John Deal brings a great deal of experience to Davenport and will greatly increase the efforts of the sports performance department. He will work with Baseball, Men’s Rugby, Women’s Soccer, Men’s & Women’s Tennis, and Women’s Wrestling. Before coming to work at DU, Deal was an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Western Michigan University since July 2022. He oversaw the Seelye Center weight room, working with Men’s & Women’s Soccer, Baseball, Softball and Women’s Golf. The Plymouth, MI native also played a role in the implementation and daily operations of the three nutrition/fueling stations within the athletics facilities, and was the director of the undergraduate internship program.
Prior to working at WMU, Deal worked as a Graduate Assistant at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. He implemented strength and conditioning programs for Women’s Soccer and Softball, and assisted with football, track & field and baseball. Before SFA, he held a volunteer Strength Coach position at Michigan State University, working with all their Olympic sports. Simultaneously, he worked at First Line Performance in Plymouth, MI, working mainly with ice hockey and synchronized figure skating teams, at youth levels up to international competition.
John has worked with 12 conference championship winning teams and multiple all-conference players at SFA and WMU, as well the third-place finisher at the synchronized figure skating World Championships in 2018 and 2019.
He is SCCC certified (2022) as well as NSCA certified (2020). He graduated with his master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Stephen F. Austin in 2022, and his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Michigan State University in 2016.
