POCATELLO, Idaho.- Brandon Stephens has always had an affinity for the weight room. Growing up Stephens was a big Arnold Schwarzenegger fan because he loved the movie The Terminator.
Knowing his love for the Hollywood star, Stephens grandmother introduced him to the world of strength training.This sparked a passion for Stephens and now the Idaho State student-athletes are benefiting from his dedication.
Stephens, who was hired at Idaho State just before the start of COVID in the spring of 2020 and took over as head strength and conditioning coach in January of 2021.
Before coming to Idaho State, Stephens was a strength coach at his alma mater, Western Colorado.
"It's a funny story, in all of high school I wanted to play college football," Stephens said. "I thought I was going to be a computer science major. I initially wanted to be a computer programmer and either design video games, websites, or something along those lines."
However, that didn't pan out and his advisor at the time asked him what else he liked to do. Stephens said that he liked football and lifting weights. He enrolled in exercise sports science courses and never looked back.
Stephens said, "I went the strength and conditioning route because I had a stronger connection to the weight room. I also saw an opportunity to work with more than just football players, and that was really enticing for me. I wanted to work with sports of all varieties, and I ended up getting my masters in high altitude exercise and physiology."
The opportunity to teach students how to take care of their body was an opportunity that the Bengal strength and conditioning coach couldn't turn down.
"I found a good connection there and met some great mentors who showed me that strength and conditioning can be a career," stated Stephens.
Stephens gives credit to many people who have helped him get to this point in his career such as his parents and high school football coaches Bob Howard, Dennis Fraser, and Randy Watts.
Western Colorado football coach Jas Bains is the one "who worked his tail off to provide me opportunities and believed in me."
Mike Aimone, Ryan Weatherwax and Ana Swisher with USA weight lifting are other mentors in Stephens' career.
Stephens hung up his college cleats after suffering a blown shoulder. He got his start working in college athletics due to the head football coach at Western Colorado asking him to stick around after his injury. During that time Stephens was helping with football on the field and in the weight room for the rest of his undergrad.
Stephens wanted to work with sports of all varieties and ended up getting his masters in high altitude exercise and physiology. While working full time in his father's grocery store and going to school full time as well as running multiple sports at once for Western, Stephens was unstoppable.
"I want them to say in their exit interview that the weight room was their favorite place, not because it is easy but because they knew they would be challenged in a positive way and they enjoyed coming to work every day," Stephens said."With some of these sports and the NCAA rules, us as coaches end up spending more time with these athletes than their sport coaches and other people on campus.
