Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Russell Barbarino Hired as Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Michigan


RUSSELL BARBARINO
HEAD STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(Photo Courtesy: FAMU Athletics)
ANN ARBOR, Michigan --University of Michigan director of strength and conditioning Mike Favre announced Russell Barbarino Wednesday (July 29) as a head strength and conditioning coach for Olympic sports. He will direct strength and conditioning for women's basketball and field hockey during the 2015-16 athletic season.

Prior to Michigan, Barbarino spent five years as the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Florida A&M University. He was responsible for the supervision of more than 300 student-athletes from FAMU's 18 intercollegiate athletics teams and coordinating all strength and conditioning programs, including the direct supervision of three full-time assistants. During his time there, the football team won the 2010 MEAC Conference football championship. He also trained two NFL Draft selections and nine players selected to free agent NFL professional contracts. Additionally, he trained the 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 MEAC Conference South Division volleyball champions, a team that was 38-2 in MEAC conference play and 44-6 including MEAC Tournament play from 2011-2014.

Prior to FAMU, he was a successful business owner and nationally certified fitness and athletic performance specialist in Tallahassee and surrounding areas, including owning and operating Anytime Fitness of Tallahassee Mahan Drive and Anytime Fitness of Crawfordville, Florida.

Barbarino previously served as the director of strength and conditioning at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 2005-2006. Due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, he relocated to College Station, Texas, and set up a training schedule in conjunction with Texas A&M University officials. He coordinated strength and conditioning programs for all of Tulane's 16 men's and women's division I varsity sports programs, which were located at four different universities, including Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Louisiana Tech and Southern Methodist. Also, he worked together on a daily basis with the Texas A&M Strength & Conditioning Staff, assisting with the training of the Texas A&M football, men's basketball and a variety of Olympic sports programs.

Prior to Tulane, Barbarino served as the Director of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Delaware from 1999-2005. While at Delaware, he coordinated, designed and implemented strength and conditioning programs for all 23 men's and women's Division I varsity sports programs. The football team garnered its best record in school history, going 15-1 and winning the 2003 Division I-AA (FCS) national championship while also capturing the 2000, 2003 and 2004 Atlantic-10 Conference Football championships. On their way to winning the 2003 national championship, Delaware outscored its playoff opponents, 149-23, including a 40-0 victory in the championship game -- all current FCS records. The women's basketball program posted five 20-plus win seasons, participated in the WNIT in 2005, 2003 and 2002 and earned a trip to the 2001 NCAA Tournament. They also won the 2005 and 2003 Colonial Athletic Association regular-season championships and 2001 America East Conference championship. The men's basketball program also had a pair of 20-plus win seasons and an invitation to the 2000 NIT. He also trained the 2004 CAA field hockey champions and 2000 women's lacrosse team to the NCAA Championship tournament.

Prior to his stint at Delaware, Barbarino served as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning coach at Florida State University from 1995-1999. While Barbarino was at Florida State, the program won the 1999 NCAA FBS championship, had two national runner-up finishes and won five Atlantic Coast Conference football titles. Barbarino assisted with the development of 11 first-round NFL draft picks and 38 athletes drafted or signed to free-agent contracts by NFL teams.

Barbarino is no stranger himself to the iron game. As a competitive powerlifter, he has become a two-time world, four-time national and nine-time state powerlifting champion who has held world and national records in both the bench press and deadlift while competing in the WNPF, ADFPA, WPA and APA organizations.

Barbarino also has experience working as a volunteer/intern with the following NFL professional organizations including: New Orleans Saints (2005), Baltimore Ravens (2004) and Philadelphia Eagles (2002).

Barbarino is Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) by the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCa). He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and a member of the U.S. Weightlifting Federation (USAW) as a coach.

A former football letterwinner at Kean University in New Jersey, Barbarino earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from the school in 1995 and added a master's degree in sports administration from Florida State in 1997. He and his wife, the former Jennifer Engelbrecht, have three boys named Kyle, Bryce and Ryan.

COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS

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