CMU phys ed professor worked with Pittsburgh Pirates minor league baseball team
For Kyle Bolen, sports is life.
For more than three years, Bolen, a physical education and sport instructor, has been the strength and conditioning coach for multiple sports at Central Michigan University.
Before CMU, he served as the strength and conditioning coach for the Altoona Curve, the double-A affiliate minor league baseball team of the Pittsburgh Pirates based out of Altoona, Pa.
Strength and conditioning coaches bear many responsibilities, including assisting athletes with training and making sure they stay healthy, he said.
“It was a great time,” Bolen said. “My life was sports and it was an absolutely wonderful atmosphere.”
But Bolen said he needed the occasional day off.
He coached the team from December to August of the 2006 season and said from the end of February to August, he did not get a single day off.
“I miss traveling with the team,” he said. “But I don’t miss the 13-hour-days and eight-hour bus rides.”
College conditioning
At CMU, Bolen does strength and conditioning for multiple sports, including field hockey, gymnastics, baseball and softball.
Bolen said although he misses coaching the minor league team, he really enjoys working with students at CMU. He teaches part-time for physical education and part-time for health professions.
Tracy Olrich, the physical education and sport chairwoman, said Bolen is an instructor students will love.
Olrich said Bolen has a personality that relates well with students and staff.
“I enjoy working with him,” Olrich said. “He has a tremendous knowledge base that comes through very strong, and that’s a tremendous benefit.”
Although Bolen was the strength and conditioning coach for a minor league baseball team, baseball is not his favorite sport — hockey is.
Bolen said he can possibly see himself doing strength and conditioning coaching for a hockey team in the future.
Hockey was always a sport he played as a kid growing up and is one of the reasons he decided to become a strength and conditioning coach.
“I was always a smaller kid playing hockey and I wanted to find out how I could get bigger,” he said.
