Honored nationally for his work with student-athletes, Kyle Speer joined the Georgia Southern Athletic Department as Director of Strength and Conditioning in January of 2014. A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association and member of the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association, Speer brings 17 years of experience to his position.
In his first season with Georgia Southern, Speer helped the Eagles win the 2014 Sun Belt Football Championship. Speer and his staff designed the new weight room in the Ted Smith Family Football Operations Center. Additionally, Speer oversees the annual pro day where professional football scouts come to Statesboro. In 2015, Eagles Garrett Frye (Kansas City Chiefs) and Edwin Jackson (Arizona Cardinals) were signed to NFL Free Agent contracts.
Speer was promoted to head strength and conditioning coach at Sam Houston State a year after joining the program as an assistant coach in 2002. The Bearkat strength and conditioning department, led by Speer, was honored for its part in helping prepare San Houston State student-athletes for competition as the Bearkat program won four Southland Conference Commissioner’s Cup All-Sports titles, 17 SLC championships and earned seven NCAA Division I national playoff berths.
During his time at Sam Houston State, 27 Bearkat football players achieved All-America status and more than 140 Bearkat football players earned all-conference honors. Accolades were also bestowed upon Speer as American Football Monthly Magazine recognized him as the 2006 NCAA Division I FCS “Strength Coach of the Year” as his strength and conditioning program played a role in the success of Sam Houston State football. In 2004, the Bearkats finished the season with a No. 4 national ranking and nine-win turnaround from the previous year. Back-to-back trips to the NCAA Division I FCS title game in 2011 and 2012 under Coach Fritz underlined the partnership between football and strength and conditioning.
A native Texan, Speer was a four-year letterman for Abilene Christian at defensive tackle. He interned for Arizona State strength and conditioning before accepting a graduate assistant position at Baylor, where he would earn his M.Ed. Speer worked as assistant coach at Northern Iowa before returning to his home state.
At Northern Iowa, Speer worked with the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field squads that won their respective 2002 Missouri Valley Indoor Conference championship titles. National champions, too, worked with Speer as he directed the programs for the Baylor Track and Field team that produced five national champions and six All-Americans as well as the nationally ranked Men’s Tennis program.
Speer worked with Baylor’s Bayano Kamani, who won a men’s outdoor individual national championship in the 400m Hurdles in 2001. That same year, the Bears’ Men’s 4x400m Relay team won the NCAA Outdoor title in a finish that put them on the top podium by one hundredth of a second. Those top finishes helped the Bears capture third place overall in the 2001 national outdoor meet.
Speer, his wife Brook, and three children, daughter Kendall, and sons Clay and Brody, reside in Statesboro.
