UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft announced the addition of Tom Morris as assistant athletics director for high performance – Olympic sports. Morris returns to his alma mater after spending the last 10 years at Indiana as senior assistant athletics director for athletic performance. Kraft also announced Josh Nelson will now serve as the assistant athletics director for high performance – football.
"We are excited to bring Tom and his wife, Christa, back home to Penn State," said Kraft. "Tom will play an integral role within our sport performance team. His knowledge and expertise will truly elevate what we are currently doing to enhance the experience and overall performance of our student-athletes. Tom is an elite athletic performance coach, who's energy and determination will permeate throughout the sport performance team and department as a whole."
"Returning to Penn State feels like coming home and I couldn't be more excited about the future," said Morris. "Working with Dr. Kraft is an absolute honor, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be a part of this journey."
In his role at Penn State, Morris will lead and develop innovative training and monitoring methodologies to make Penn State's High Performance program world class in its approach to student-athlete wellness, injury prevention, recovery, physical preparation and performance. He will coordinate research efforts, and lead initiatives in collaboration with University and industry partners to continue to improve the approaches to student-athlete health and performance.
"We are continuing to notice a trend in the development of work competencies for athletic performance coaches across the country," said Deputy Athletics Director Dr. Lauren Rhodes. "With the need for these individuals to have skills in technology and data analytics, the unit has a renewed focus on high performance. This new focus allows for our practitioners to continue to be innovative as we grow from excellent to elite in the realm of performance for our student-athletes."
For the last 10 years as the senior assistant AD for performance at Indiana, Morris has overseen Indiana's 24 varsity sports strength and conditioning programs. In his role, he was responsible for the operation of Indiana's Wilkinson Performance Center, which included supervision of IU's 14 strength and conditioning coaches as they developed and implemented a comprehensive performance program. Morris was also oversaw the collection and analysis of sports performance data to optimize student-athlete performance and maximize injury prevention.
Prior to moving into his senior assistant AD position, Morris spent nine years in a variety of roles at Indiana, which included director of Olympic sports and assistant strength and conditioning coach. He developed and implemented strength, conditioning, flexibility, spend and agility programs for 22 Hoosier teams. He also helped develop nutrition guidelines for student-athletes.
Morris spent one year at La Salle as a director of speed, strength and conditioning and was a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach with the football program at Penn State from 2003-04.
The native of Jeansville, Pennsylvania is a master strength and conditioning coach (MSCC), strength conditioning coach certified (SCCC) and certified USA Weightlifting Club Coach (USA-W1). He has been a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association since 1998 and a member of the College Strength and Conditioning Coach Association since 2002.
Morris graduated from Penn State with his degree in kinesiology with a movement science option. His wife, Christa, is also a Penn State alum.
