By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Whether running diagnostics for Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville, dispatching trucks for CRST in Cedar Rapids or serving as a grad assistant strength & conditioning coach at Arkansas Tech, Eric Rash was always training for something. 

            He just didn't know precisely what that "something" was.

            "I'm working the third shift, going in at 8 p.m., getting off at 6 a.m.," Rash said of being a production scientist at IDT for 2 ½ years. "And it's funny, a lot of that job (with IDT) was auditing equipment that we used, running diagnostics on it and taking samples . . . seeing if there's a discrepancy and if maintenance needs to be done. A lot of Excel computer work, to do the spreadsheets. I do some of that now, just more with the human element than mechanical."

            The 36-year-old Rash, who initially came to Baylor as an athletics performance coach for volleyball, found his "something" two years ago when he transitioned into his role as Director of Applied Performance. 

            "Across the industry, Applied Performance will look different at every institution," Rash said. "What's going on at Penn State or Pittsburgh or Texas is different than what's going on at Baylor. And I think it has to be to a certain extent because every situation is different. . . . In our situation, we have to be strategic with where we put our resource, but one of my goals is to have a touch point with every single sport."
 

            Kenny Boyd, Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Health & Wellness, describes Applied Performance as "the fifth bucket" in a Health & Wellness department that includes athletic medicine, athletics performance, performance nutrition and mental health. 

            "Applied Performance is the supportive arm for the other units," Boyd said. "For example, there's a lot of crossover between areas that we're monitoring or evaluating for return to play as it pertains to athletic medicine. From a performance standpoint, there may be some things that we're trying to capture some baseline measurements on jump testing or other performance metrics. 

            "Regarding mental health, there may be some crossover with, how certain issues our student-athletes are dealing with affects performance. Nutrition may involve looking at data capture moments for body composition trends and performance impact."

            The higher-profile pieces in Applied Performance are the Catapult GPS and Polar, player-tracking device used in a handful of sports: football, men's and women's basketball and soccer. They are also partnering with Vald Performance to add the latest technology in the field. 

            "What Eric and that technology brings is where a coach . . . would kind of feel or guesstimate, he brings the numbers and math to it," Baylor football coach Dave Aranda said. "And I think when the players see it, they can probably see it a lot clearer than maybe a story or something from me. I'm just confusing them."

            A multi-sport athlete at Thomas Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Eric was a University of Iowa fan growing up. 

            "Iowa football was the thing growing up," he said. "They went to the Orange Bowl in '02 and won a conference championship in '06. There's no NFL franchise, so the University of Iowa is it."

            Introduced to the world of strength and conditioning as a senior at Jefferson High, Eric interned with Iowa's strength and conditioning program under then-head strength coach Chris Doyle, the father of Baylor senior linebacker Dillon Doyle. 

            "I always knew in the back of my mind that that's what I wanted to do," said Rash, who graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in biology. "I didn't have a clear plan or a ton of mentors at the time to guide you through that process. But, I'd go on the websites of all these football programs. . . . It's crazy, but I knew who every program's head strength coach was."

            Through a PT clinic in Cedar Rapids, Eric was the contracted strength coach at Jefferson High School, leading after-school weight-lifting sessions, summer camps and some in-season programming. 

            "I was just providing workouts to the coaches," he said. "You're not necessarily running it, but I would show up on Friday nights for football games. I tried to make a role there that wasn't there. I think maybe that's been my MO my entire life. You aren't necessarily told what you need to do, you just show up, and people don't tell you to leave."

            Getting back into the strength and conditioning field, Eric did a summer internship in 2013 at Mississippi State under Matt Balis, who's now at Notre Dame. Moving back to Iowa, he did an eight-month internship at the University of Iowa, working specifically with track and field, softball and swimming & diving on the Olympic sports side. 

            "That completely changed my perspective on this discipline, this field as a whole," he said. "Whereas (before) I was locked into this very dogmatic way of looking at how to train athletes, through that experience, I understood that there's so much more at play.

            "The sport matters only to a certain extent when you're training the athlete. I think it helped me gain  perspective on the different areas and how the training can influence performance."

            Taking a graduate assistant position at Arkansas Tech, a Division II school in Russellville, Eric was part of the the school's first strength and conditioning program and served as the interim head coach for four months. 

