BATON ROUGE – Rob Oviatt has been named LSU’s strength coach for Olympic sports, associate athletic director Debbie Corum announced Thursday.
“Rob has played a vital role in the development of our Olympic sports programs since he came here a year ago, and this is an opportunity for those teams to get even more hands on expertise from him,” said Corum.
LSU’s Olympic sports program includes the track and field teams, women’s basketball, swimming and diving, gymnastics, volleyball, golf, tennis, soccer and softball.
Oviatt came to LSU as strength and conditioning coordinator in January of 1999 from the University of Kentucky where he had served as strength and conditioning coach since 1995.
A 21-year veteran of strength and conditioning, Oviatt is a 1980 graduate of the University of Alabama. He started his career in strength and conditioning at Alabama, serving as a volunteer assistant strength coach from 1978-79 before accepting the same position at Ole Miss from 1980-82, simultaneously earning his master’s degree in education.
Oviatt was assistant strength coach at Texas A&M in 1983 and served in the same capacity at Houston in 1984 and Utah in 1985. He then served as strength coach for the Oregon State football team and was fitness director for the entire Oregon State athletic department from 1985-95 when he moved to Kentucky.
Tom Moffitt was named LSU’s new coordinator of strength and conditioning last week, coming to Baton Rouge from the University of Miami where he served in the same capacity.