APRIL 4, 2025 — In what seemed like a normal day, Sophia Kennedy was attending her anatomy and physiology class as a sophomore at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, when a visit from a guest speaker changed the trajectory of her life.
John Norcott, head strength and conditioning coach for the Pirates’ athletics programs, introduced Kennedy to the field of sports performance in collegiate athletics. What began the next morning proved to be the start of an impressive career path that has led Kennedy to the role of director of sports performance for Olympic sports at UTSA.
“He started talking about strength and conditioning, and I liked how it was this high-performance thing that you could do with athletes,” Kennedy said. “I knew that I liked working out, but I wasn’t sure specifically if I could go down a route that wasn’t personal training. I loved being around athletes, so I showed up at 5 a.m. the next day and hit the ground running. I really liked how it challenged me mentally and physically as well.”
Kennedy, a native of San Antonio, served as an intern in sports performance with the Roadrunners following her undergraduate days before a stint as a graduate assistant at West Texas A&M. She returned to UTSA in 2022 and now oversees the sports performance staff for Olympic sports. In addition, Kennedy serves as the sports performance coach for the soccer, softball and men’s tennis teams.
Despite many more women entering the profession in recent years, sports performance remains a heavily male-dominated field. Women serving in director roles like Kennedy are even more rare.
“In strength and conditioning, there’s about 20% female vs. about 80% male but, to me, it means that I’m fortunate enough to stand on all the women’s shoulders before me and who have really gone through a lot of struggles to kind of pave the way for me,” Kennedy said. “I just want to make sure that I’m doing a good job to represent all of them.”
“Whatever room you’re in, take up space, have a good presence and just know that you deserve to be in the room.”
