The Rebirth of a Program: UAB Football with Lyle Henley
The College of Alabama at Birmingham football is again back! The Blazers rose from the lifeless like a phoenix from the ashes with a formidable on-field file, excessive recreation attendance, and giving the city of Birmingham a football program to consider in once more. This rebirth course definitely wasn’t simple though. Lyle Henley, The Director of Sports activities Efficiency for UAB, not only needed to piece this collectively from the bottom up, however, he needed to change the whole tradition and mindset to get it to the extent where it’s right this moment. One may say, he has been essentially the most instrumental piece in resurrecting their football program. He took us by way of how he acquired to his present place, what it means to him to be part of the rebirth of UAB football, and the way Legend Health gear has remodeled his crew’s exercise routine.
Lyle’s road to UAB
Lyle’s expertise and background in power and conditioning coaching definitely speak for itself. He started his profession taking part in football for Louisiana Tech College and moved on to turn into the Grad Assistant at The College of Alabama from 1999-2000. In 2001, he moved again to LA Tech and labored as a member of the power and conditioning employees until 2005. Lyle took his well-rounded information of elite power and conditioning coaching and ventured out into the personal sector and began his personal fitness center, The Athlete Manufacturing unit. Over the following 9 years, The Athlete Manufacturing unit grew to a number of areas, and the word began to tell about its success. Lyle had the chance to promote his rising begin as much as D1 Sports activities Coaching. He stayed inside the group and in 2012 he was named the Director of D1 NFL mix coaching, a place he excelled in for the next four years. He labored with 53 guys on present NFL rosters, 17 of which have been first-round NFL draft picks. He skilled quite a few the highest athletes within the nation throughout his time at D1. Mark Barron, Paxton Lynch, Gabe Jackson, and TJ Yeldon are only a few gamers that went on to have notable NFL careers as a consequence of Lyle’s coaching. Lastly, in 2016 he returned to the school ranks and was named the Director of Sports activities Efficiency for UAB, the place he has helped resurrect their football program.
What does it imply to you to be part of the rebirth of UAB soccer?
“I’m an enormous fan of coach Clark (Invoice Clark – Head Football Coach) and I’ve adopted his success and had a very good relationship with him. When he introduced up the UAB soccer program to me I knew one thing he was part of can be professional and profitable. He offered this system as one thing that had by no means been accomplished earlier than, and one thing that may most likely by no means be accomplished once more. So after I got here up and checked everything out, I noticed they didn’t have any of the services. However Coach Clark offered me on the imaginative and prescient, and crammed me in on among the gamers they have been, and these guys have been on the lookout for second probabilities and trying to come again into this program. So it was a rebirth for them in addition to this system, and being somebody who believes in second probabilities, that facet of this system me. However it wasn’t simply the gamers that have been inspiring, it was the group. They raised around $60 million {dollars}, all accomplished by way of personal donations and native companies, so we had the entire metropolis behind this motion.”
What have been the challenges you needed to overcome?
“The principal factor we knew we needed to overcome was the earlier tradition round right here, and alter it to a ‘by no means say die’, successful angle. It was so devastating when this system ended, proper when the gamers lastly began to consider in one thing, everything acquired yanked out from beneath them. So, my argument coming in was how can we get that fireside to win once more and the way can we get these guys to consider in one thing and believe in what was happening. Our job as an employee was to know issues are completely different now, and one problem from a staffing standpoint was to fill sure particular person, specialized roles the place the employees would collectively be robust throughout the board. Throughout our strategy of constructing the employees, we needed to assume, ‘Okay, is that this man a paceman, is the extra of an Olympic man? Is that this man extra of a motion man, is he a vitality man, are they the brains behind the operation and a methodical thinker? Are they good with software program know-how?’ Due to this, we’ve got amazing employees and the most effective factor that I can do is delegate these jobs and decide the place I can put these guys so we could be essentially the most profitable and environment-friendly crew.”
Why did you resolve to go together with Legend Health gear?
“I used to be conscious of Legend after I was at D1. The gear may be very heavy responsibility and really state-of-the-art. So when it got here time to begin on the lookout for the best gear for our program at UAB, Legend was already a reputation I used to be accustomed to. We’ve got a 45,000 sq. ft. constructing and solely 3,500 sq. ft. devoted to the load room, and we have been additionally going to have a coated pavilion. So I used to be pondering how can we make the most of this house, and I started completely different firms that made multifunctional racks. I used to be then approached by David Ball from Legend Health and I defined to him what I wanted. He invited me all the way down to Legend HQ for 3 days then place I sat down with the crew and laid everything out. They delivered above and past. Once we went to see the prototype I used to be like a child in a sweet retailer. The best factor about it’s that it’s purposeful, I’m in a position to have 150 guys within the group and everything is so properly put collectively and thought out that we have been in a position to knock our exercises down from an hour and a half to 40 minutes.”
How has Legend Health gear helped you put together your athletes for the season?
“Form of my quote I inform the fellows is that we’re as environmentally friendly as a NASCAR pit crew now, and I imply you see how these guys work on these pit stops. That’s what we’ve been in a position to do with this gear, and anytime a power coach can turn into extra environment-friendly and get extra accomplished in a restricted period of time that’s the best accomplishment you may have.”
