Jan 29, 2015
Turley Has Position Endowed

Stanford University recently announced today that its football sports performance coordinator position has been endowed by a generous gift from John and Kathy Kissick named in honor of their family. Stanford is the first NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision sports performance program in the nation with an endowed directorship.
“We are very grateful to John and Kathy Kissick for this magnanimous gift,” said David Shaw, the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football David. “Not only have the Kissicks been longtime friends of Stanford Athletics and particularly Stanford Football, but also they have recognized that it takes a great strength and conditioning program to produce a great team. John and Kathy have identified that this has been a huge part of Stanford Football’s transformation and how vital it will be to our future success.”

Shannon Turley is Stanford’s first Kissick Family Director of Football Sports Performance.

“It is a tremendous and humbling honor to have our sports performance program and my role recognized with this endowed directorship,” said Turley. “This is a powerful institutional commitment that is not only professionally rewarding but also personally gratifying to come from a great supporter and friend. Only at Stanford can you have the opportunity to develop a relationship with someone like the Kissicks.”

“Nobody deserves this more than Shannon,” said John Kissick. “Coach Turley has been-and is -a crucial, integral part of what Stanford supporters correctly believe is the biggest and most successful turnaround in the history of college football. Shannon has executed on a key Stanford goal of making the team physically dominant and able to impose its will upon opponents.”

Last season’s Pac-12 and Rose Bowl Game Champions earned eight of their wins in the fourth quarter or overtime, with an average margin of victory less than five points. Stanford has not allowed a point scored in the fourth quarter or overtime by its last six opponents, four of which were ranked.

In 2011, Turley was named FootballScoop’s Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year, determined by a panel of coaches and previous recipients.

“Over its long history, Stanford Football has had many remarkable innovators whose influence has carried far beyond Stanford,” said Kissick. “Clark Shaughnessy was the Father of the T-Formation. Bill Walsh was the Father of the West Coast Offense. Of course leading and innovating in a large variety of new ways, David Shaw is Stanford’s Father of Winning, earning more victories in his first two years as head coach than any two consecutive years in the storied 117-year history of Stanford Football.

“Today we celebrate a completely new innovator, daring to challenge and change the way that football at any level has approached strength and conditioning. Shannon’s program encompasses the most relevant exercise, nutrition, hydration, sleep, psychology and a superior integration with sports medicine and physical therapy. Like Shaughnessy, Walsh and Shaw, we are lucky that this important football innovation is once again transpiring on Stanford soil under the inspired leadership and direction of Coach>Shannon Turley. And the Kissick family is delighted to endow his coaching position.”

At the core of Turley’s player development program has been injury prevention. The number of injuries has been dramatically reduced since his arrival: an 87 percent decline in games missed due to injury among players in Stanford’s two-deep from 2006 to 2012. Remarkably, only two injuries in 2012 required season-ending or post-season surgical repair for the Cardinal.

Those players kept on the field have been trained by Turley in mental discipline and physical preparation to start fast and finish strong in games. First and fourth quarter (plus overtime) scoring for Stanford the last three seasons has consistently and decidedly outpaced its opponents: +144 points in 2010, +115 in 2011, and +102 in 2012.

“Coach Turley has been one of the main driving forces of the Stanford Football program,” said Shaw. “Our first mission was getting the team healthier. Our second mission was getting our team stronger. Our third mission has been teaching our team to finish and win games in the fourth quarter and overtime. Our style of play on both sides of the ball is physical, and our players need to be able to perform at a high level. Coach Turley’s program makes it possible for us to do that.

“At the same time, it’s important to us for prepare our young players to play. We play a lot of freshmen, and Coach Turley’s summer strength and conditioning program has been a huge part of our success getting freshmen ready to compete and keeping them healthy.”

The bond between Shannon Turley and John Kissick began its tale three years ago at the end of the 2010 season. Kissick and his Cardinal travel party at the 2011 Discover Orange Bowl found themselves at the Virginia Tech team hotel, where he had a chance meeting with a diehard Hokies fan claiming inside information that the Cardinal had lost its quarterback for the game. Kissick detected the playful ruse and discovered the identity of Turley’s half-brother.

After the Stanford victory, Kissick and Turley began to communicate. They met at the Cardinal & White Spring Game the following April in San Francisco, with several more encounters that followed. The next BCS bowl game brought Stanford to Glendale, Ariz., where Turley gave a presentation at a dinner hosted by Kissick with approximately 150 Cardinal attendees.

“Many of them were former Stanford Football players, and everybody was so impressed with Shannon,” said Kissick. “Every time I have met with him, he’s been terrific.”

“We’ve developed a relationship and he’s given me chances to speak with him and his groups,” said Turley. “John Kissick is such a knowledgeable football fan. He has noticed the importance of the strength program and all of the details that develop our players.”

The Kissick family name will now be noticed alongside that program, led by Turley for years to come.

“This commitment and support for our player development means a great deal for me and the roots I have planted here with Brittany,” said Turley. “I’m excited to continue working relentlessly toward the goal of a Stanford Football dynasty, here in my terminal job.”




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