Summer Spotlight: Jacob Linn
7/31/2015 1:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball
| Summer Spotlight: Jacob Linn | |
What is your title? "Assistant Director of Basketball Athletic Performance." How long have you been with Mizzou? "Since June of 2010. I came to work at Mizzou as an unpaid intern with Strength and Conditioning. I started grad school and was made a graduate assistant of strength and conditioning in August of 2010. Then, in March of 2011, the opportunity to work with Robin [Pingeton] and her team opened up and I jumped at the chance to get involved. Working on an interim basis, we built a solid relationship, then in May of 2011, Robin and Pat Ivey offered a full-time position working with the women's basketball program. The rest is history!" What is your background? "Growing up in a small town in Kansas, I played many different sports but narrowed it down to football and track & field in high school. I decided to attend the University of Kansas in August of 2002 majoring in Aerospace Engineering. After my freshman year, I decided that I really did not enjoy the engineering path so I switched to my first love of exercise science/kinesiology. I graduated from Kansas in 2007 while interning in the weight room at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kan. I worked at MANU until fall of 2008 while also holding a full-time personal training job in Lawrence, Kan. In the fall of 2008, I started working as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence while still personal training on the side. I have been working with athletes of all ages full-time since 2007, touching a wide variety of sports, but consistently working with basketball (both women's and men's teams) as well as football." Can you tell us a little bit about your family and their relationship with the team? "My wife, Kim, and I were married in August of 2007 and we have two young children. Jase was born in 2012 while Riley was born last April. Kim works for the Columbia Public School District and the entire family loves to spend time at Mizzou Arena and to watch the Tigers in action. Most of the girls on the team and the entire staff have known both of my children since birth, so the kids hold a special place in their heart for everyone here at Mizzou. Kim and the kids love coming to games and never miss a road game now that so much action is televised on the SEC network." What is your favorite memory while working in athletics? "Huge upsets are my favorite athletic memories purely because the triumph has burned those positive emotions in my memories. The women's basketball upset of Tennessee in in 2013 as well as football's upset of Oklahoma in 2010 where the entire stadium rushed the field are a couple of my favorites." What are your women's basketball responsibilities? "I am heavily involved with anything pertaining to improving the team's athletic performance or preparation for practice and games. We do quite a bit of technological monitoring of the athletes performance and daily status, which I manage as well." What are you most looking forward to this season? "We consistently make large steps forward in the development of this team, the way they play, and the culture they maintain. I am most excited to see the new growth in these areas bear fruit." Favorite Basketball Movie: "Space Jam." Something few people know about you: "I have a milk allergy, like really bad." Website you're always on: "Twitter. It is amazing how much free knowledge the world's leading experts post for free." Place you would most like to visit and why: "Any warm sandy beach with nothing but the ocean for background noise. That is my paradise." What do you do in your spare time? "I spend all of my free time with my family. The minutes are precious with our work and travel schedule so my spare time is their time. Do you have any pets? "A Jack Russell Terrier named Mikey." If you could meet anyone, who would it be? "God. Duh, he knows what the heck is really going on." If you could have a superpower? "Wolverine's powers of regeneration. Can you imagine the ability to train and live life so hard that it almost kills you and then immediately recover from it? That would be great!" |
