☕️ S&C Daily — Same Strength Coach Since Age 8

November 2, 2026

Gavin McKenna went first overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs in last summer’s NHL draft and made the team’s Opening Night lineup. His strength coach since age 8 is Ben McPherson, co-owner of Northern Strength Academy in McKenna’s hometown of Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon territory. When McKenna left home at 14 for junior hockey in Medicine Hat, Alberta, the two found gaps in his in-season training. McPherson became his year-round strength and conditioning consultant, traveling there about once a month to program, test him with sports science equipment and plan his progression.

When McKenna moved on to college hockey at Penn State, NCAA rules barred outside strength coaching. So McPherson shifted to tracking his progress and working as a liaison with Penn State’s strength staff to keep his training and diet on his long-term plan. He also stayed in regular contact with the strength coach of San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, who trained alongside McKenna.

Before co-founding Northern Strength in 2017, McPherson worked with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks strength staff. He helped prepare McKenna for the NHL combine, and McKenna spent three weeks training with him in Whitehorse this summer.

Only 40 of the roughly 2,200 players on NFL active rosters and practice squads are 35 or older, and just eight are in their 40s, according to a new Athletic story from Mike Jones. Ravens defensive lineman Calais Campbell, 40, changed course at 28 after offseason surgery, following James Harrison’s binder that mapped every training and treatment session through the next February. Now he figures he has about 30 good plays in him per game, down from 75 or 80 snaps.

49ers left tackle Trent Williams, 38, audits his game and health every offseason. After the first hamstring strain of his career late last season, he added sprint work to his boxing and strength training. His trainer’s advice still sticks: “If we start training like you’re old, you’re gonna start moving like you’re older.”

A new randomized controlled trial in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance put 25 highly trained youth rugby players through six weeks of in-season training, three times a week alongside practice and games. Both groups lifted light, at 30-40% of their one-rep max. One did ballistic jump squats, the other traditional half squats.

Both groups got stronger and jumped higher, but the jump squat group gained more: about 7% vs 4% in strength and about 16% vs 8% in jump performance. Sprint speed over 30 meters dropped in both groups. The authors conclude light ballistic work is a better in-season stimulus for strength and power, but sprint-specific training is still needed to hold speed.

British Columbia moved to permanent daylight saving time, so Vancouver did not fall back this weekend. The Canucks now sit one hour ahead of the U.S. West Coast and two behind the East, which adds another variable to their travel planning. General manager Ryan Johnson told The Athletic the team used to fly out after games automatically and now plans around when players will actually be in bed at a hotel.

Later this month, after a Sunday-Monday back-to-back in Las Vegas and Utah, the Canucks will go straight to Seattle for a Nov. 19 game instead of returning to Vancouver, to keep a scheduled team day off they would have lost to travel. Johnson said “the sports science plays a huge role in all of these decisions.”

In his Sunday teleconference, South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said strength coach Luke Day came up with the term “SEC flu” for teams that win a big game and lose the next week. Day studied the SEC teams that did it and what their losses had in common, and first raised it with players during a lift the week before. The Gamecocks followed their Tennessee game with a road win at Oklahoma.

East Carolina cut the ribbon on the Isley Indoor Performance Center, a 90,000-plus-square-foot, $24 million facility funded entirely by donations. It has a full-size, climate-controlled football field, and baseball and softball can use it for winter training. It should be ready for use in two to three weeks.

Texas men’s basketball coach Sean Miller on strength coach Andy Kettler: “I don’t want anyone other than him.” Jalen Brown posted a look inside Kettler’s weight room sessions.

Know a coach who'd get something out of this? Send it their way. Five referrals unlocks the S&C job market data.