Coaching Experience: Long, a disciple of the Gayle Hatch Strength and Conditioning System that has produced national championships for football teams at LSU, Tennessee and Miami, joined the Demons in January. He spent 2007-2008 as assistant strength and conditioning coach at SMU and was on the LSU strength and conditioning staff as the Tigers beat Notre Dame 41-14 to win the Nokia Sugar Bowl in January 2007.
A graduate of LSU, where he earned a bachelor of science in kinesiology, Long worked under LSU strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt. Long was a graduate assistant coach and gained experience in strength program design and implementation for women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis and football at LSU. Moffitt’s program employs the core principles of the Hatch System and helped the Tigers win the 2007 BCS national championship.
Long worked under Moffitt at LSU on the staff in 2006 through early 2007, and was a volunteer intern under Moffitt beginning in May 2000 until leaving for SMU.
Long also trained and worked for eight years with legendary weightlifting coach Gayle Hatch, the 2004 USA Olympic men’s weightlifting coach. The Hatch Weightlifting Team is one of the nation’s most dominant programs and has developed dozens of national champions and world team members. Hatch, a Northwestern State graduate, is in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, the National Strength Coaches Hall of Fame and the NSU Graduate N Club Hall of Fame.
Long served as head strength and conditioning coach at St. John Catholic High School (2003-04) in Plaquemine and at University High in Baton Rouge in 2006. He has also done consulting work in the field for several high schools and sport training centers.
At SMU, Long supervised six interns and staff members and assisted with all football-related training activities. He ran the strength and conditioning programs for men’s and women’s tennis and women’s soccer teams at SMU.
Long is also certified by the USA Track and Field Coaches Association as a Level 1 Track and Field Coach.
Competitive career: Long’s accomplishments include medaling in both the 1996 AAU Junior Olympic Championships and the 1998 National Junior Championships. At John Curtis High School in suburban New Orleans, he helped the Patriots win four straight state football championships in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 as a defensive end. He was a city champion wrestler.
He recently obtained a USA Weightlifting Level 1 Sports Performance Coach certification.
Personal: 30 years old, born 11/5/80 in Kenner, Louisiana. Son of George and Helena Long, he has one older sister, Elizabeth. A 2000 graduate of John Curtis High School, Long enjoys competitive cycling since 2005.
