FootballScoop is proud to announce that Tim Socha is the 2016 FootballScoop Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year presented by ProGrass as selected by prior winners.
Socha has been the only strength coach Chris Petersen has ever employed. He took over as the head strength coach at Boise State following Petersen's ascension to head coach before the 2006 season, immediately helping create a 13-0 season with a WAC championship and an iconic Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma. Socha followed Petersen to Washington in December 2013; together, the pair has led the Broncos and Huskies to a 119-26 record with seven top-15 finishes, four (and soon to be five) top-10 finishes and six conference championships spread across three different leagues in the pair's 11 years together.
Prior to his arrival in Boise, Socha spent two seasons as the assistant strength coach at Louisville, three seasons as an assistant at Wyoming and served as a graduate assistant at Auburn. A former Minnesota defensive lineman, he jumped into strength coaching as a student assistant with the Golden Gophers before moving on to obtain his Master's degree at Auburn.
Washington head coach Chris Peterson told FootballScoop, "Tim does a great job of training and motivating our players. He stays on the cutting edge with research and technology, using all angles of sports training to build better football players. Our program wouldn't be where it is today without him."
In nominating Coach Socha, an opposing Pac-12 assistant coach noted, "Washington's athletes were better prepared and conditioned than any other athletes we faced this season. Coach Socha should win this year hands down."
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by ProGrass are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Kurt Hester [Louisiana Tech], Jason Loscalzo [Washington State], Mickey Marotti [Ohio State] and Socha) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Socha will receive his award and be recognized at an event at the AFCA Convention this week.
Previous winners of the Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year award are Don Sommer (TCU, 2008), Joey Batson (Clemson, 2009), Kevin Yoxall (Auburn, 2010), Shannon Turley (Stanford, 2011), Kaz Kazadi (Baylor, 2012), Pat Ivey (Missouri, 2013), Zac Woodfin (UAB, 2014) and Ken Mannie (Michigan State, 2015).
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