The CSCCA Awarded Sowders and Gearhart Master Strength & Conditioning Coach Status.
The award was given earlier this year to Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning Ryan Gearhart and Director of Strength and Conditioning Ben Sowders. The designation of Master Strength & Conditioning Coach is a mark of longevity in the industry, professionalism, knowledge, experience, and competence.
A strength and conditioning coach must be a certified strength and conditioning coach, an active member of the CSCCA, and have worked as a full-time collegiate or professional strength and conditioning coach for at least 12 years in order to be awarded the distinguished designation.
This autumn, Sowders and Gearhart will begin their second season at Arkansas. After serving as the Cardinals’ director of strength and conditioning in Louisville during the 2022 season, Sowders joined the Hogs.
Sowders’ first of four seasons with the Bulldogs was in 2018–19, when he collaborated with Georgia head coach Sam Pittman. He worked with 20 student-athletes who went on to play in the NFL as the Assistant Director of Strength & Conditioning. He also assisted the Dawgs in winning the 2022 National Championship and making three trips to the SEC Championship Game.
The Bowling Green, Kentucky native worked one season as the Director of Strength & Conditioning at McNeese State before coming to Georgia. at the one season he played at Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Cowboys had a 9-2 record. After serving two seasons as the head coach of Gardner-Webb’s 21 Division I programs, Sowders spent two seasons at Georgia Tech (2015–16).
Leading the Golden Eagles’ strength and conditioning programs for men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and softball while helping with football was his first full-time collegiate job at Southern Miss. He completed a six-month internship at Alabama, working with the football, volleyball, tennis, and rowing teams of the Crimson Tide, before moving to Hattiesburg, Miss.
After playing football for Georgia for ten years, Gearhart came to Arkansas in the spring of 2023. He worked several sports with the Bulldogs, such as cheerleading, softball, baseball, and diving.
Throughout his tenure with the Dawgs, he contributed to several prosperous initiatives. He contributed to the 2014 swimming and diving team’s national title.
In addition to an SEC Tournament championship in 2014, his work with softball contributed to Women’s College World Series berths in 2016 and 2018. The baseball team of the Bulldogs placed in the top eight nationally twice (in 2018 and 2019) and qualified for four NCAA Regionals (in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022).
Gearheart worked at Ohio State, Eastern Michigan, and Kent State before moving to Georgia. Beginning in 2010, he assisted baseball programs at Eastern Michigan University as a Graduate Assistant.
Gearheart was recruited by Kent State’s Coach Scott Stricklin following his tenure at Eastern. KSU made its first-ever trip to the College World Series during his first year on the job.
Gearheart worked for several sports teams at KSU as a nutritional specialist. He also worked as the chief speed and strength coach and facility coordinator at D1 Sports Training in Nashville, Tennessee.