Fifteen Questions Wednesday, June 5, 2013 By W.A. Myatt

Fifteen Questions for Jeff Connors

By W.A. Myatt
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

Jeff Connors is in his second stint at East Carolina, having returned as Assistant Athletic Director for Strength and Conditioning on Jan. 21, 2011. Connors worked in strength and conditioning from 1991 to 2001 under former ECU football coaches Bill Lewis and Steve Logan before spending 10 years in a similar capacity at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Article continues after the following pictures.

Jeff Connors runs with players during an early morning workout.

Jeff Connors supervising a summer workout in the sandpit — that's Damon Magazu.

Jeff Connors gathers the players for a skull session at the close of a summer workout.

(Bonesville archive photos by Al Myatt)

Connors was a four-year lettermen at Salem (WV) College as a defensive back. His undergraduate degrees were in criminal justice and physical education. He worked for two years as a police officer in Palm Beach County, Florida. He earned a Masters degree in Education from Bucknell.

Connors served as strength and conditioning coach at Bucknell before being lured to Greenville by Lewis. He is widely respected for his expertise and results in the strength and conditioning field. He was inducted into the Washington-Greene chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Coach Connors recently took time to field a few questions.

Q: Favorite Restaurant in Greenville?

A: I like some good ol' home cooking, so GK (Cafe & Catering).

Q: Favorite TV show?

A: That's a good question, because I don't watch much TV. I'm really all about factual stuff so I like "First 48."

Q: How did you get into strength and conditioning?

A: My experience as a collegiate football player, coupled with my experience as a competitive powerlifter launched me in that direction.

Q: What was the highlight of your career as a player?

A: Defeating our rival Fairmont State each and every year.

Q: How do you motivate yourself to motivate others?

A: Motivation is an issue of passion. It's easy for me, because I'm doing something I'm very passionate about.

Q: What's your favorite thing about your job?

A: My favorite thing about my job is when I see significant, positive change in individuals — both tangible and intangible.

Q: Who is a player to watch this season based on their offseason work with you?

A: It's really hard to pinpoint one guy, because there are so many guys who have done well throughout the offseason. I'm very interested to see how Domonique Lennon does this year, because of what he's accomplished physically in the last year, as far as his development.

Q: Are you excited about going to the America Athletic Conference in 2014?

A: We've been talking about going into a conference since 1991, so I'm very excited about it. I think it will be an upward move. I think there will be a lot of positives and, with the type of leadership we have, there's nowhere to go but up.

Q: Who has influenced you in the strength and conditioning field?

A: Because I put so much emphasis on speed development, Kevin McNair. He ran track at Stanford with Charlie Francis and was one of the first "Gurus" of how to apply strength and power to speed development. Dr. William Kraemer, who's at the University of Connecticut, also was a very strong early influence for me.

Q: What allowed the 1991 East Carolina football team to achieve greatness in terms of strength and conditioning?

A: They had an exceptional willingness to work hard. They were hungry, they wanted to win, they were willing to do whatever it took to win. I think they had an exceptional coaching staff that also was very supportive of what I did. They also liked to lift weights — and the momentum they had from knowing they had a good football team, and when they kept winning games, and building on those wins, along with the rabid energy of the fans that year. I thought it was unique, the stadium chanting "We believe!"

Q: What is one general health tip that you would share with Pirate Nation?

A: I'm very much against smoking cigarettes. I think that cigarette smoke is lethal, and the reason I think that is because I raised three acres of tobacco. It seemed to me like it killed the ground, which should give an indication (of it's danger) and when we hung it in the barn, I came out of there feeling like I smoked about ten packs of cigarettes. So, don't smoke!

Q: With this season being the 50th anniversary of Dowdy-Ficklen, what is your most memorable moment in the stadium?

A: I've got a few memorable moments, I really do. I think the Pitt game in 1991 is my most memorable (W 24-23). The energy, the excitement with the way the game went, how we won the game, the celebration — it was part of a great year. It also helped the momentum of that year. Standing on other sidelines (with UNC) and hearing "First Down Pirates" is another memorable moment, because it just didn't feel right. It was a very strange feeling.

Q: How did being a police officer contribute to your personal development?

A: I saw a lot of things that happened in the world on a daily basis that I was unaware of. It really taught me a lot about life in general. I was exposed to tragedy, death and then of course, the opportunity to help people. No two days were the same. What I took from my experience is that I feel everybody should do it — so they can see exactly what actually goes on in the world on a day-to-day basis.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your time away from athletics?

A: Because I'm not home much, and I was away from my family with my situation at Chapel-Hill for a period of years — I just really enjoy being at home relaxing and spending time with my family and my dogs, particularly my bulldog "Jack."

Q: How have renovations in the Murphy center impacted strength and conditioning at East Carolina?

A: I think it's very significant in that we have an opportunity to do linear speed development, to change direction and every type of resistance training without having to travel anywhere. We can actually perform some of that type of training in a complex type of method where you can superset, or couple one thing with another when you have the proximity being so close. For instance, we might want to do a lift that's explosive, and measure the speed of movement in the lift, followed by two sprints. With our facilities, we're able to experiment with sequences of movements to make people more explosive. The entire facility is very conducive to the number of athletes that we run through here in the course of a day. We can have a very positive, enthusiastic environment where teams don't get in each other's way. They enjoy being in here with each other, and I think that's very important in a program. That's something we didn't have at UNC, because everything was so fragmented and separated. Having our athletes in one facility, under one central methodology, is a very positive situation. I was extremely happy to get back to this facility because it's actually much better than the one I had for football at UNC, in my opinion.

E-mail W.A. Myatt.

PAGE UPDATED 06/05/13 05:24 AM.