Posted on

Jazz Name Mike Elliott Vice President of Performance Health Care

Article reposted from NBA.com
Author: NBA.com

The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has hired Mike Elliott as Vice President of Performance Health Care. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.

In this newly created role, Elliott will lead all of the Jazz’s medical and sports science efforts, including oversight of both the team’s training and strength-and-conditioning programs.

Elliott, a former NBA Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year winner, comes to the Jazz after spending the previous 14 seasons (2003-17) as a member of the Phoenix Suns’ athletic training staff, the last two as that team’s director of performance. In addition to his role as director of performance, Elliott continued to serve as the club’s head strength and conditioning coach and assistant athletic trainer, his eighth season holding those dual positions. With those roles, he was responsible for all aspects of player strength and conditioning and worked alongside their vice president of athlete care on daily recognition, care and treatment of team-related medical issues.

While there, Elliott also engineered an overhaul of the Suns’ nutrition program, focusing on educating players to optimize performance and recovery with a commitment to well-sourced, whole, organic foods.

Originally joining the Suns full-time in 2003-04 as assistant athletic trainer, Elliott was named NBA Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the National Basketball Strength and Conditioning Association (NBSCA) following the 2013-14 season. Elliott also sits on the executive board for the NBSCA and has served as the lead strength and conditioning coach for the British Men’s National Team, joining their program in 2010 as the team trained for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

A native of Phoenix, Elliott is a certified athletic trainer (ATC), performance enhancement specialist (PES) and corrective exercise specialist (CES) from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). He received his master of science degree in performance enhancement and injury prevention from California University at Pennsylvania in 2005 and did his undergraduate work in exercise science at Arizona State University, where he was in the athletic training program.