Jul 6, 2018

Partners in Strength

As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. That has certainly held true for the strength and conditioning program at the University of Kentucky, where Corey Edmond, CSCS, and Mark Hill, CSCS, work together as Co-Directors of Performance for the school’s football team. Though this type of leadership structure is rare, for Edmond and Hill, it works seamlessly.

“We collaborate on everything,” says Hill. “Coach Edmond writes all the speed programs and I write all the strength programs, but I ask him what he thinks, and he asks me what I think, and we make decisions together. And we’re always talking about the upcoming weeks so we can stay on the same page.”

The partnership didn’t develop overnight, however. In fact, it was more than 20 years in the making. Edmond was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the late 1990s when Hill played there, and they have maintained a connection ever since. Hill worked under Edmond a few years later with the University of Oklahoma football team, and then served as Edmond’s assistant with the University of Arizona football team from 2004-06. At both stops, it was clear how well they work together.