            "You're seeing a lot more of that at the D-II level now because I think athletic departments realize how big of a role it plays," he said. "The D-II athletes, you could put those guys through the meat grinder, and those kids always come out smiling on the other end."
 

            After finishing his master's in strength and conditioning studies at Arkansas Tech, Eric moved back home to Iowa in the summer of 2016 "with nothing lined up, which isn't what you would advise somebody to do."

            While also applying for every strength and conditioning opening he could find, Eric worked as the evening and weekend truck driver manager for CRST International in Cedar Rapids. Again, everything is training for something. 

            "Truckers are a different breed, and they're not apologetic about it," he said. "But that experience, diffusing situations and trying to tell people bad news . . . you learn how to communicate with people at a level that's calming, in a way, or as direct as possible. Which, I think in the environment that we're in now, there's some of that, many times."

            Returning to Iowa for the third time, Eric was working an internship on the Olympic side when he got a call about an opening at Baylor. Andrew Althoff was looking for someone to help out Josh Nelson in the Applied Performance area and serve as an athletics performance coach for volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling. 

            "I came in at the right time with (the volleyball) program," he said. "Yossi (Pressley) was a true freshman my first year (2017), and Katie (Staiger Smith) – everybody's favorite – was still on the team. We almost made it to a Sweet 16 in 2018, lost to a really tough Oregon team, and then in 2019 we're in the Final Four. Which is crazy to look back at. A lot of work went into that team."

            When Nelson left to take a similar position at Penn State and Althoff followed football coach Matt Rhule to the NFL's Carolina Panthers after the 2019 season, Eric found himself in a new role when he returned after the COVID shutdown. 

            "After Coach Nelly left, we didn't have a Director of Applied Performance," he said. "Toff was assuming more of that, at least administratively, and then we were going to restructure it a little bit going into the spring semester. But, (Althoff) left, and I think Kenny (Boyd) saw an opportunity to re-envision the department. And here we are today."

            Boyd sees Applied Performance as "one of the last frontiers" in the Health & Wellness area. 

            "There has been a lot of very well-deserved, much-needed focus on how we're fueling our athletes, how we're taking care of their mental health, how we're taking care of them long-term from a medical standpoint. Where we can find the 1% - we're always looking for that next edge of what we're doing – is going to come from Applied Performance.

            "There's a lot of opportunity for growth in the future. That's what really exciting and sometimes frustrating, because we want it to happen at a quicker pace. But at the root of all this, I've challenged Eric with, 'If we're collecting data, why are we collecting it?' There needs to be a purpose. And then also, to lean into the other side where he's working to engage and problem solve for the areas that are needed within our other teams."

            Like Boyd, Eric sees room for growth in the Applied Performance area and "collaborating with some of the other department heads on different initiatives."

            "I feel like there's opportunity there, tons of opportunities," he said. "It's cliché, but it really is one day at a time. You just have to keep showing up, because there are days where you can get really frustrated with the lack of progress or things just kind of stalling But, you just have to come back the next day. You just have to chip away. Regardless of whether you're in sports or working in the manufacturing facility or something else, you just have to keep at it." 
 

            Eric and his wife, Kristina, have been married for three years and have two children, 15-month-old son, Ames Alan; and 3-month-old daughter, Saylor Leanne. 

            "Kristina has wanted kids forever," Eric said. "But I was really unsure, just because you hear, 'Uh, it changes your life,' all the negative stuff. But, I was driving home from work one day, pulled into the garage, and I thought to myself, 'How cool would that be if a little kid was running up to you as you were coming into the house?"' That's the point where I knew I wanted kids. And now, Ames is to that point where he can do that. Not really saying much yet, but he makes a lot of noise and can give you his version of a hug."
             
            Some couples might say they've known each other all their lives. Well, Eric and Kristina have . . . literally. They were born three days apart – Eric on Sept. 28, 1986, Kristina on Oct. 1 -in St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. 

            "We didn't meet at that time, but our birthdays are three days apart," Eric said. "They used to do birth announcements in the newspaper, and ours appeared on the same day. We went to high school together, middle school, and had one of those young "going out" relationships. Junior year, I guess we officially started dating. Which, we've been together ever since, and I don't know if I've ever actually taken her on a date."