Assistant Director of Sports Performance
Current: Assistant Director of Sports Performance, University of Louisville
Previous:
Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach, US Ski and Snowboard Association
Strength & Conditioning Coach, USSA
Assistant Director of Athletic Performance, University of Montana
MS, University of Montana (Health & Human Performance)
BS, Ball State University (Exercise Science)
CSCCa MSCC
CSCCa SCCC
USAW Level 1
NSCA RSCC*D
NSCA CSCS
ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist
Approaching 15 years of coaching experience, Michael Naperalsky currently serves as an Assistant Director of Sports Performance at the University of Louisville, where he directly oversees development for the diving, rowing, and women's lacrosse teams. During his time at Louisville, "Coach Nap" has been fortunate to contribute to an ACC team championship, and coached 11 ACC individual conference champions, eight All-Americans, one NCAA National Champion, and athletes from more than 20 countries. He also teaches strength and conditioning graduate courses in the Health & Sport Sciences Department. He previously worked with the golf, track & field, cross country, women's soccer, and women's field hockey teams.
Prior to Louisville, Michael served as a Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, the national governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding. As a member of the High Performance Sport Science department, he worked with cross country, nordic combined, women's ski jumping, and freeskiing disciplines, where his teams and athletes earned three Olympic medals, six World Championship medals, 16 X-Games medals, and 93 World Cup podiums. While at USSA, Michael was also the Internship Coordinator, developing a comprehensive curriculum that included strength and conditioning, physiology testing, force plate assessment, and career planning.
Before joining USSA, Coach Naperalsky was the Assistant Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Montana, where he was directly responsible for the track & field, cross country, volleyball, soccer, and golf teams. Michael earned his master's degree in Health & Human Performance from the University of Montana and a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Ball State University. He holds certifications from the CSCCa, NSCA, USAW, and ACSM. Passionate about the profession of strength and conditioning, Michael has presented at national and state conferences, participated in webinars and clinics for sport coaches and athletic trainers, and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Coach Naperalsky would not be where he is today without the opportunities and trust of his mentors and colleagues. He would specifically like to thank David Nelson, Scott Kirchmann, Rob Oviatt, Alex Moore, Troy Flanagan, Tschana Schiller, Ernie Rimer, Teena Murray, Zach Farrel, and Jason Dierking. The greatest opportunity we have is to help others along their path to success, and Coach Nap is forever grateful to the athletes, interns, and students he has been fortunate to work with over the years.
