Derek Owings - Football Coach - James Madison University Athletics

Derek Owings

Title:
Director of Strength & Conditioning
Email:
owingsdc@jmu.edu
Phone:
540-568-6517

Derek Owings was hired as JMU's as Director of Strength of Conditioning/APC on Sept. 15, 2020. In this role, Owings will oversee the strength program for the football team.

Owings comes to JMU after nearly a two-year stint at Texas Tech, where he was Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Red Raider football team. Prior to TTU, he spent one year as Assistant Director of Sports Performance with football at the University of Central Florida.

In both roles, Owings built and utilized position specific workouts, beginning with the demands of on-field performance. He also coordinated all GPS data both for the Red Raiders and Golden Knights.

Owings was lead strength coach for the wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, defensive backs and linebackers at Texas Tech. While at UCF, he oversaw the receivers, running backs, defensive backs and specialists. He also assisted in return-to-play protocols for injured athletes and integrated methods to maximize movement efficiency, injury prevention and rapid recovery this past year in Lubbock.

Before his time at UCF, he was a graduate assistant from 2016-18 at Utah State. Owings also served intern roles at Mercer and Michigan, as well as at Barwis Methods in Plymouth, Mich.

Owings joined the coaching profession following his playing career at Mercer (2014-15), where he was an Academic All-SoCon selection. He also began his career at Eastern Michigan (2012-13).

He graduated from Mercer in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in sports management and later earned his Master's of Education in Physical and Sport Education at Utah State in 2018.

Owings holds the following certifications: CSCS-NSCA, USAW-Level 1, Running Mechanics Professional Level 1 and 2, Metabolic Analytics Practitioner, FRCms, Precision Nutrition Level 1, Body Type Nutrition as well as CPR and AED - ARC.