By: Jake Renie, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications
DANVILLE, Ky. – Centre College announced on Wednesday the return of Jeremy Carlson '15 to the athletic department, accepting the position as Centre's first Assistant Athletic Director for Sport Performance. Carlson kicked off his third run for the Gold & White on the first day of February.
"Centre Athletics got significantly better today with the return of Jeremy Carlson as our Assistant AD for Sport Performance." explained Director of Athletics Brad Fields.?"Jeremy built the foundation of our strength and performance program six years ago, and now returns at the most exciting chapter in the 203-year history of the College. Our more than 600 student-athletes will benefit from his expertise, his passion, but most importantly his dedication to training and mentoring the whole person."
Carlson returns to Centre after overseeing the direction of the Mercer County athletic department's Strength and Conditioning program. He joined the Titans in 2021 overseeing the high school's weightlifting classes and working closely with the training of all of Mercer's sports. He also served as the boys' soccer coach, helping lead the team to a 46th District Championship appearance and an 11-8 record in the 2022 season.
This will not be his first go-around at Centre though, as he served as the College's first Head Strength and Conditioning Coach back in the summer of 2017. In the role, he primarily designed, implemented, and supervised sport-specific strength and conditioning programs for all Centre student-athletes. He worked with all coaches and the athletic training staff to provide elite and individualized programming for every student-athlete and sport program. He found plenty of success while with the Gold & White, including an NSCA Strength and Conditioning All-American selection in Sarah Hayhurst during the 2017-18 year.
Carlson also brought the utilization of the popular TeamBuildR platform at Centre, A platform for any coach in any setting to write training programs, build questionnaires and access athlete and client performance data daily. TeamBuildr is utilized to access quality, structured strength and conditioning programs in addition to features that help streamline any program, gym or team. The software is used by strength coaches all over the world from high schools to the NFL.
"To have an opportunity to return to my alma mater in this role, only comes around once in a lifetime." acknowledged Carlson, "My vision for this new position is to redefine what Sports Performance looks like at the Division III level. As an institution, Centre leads the way in academic excellence, and my expectation is that our Sports Performance Department does the same. Our mission will be help student-athletes prepare for their athletic endeavors and be a catalyst for lifelong fitness. With the new IWAE project near completion, all of our sports teams excelling and the college growing, it is an exciting time to be a Colonel!"
Carlson's new position is one of many recent strategic moves that AD Fields and the College's administration have made in pursuit of remaining a top Division III program and sustaining the best student-athlete experience possible. Starting with creating two full-time strength & conditioning positions on staff in 2017, roles previously shared by part-time assistant coaches, Centre's efforts related to elevating training resources will continue with the building of a 6000 square-foot Strength and Performance Center as part of the Initiative for Wellness and Excellence (IWAE).
Other strategic plays include promoting Mattie Zimmerman to Head Athletic Trainer & Nutrition Specialist and creating refueling stations outside the Buck Athletic Training offices and in the new SPC building. The athletic department also added Katie Patton, Director of Student-Athlete Success and campuswide Student Success team member, to the growing ecosystem of holistically focused student-athlete support and development resources.
A former standout for the Centre men's soccer team, Carlson was named the SAA Defensive Player of the Year as a senior in 2014, anchoring a back line that paced the SAA in goals against average in 2013 and '14. He was a two-time All-Great Lakes Region honoree and a four-time All-SAA selection, garnering First Team honors for three consecutive seasons from 2012-14. In addition, he was named the Centre Male Athlete of the Year as a senior and a NSCAA Academic All-American.
