Golden To Direct ECU Strength and Conditioning Program
May 16, 2005 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Michael Golden has been named director of strength and conditioning at East Carolina University according to an announcement from athletics director Terry Holland Monday.
Golden will provide a direct strength training leadership role to the Pirates' football program while coordinating off-season and in-season applications for the remaining 19 East Carolina teams. He replaces Jim Whitten, who accepted an associate head strength coach's position at Virginia Military Institute August 28, 2004, and will join John Grieco and Danny Wheel on the Pirates' full-time strength and conditioning staff.
Prior to taking over ECU's top athletic performance position, Golden recently spent three years on the South Carolina staff beginning in March, 2002, as assistant strength coach where he worked directly with the Gamecocks' tennis and women's golf teams while also providing ancillary support for the football, volleyball and cheerleading programs. During the summer of 2004, he designed and implemented South Carolina's summer strength, speed and conditioning program for the Gamecock football team.
In March of 1998, after spending 20 months working with the strength and athletic training programs at Bloomfield (Conn.) High School, he accepted a position as head football strength and conditioning coach under Skip Holtz at the University of Connecticut, where he designed, implemented and supervised all weight training, agility and conditioning sessions. He also coordinated all strength and speed testing, and the Huskies' sideline management operation, playing a key role in UConn's first 10-win football campaign and an NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearance in the fall of 1998.
Golden earned his first collegiate full-time position in 1996 and spent nearly two seasons as head strength and conditioning coach at Central Connecticut State where he contributed an integral role in the design and inventory purchases for the Blue Devils' new weight room facility.
Golden, 36, is a 1992 graduate of Central Connecticut State, earning a bachelor's degree in physical education. Upon graduation, he spent seven months as an intern at Harvard during the 1992-93 academic year, working as head strength coach for the institution's rugby squad which advanced to the Final Four while also working with the Crimson's football and ice hockey programs.
He gained additional experience as an assistant at the National Football League Scouting Combines in 1995, 1996 and 1997 and as a training camp intern for the Cleveland Browns in 1996. Golden also has put together an extensive background of international competition, serving as an assistant coach for the five-time World Powerlifting Champion USA Men's Team at venues in Birmingham, England (1992), Jonkoping, Sweden (1993), Johannesburg, South Africa (1994), Pori, Finland (1995) and Salzburg, Austria (1996). He has also published articles in two international strength magazines, Powerlifting USA and Ironman Japan.
Golden is a certified member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA), United States Weightlifting Federation (USWA) and National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA).
Golden is married to the former Nicole Kitsos of Cheshire, Conn., and the couple has four daughters -- Natasha (5), Tatiana (3), Sophia (2) and Anastasia (two months).
