Head Strength and Performance Coach
Darl Bauer was named the Director of Strength & Performance at Houston on Jan. 13, 2019 after 10 seasons as a member of West Virginia’s Strength & Conditioning Staff. Since being with Houston Football they have 27 victories, a conference championship appearance and two bowl victories. Bauer has trained 46 NFL draft picks including 5 first round picks and 7 All-Americans over his career.
Bauer had been on West Virginia's strength and conditioning staff since 2009, assisting with the football strength and conditioning program, first as an intern and then to graduate assistant for a year before becoming a full-time member of the staff. He was promoted to Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning/Director of Applied Performance in December 2017. He also served as the Director of Strength and Conditioning for Wrestling and Men’s Soccer. Bauer arrived at West Virginia after serving as a strength and conditioning intern at Eastern Michigan for the 2007 summer. He assisted with the football program and helped train the men’s basketball, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball teams.
During the summer of 2006 and 2007 and from December 2008 until May 2009, Bauer was a sports performance specialist at the Total Performance Center in Wixon, Michigan. Bauer served as an intern at Eastern Michigan University for football as well as all other sports from 2006-2008. Bauer specializes in training programs to prepare prospects for the NFL combine and pro days. He designed and administered comprehensive offseason strength and conditioning program for NFL clientele. He also trained athletes of all ages, skill levels and sports from the greater Detroit area.
Bauer was a Linebacker at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, from 2003-06. He served as the student assistant coach working with the defensive backs at Hillsdale in 2007.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and a minor in Biology from Hillsdale in 2008 and a master’s of science degree in athletic coaching education from West Virginia in 2010. Bauer and his wife, Carly, have two daughters, Gigi, and Lula, and a son, Boone.
