Tag: Mike Woicik

Cowboys elevate new strength and conditioning coach from interim role

Harold Nash, Jr. assumed the role midseason, taking over after the passing of Markus Paul. Now Nash will officially have the job in 2021.

Harold Nash, Jr. had the unenviable task of taking over the Cowboys’ strength and conditioning program following the untimely passing of Markus Paul in midseason.

Now he’ll have the job officially as the team prepares for the 2021 season. According to the club’s website on Wednesday, the team is expected to elevate Nash as the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

Nash, 50, has 16 years of NFL experience under his belt, all of it as an S&C coach. He spent six years in an assistant role in New England on the staff of famed former Cowboys strength coach Mike Woicik. In 2011, after Woicik left the Patriots to return to Dallas, New England promoted Nash to their head position for the next five seasons. Nash won a Super Bowl during his tenure in Foxborough. He then went to Detroit in the same role from 2016 to 2018. He was fired by the Lions following the 2019 season.

Prior to coaching, Nash was a three-time All-Star in the Canadian Football League. He played defensive back for four CFL teams from 1994 to 2004.

Nash looks to be a popular fixture at The Star this offseason as he works with Cowboys athletic trainers to rehab several key injuries from last year. Dak Prescott, Tyron Smith, La’el Collins, Blake Jarwin, and Trysten Hill are among the players who had surgeries during the 2020 campaign. Several more- including Amari Cooper, Jaylon Smith, and Tyrone Crawford- have undergone procedures since the season ended.

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Cowboys promote Markus Paul to lead strength and conditioning department

To replace the outgoing director and his 6 Super Bowl rings, Dallas turns to his longtime assistant, who has 5 championships of his own.

It’s tough to replace a guy who has six Super Bowl rings. But backfilling him with a guy who has five of his own is an awfully good start.

After being informed by new head coach Mike McCarthy that he would not be retained by the club, Cowboys strength and conditioning coach Mike Woicik chose to retire. Markus Paul, a 22-year coaching veteran and member of Woicik’s staff in Dallas for the past two seasons, will move up to assume the lead role, it was reported on Friday.

Paul and Woicik had been linked off and on going all the way back to the late ’80s, when Paul was a safety at Syracuse and Woicik was the football program’s strength and conditioning coach. During Paul’s five-season NFL career, mostly with the Bears, Woicik was on staff with the Cowboys, where he won three championships as part of the 1990s Dallas dynasty.

A few years after hanging up his cleats, Paul embarked on a coaching career. He reunited with Woicik, who was by then with the New Orleans Saints.

The two joined the New England Patriots staff together in 2000. Paul and Woicik were on the Super Bowl-winning staffs there in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Woicik stayed in Foxboro another six seasons before returning to Dallas in 2011.

Paul remained with the Patriots until after the 2004 season and then joined the Jets staff for two years. In 2007, he began a long stint as an assistant with the Giants, where he won his fourth and fifth Super Bowl rings. Paul joined Woicik once again in Dallas prior to the 2018 season.

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