Aaron McLaurin joined the West Virginia football program in February 2024 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.
He assists WVU’s football program with the design and implementation of the strength and conditioning plans for the football student-athletes with the goal of helping improve their strength, performance, conditioning and injury prevention. He will collaborate with coaches and athletic training staff on the overall conditioning, rehabilitation and welfare of the student-athletes.
McLaurin came to WVU after serving as the head sports performance coach at Apex Athletic Performance in Columbia, South Carolina. He coached and developed athletes on strength, performance, speed and agility. McLaurin was involved with the combine prep program at Apex, helping NFL prospects improve on combine events, including the 40-yard dash time, vertical jump, broad jump, pro agility and three-cone drill.
Prior to that, he was the head performance coach of the XFL’s Arlington Renegades and Houston Roughnecks for the 2023 season. He headed all aspects of strength and conditioning for the programs and facilitated communication among the general managers, head coaches and athletic trainers to align strength programs with the organizational goals and injury management strategies for the two franchises.
McLaurin was an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the New York Jets for eight seasons and with the Minnesota Vikings for two. He assisted in designing and implementing comprehensive strength, conditioning and speed programs. He also created procedures for gathering, analyzing and presenting data on team members.
McLaurin also spent time as a seasonal strength and conditioning coach at South Carolina, an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Colgate, the strength and conditioning graduate assistant/intern at Michigan State, health and physical education teacher and assistant football coach at Heritage High School in Newport News, Virginia.
McLaurin is a certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association, a strength and conditioning coach certified by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Association and a USA Weightlifting Level 1 Sports Performance Coach.
A native of Buffalo, New York, McLaurin earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Hampton and his master’s degree in kinesiology from Michigan State. McLaurin, and his wife, Justine, have a son, Alexander.
