Matt Rhodes oversees the strength and conditioning department at Morehead State University and has done so since 2014.

He attended the University of Massachusetts from 1994-96 where he played lacrosse for Greg Canella.  In 1996 he transferred to the University of Arizona where he walked on to the football team and finished his athletic career (1996-98) playing for Head Coach Dick Tomey.  At Arizona he received a bachelor’s degree in history.
 
Upon graduation Rhodes pursued a career in professional football where he played offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, fullback and long snapper for the Richmond Speed of the AFL2.  His football career was cut short with a neck injury that forced him to hang up his cleats.
 
Rhodes then pursued a career coaching football.  He began at the University of Richmond under Head Coach Jim Reid (currently at Iowa).  At Richmond Rhodes coached outside linebackers and was responsible for game plan preparation and film breakdown.
 
During his time at Richmond (1999-01) he discovered his passion for weight lifting while he was rehabbing his neck injury to avoid surgery.  Upon completion of his third year at Richmond he became a strength and conditioning intern at the University of Pittsburgh for head coach Buddy Morris.
 
After some time out of collegiate athletics Rhodes was able to obtain a volunteer position at Yale University under Emil Johnson where he worked with the football program. 

During this same period, he worked for Brian Holloway at Choate Rosemary Hall (preparatory school) in the Peak Performance program where select high school athletes were trained in preparation for collegiate athletic careers.  After the 2012 spring semester at Yale he was rewarded with his first job at the University at Albany (N.Y.) where he worked under Conor Hughes with football. 

At Albany he oversaw the strength and conditioning programs for women’s soccer, women’s track and field and baseball from 2012-2013.  In the summer of 2013 he went to the University of Rhode Island where he was the head strength coach for Dan Hurley’s basketball team as well as overseeing softball, baseball, men’s track and field and rowing from 2013-2014.
 
After his football career ended Rhodes found a passion for power lifting where he competed from 2001-2014.  He was a full meet lifter with competitive bests of 1,000 lbs in the equipped and 700 lbs in the unequipped squat, 605 lbs in the equipped and 485 lbs in the unequipped bench press and 760 lbs in the unequipped deadlift.  He uses his time under the bar and knowledge gained to develop effective training programs for his athletes.
 
The opportunity to become a head coach arose and Rhodes was hired at Morehead State in June of 2014 as the head of strength and conditioning.  He oversees the entire program and works directly with head football coach Rob Tenyer and his staff with football.  He also works with volleyball, women’s basketball, softball and soccer.
 
Rhodes is a native of Westfield, Mass.