The athletics program hired two full-time athletic performance coaches, Director of Strength and Conditioning Jeff Crelling and Strength and Conditioning Coach Kyle Casey. They will focus on developing athlete’s speed, agility, nutrition, and rehabilitation in addition to their work in the weight room.

Crelling, who will serve as the head of the program, received an M.A. in physical education and coaching from the University of Nebraska and a B.S.  in health, physical education and exercise from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Prior to working at Harvard-Westlake, he served as the Director of Sports Performance at Cal State University, Northridge, where he managed the athletic performance enhancement of the university’s 19 sports. Additionally, he developed speed, strength and conditioning programs for five NCAA Division I teams.

“Those responsibilities carried a lot of administrative duties outside of just coaching athletes, helping me to develop a vision, lead a department towards that vision, and serve student-athletes along the way,” Crelling said. “Now I have an opportunity to do the same at Harvard-Westlake, and do so with a bit more expertise.”

Crelling says he is excited to get to know the student-athletes.

“Nothing is more fun for me than helping athletes push themselves in the weight room, then getting to go watch them reap the benefits out on the field, court, or in the pool,” Crelling said.

Casey studied at the California State University, Northridge where he earned a BA in Kinesiology. Casey interned at the University of Southern California in strength and conditioning, where he worked with university sports teams. Additionally, he has coaching experience.

Casey worked as a part-time Athletic Performance coach at Harvard-Westlake in 2016.“The biggest thing I learned this past year was how passionate Harvard-Westlake is about their sports teams,” Casey said. “The pride that this school has is something that I’ve never experienced before and I am very excited and blessed to be a part of this school.”

“The biggest thing I learned this past year was how passionate Harvard-Westlake is about their sports teams,” Casey said. “The pride that this school has is something that I’ve never experienced before and I am very excited and blessed to be a part of this school.”