuse to post this, it's happening.
Looking at this photo improved my deadlift 40%
Is the rest of the staff changing as well? Is this a Whit hire, a Fuente hire, or both? I've gained a lot of faith in Whit.
The rest of the guys like Shuman, Ferguson, Acree, etc. are put on a 6 month "probationary" period to see if they will be retained. I'd imagine most of them will be staying after that unless they get a job somewhere else.
I like that Fuente thinks outside the box and is not afraid to do things a little differently...
Here was the other finalist for the job. Thankfully he went with Hilgart for the position.
Would be a good fit at another Virginia based school that hired a new coach...
JMU?
I was able to acquire some hidden video of the new UVA weight coach.....I have to say, I am impressed.
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From the same footage
FBI gonna get you for having that on your computer. Hope its not cached on mine.
I'm guessing he brings a lunch pail to work every day.
Dayaaam.
Dude looks like he could EAT a lunch pail every day at work.
i can't tell if Fuente is assembling a biker gang or hiring football coaches! LOL
either way, these guys will whip our boys into shape and ready for the new season. great job, Fuente (and AD Babcock, too).
Channel some biker attitude to the field: to deny our opponents points, to score multiple times upon them, and hear the lamentations of their women and espn writers.
Hilgarting: the process of taking new Hokies and making them beasts.
Hilgartification?
Hilgartization.
I checked the dictionary....correct usage is "Hilgartrification"
Body by Ben.
Hilgart after ya
Ladies and gentlemen, no more calls please. We have a winner.
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Thanks. Thought it was worth coming in from lurking to post
...by a wide, wide margin
Hilgarting
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Let's Hilgart those joints, my friends.
Nice Easy Rider reference.......
FEARECTION
I think it's simply a fear boner.
His tie is slightly crooked in that mug shot. Do you think the photographer was too scared to tell him?
I'd venture to guess the photog never looked beyond the guy's chin.
Another great goatee on staff.
Leg up. Sport one meself.
Photographer was probably thinking "I should mention the necktie, but there's no observable neck here. Better keep my piehole shut."
Damn, I wish I had legs to give.
his tie is probably afraid of him and trying to exit stage left
It seems like we experience a large number of knee inguries int he past that cripple the seasons. Maybe not so many in 2015, but there seems like a pattern. Hopefully he can develop strength, without creating physical issues that the player's bodies have a difficult time handling.
He looks so happy in his New Mexico AD pic! Welcome to the family, we wish him well. GO HOKIES!
I really want to see a study on this. We talk about knee injuries, it feels like we suffer a lot of knee injuries, but I have no idea what the "average" number of knee injuries per season is at the CFP level.
Knee injuries with a reported 3,774 a year. (Datalys Center -NCAA Injury Surveillance Center.)
Is that across all divisions?
yes, sorry
I wonder if Div. II, III and FCS have more injuries because of deficiencies in S&C, or if the higher level of play at the CFP level causes more knee injuries.
that was my first thought when I heard the news: how big of a sample size do you need to determine whether a staff, or a technique or group of techniques, is better or worse than another? I suspect it would be more than one team over three years. You would probably have to have several schools where all the staffs follow one regimen, and a sufficient control group to tell if there really is a correlation.
IOW, even if we don't have a single knee injury for the next three years, that will not be sufficient data to say Hilgartafterya is better than Gentrification. Does that sound right?
Also need a breakdown of contact vs non-contact injuries. If you get a big boy rolling up on you from the side, there isn't but so much you can do about that.
Upvoted for general content.
Will now create dummy account to upvote second time for Hilgartafterya.
Now THAT'S a beard worthy of Valhalla!
As soon as I saw this thread/picture I got extremely excited thinking about the comments. I have not been disappointed yet.
That might be one of the biggest heads I have ever seen
That's what...
Never mind. Too easy.
And that's what she WAS! Too easy!
...and with that massive beard he looks like a bald Hagrid.
Hilgart ... Hagrid ... is it just me or does that look like an alias?
Video proof that deep inside, he's a sweetheart...
FWIW national boards are commenting that this is a good hire for us.
Links?
My only worry on this hire is that he has been at a number of places already. I like when we have long term great hires. Hopefully he puts down roots and doesn't move on after 3-4 years.
All of those moves except New Mexico to VT were for promotions weren't they?
Uh, New Mexico to VT is a promotion...
I meant in terms of role, it seems like he was some form of assistant until New Mexico
He looks like a Christmas ham
I really wish we could have convinced Shannon Turley to come back, 2000 VT grad. He's leading Stanford's program and has reduced injuries by 87% since he showed up. This is a great NY Times article on the things he's been doing at Stanford, with an emphasis on balance and flexibility.
agreed. this would have been a grand slam hire. Nothing against Hilgart though
The guy who invented the FMS (the system Turley bases his programming from) is a physical therapist who lives in Chatham, VA, north of Danville.
Huh. My buddy Brad just drove back from Cali and was working for the FMS guys out there. I'll have to ask him more about this.
Had no idea Gray Cook was so close by, thanks for the info!
http://www.sportsrehabexpert.com/public/625.cfm
I like the hire. We have wanted change in the Football program and we have it now. My goodness , give this staff some time .
Seriously which one of you Hilgarted.
Where's the cardio?
/s
And why is it empty?
Those doors in the back is the speed and agility room. Although, I'd imagine they are just showing off how clean it looks in there since they dumped some of the old equipment that no one in there used.
Am I the only person who is going to mention how bad that food seemed for them in the video? Bacon? Really?
Not sure it matters. Those "multivitamins" will enhance their performance, even if the bacon won't.
New video with Andrew Alegretta and Ben Hilgart -
his beard game is strong.
Ben Hilgart is impressive
I like how he doesn't want to say what he benches when we all know its more than 99% of us, haha.