Paul Cipriano - Football Coach - James Madison University Athletics

Paul Cipriano

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

Paul Cipriano was hired as associate director of strength & conditioning with JMU football in January 2024, joining Bob Chesney on his initial coaching staff.

Cipriano comes to the Valley after two seasons as assistant strength & conditioning coach at Michigan State (2022-23) where he worked alongside former JMU director of strength & conditioning Jason Novak.

Before joining the Spartans, Cipriano spent two years at Illinois (2020-21), where he worked with the soccer and tennis programs as the assistant strength & conditioning coach.

Before his stint in the Big Ten, Cipriano worked four years at Central Michigan (2015-17, 2018-20). Cipriano served as the graduate assistant for football and head strength and conditioning coach for track and field from 2015 to 2017 and returned to Mount Pleasant as the assistant director of strength and conditioning in 2018 to 2020.

Sandwiched in between his two stops at CMU, he was assistant strength & conditioning coach at Florida International (2017-18). He also has collegiate experience as a sports performance coaching assistant at Wisconsin-La Crosse (2014) and as a strength and conditioning coaching assistant at Eastern Michigan (2014-15).

Cipriano earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from North Central College in 2013 and ran track for the Cardinals during his collegiate career. He earned his master’s degree in sport management from Central Michigan in 2017 and completed a second master’s degree in administration and leadership from CMU in 2020.

Cipriano is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the NSCA and a Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) through the CSCCA. He is also certified by USA Weightlifting, Precision Nutrition, Altis, and Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR). He was awarded the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s assistantship award in 2014.

Cipriano is married to Dr. Kelly Cipriano DPT, and the couple has a dog, Finan.