Curtis Tsuruda

Coach Tsuruda has 27 years of experience training athletes at the high school, junior college, collegiate, and professional levels. Curtis is currently serving in his second year as Director of Strength and Conditioning at Tulane University where he oversees all 15-varsity sports. He became an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Tulane in 2001.

Prior to joining the Tulane staff, Curtis was an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Louisiana State University from 1997 to 2000 where he trained the Tiger’s nationally ranked football, basketball and baseball programs. From 1992-1994, Curtis spent five years at the University of Hawaii at Manoa as the Assistant Strength Coordinator. Then, from 1995 to 1997, he served there as the Head Strength Coordinator, overseeing the school’s 17 varsity sports. From 1991 to 1992, he served as a Graduate Assistant Strength Coach at Mississippi State University.

Coach Tsuruda has trained 32 Division I All-American athletes along with a world champion in jiu-jitsu, shooto fighting, and big wave boogie board riding. Before joining the collegiate ranks, Tsuruda was a teacher and coach at several high schools in Honolulu where his weightlifting team won the Hawaii State High School Clean and Jerk Championship.

In 1975, he graduated from Hawaii Baptist Academy where he lettered in football and baseball. In 1982, he received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Physical Education and Recreation. In 1989, he earned his Master’s Degree in Education from Northeast Louisiana University.

He is certified by the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches association and USA Weightlifting. He has spoken at various conventions and clinics and has been published in a variety of journals, publications, and books. He is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, and he and his wife, Angela, have one daughter, Ellie Grace (4).