Bulldogs’ strength coach will speak here

Published 11:11 pm Sunday, January 14, 2007

Dave Van Halanger, a Hall of Fame strength and conditioning coach at Georgia, will be the featured speaker at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet Feb. 3 at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.

Van Halanger, a former All-East player at West Virginia who spent 18 years on Bobby Bowden’s staff at Florida State before coming to Georgia with Mark Richt, is a frequent speaker on the FCA circuit. Next month’s banquet will mark Van Halanger’s first appearance in Dalton.

The annual fundraiser for the Northwest Georgia chapter of the FCA will start at 6:30 p.m. with dinner. The program begins at 7.

“I met Dave through our FCA network,” Northwest Georgia FCA executive director David Grusnick said. “He’s spoken at several FCA functions and has a heart for us.”

Van Halanger said he’s been affiliated with FCA since 1973 when he played for Bowden at West Virginia.

“Coach Bowden made everyone go to a FCA meeting one night and that night I became a Christian,” Van Halanger said Sunday during a telephone interview from his home in Athens.

After his playing career ended at West Virginia in 1976, Van Halanger spent a year with the Atlanta Falcons and returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 1977.

“I took over as a FCA huddle leader that year,” said Van Halanger, who was inducted into the Strength and Conditioning Hall of Fame in 2003. “I was the huddle leader until 1983.”

He was on Bowden’s Florida State staff from 1983-2000 before being hired as director of strength and conditioning at Georgia in January 2001. Six months later, Van Halanger earned the title of Master Strength and Conditioning Coach, the highest honor presented by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.

A native of Turtle Creek, Pa., Van Halanger has helped the Bulldogs to win 61 games since his arrival in Athens.

Van Halanger is best known for his early morning workouts called the “mat drills,” a 70- to 75-minute program consisting of five stations.

The name comes from one of those stations, a wrestling mat where players do agility drills. There are also a running station, shuttle drill station, a ropes layout and a station with a plastic frame built so players are forced to bend at the knees and move as fast as they can in a football position. Conducted in February, the drills start at 5 a.m. each day.

Van Halanger says the ultimate goal of the drills is team unity.

“This guy is really great,” Grusnick said of Van Halanger. “We’re excited about him coming to our banquet.”

Van Halanger said he normally has five of six FCA speaking engagements per year.