Gerry Pacitti arrived at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as its new football strength and conditioning coach in the summer of 2021.
It was an interesting time for the program, which was somewhat in flux.
Two months prior, the Mocs had gone through a four-game spring season after the Football Championship Subdivision and the Southern Conference pushed the 2020 schedule back because of the coronavirus pandemic. UTC wound up opting out before completing what was supposed to be an even longer schedule, with regular starters held out of the fourth game that spring — and hindsight showing the program as a whole was never invested in that season.
Some of the players were older — 23, 24 or even 25 — and already looking ahead to the 11 games on UTC's schedule that fall. They just didn't want to play in the spring, and some of that mentality spread to the weight room, where players just didn't want to put the work in.
Pacitti saw a program that needed some help in some areas. It wasn't going to be an immediate change — his first fall, the Mocs went 6-5 as they lost three of their final four games, missing the playoffs for the fifth season in a row — but as he approaches his third anniversary at UTC, the Mocs are in a much better place.
"When I first got here, it was really about just trying to make sure they were in shape, that they were strong enough," said Pacitti, who was at Southeastern Louisiana from 2017-21 before joining the Mocs and had internships at Alabama, Maryland and Virginia before that. "What I found out is we lacked in a bunch of areas, so we tried to focus on those things that we weren't so good at and raise them up to where we got to the season."
Asked where they lacked, Pacitti pointed to the weight room, saying there were players who "struggled to do a 135-pound bench press for 10 reps."
The foundation for a successful football program is built on strength and conditioning, especially for a team such as UTC, which takes chances on the athleticism and raw skills of a lot of high school kids who were either underdeveloped or underrecruited coming in. On-field skills can be developed by the coaching staff, but to bring out the full potential of the player, it takes a person such as Pacitti.
"He's more important than I am," said Rusty Wright, whose fifth season as head coach at his alma mater last fall yielded the Mocs' first playoff appearance — and victory — since 2016.
"There's three people here that are important: He's one, the trainers are two, and the equipment guys are three, because they have direct contact with these kids every day, so they have to be really good at what they do. The consistency that Gerry has brought in that room, the adaptability, the willingness to change _ because we changed some things over the last couple of years and our kids have bought into what we're trying to do in there — the attitude and effort that's been in there is getting better since I first got here."
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Gerry Pacitti, right, came to UTC in 2021, and his strength and conditioning program off the field has led to big gains for the football Mocs on the field.It's a cause that's important to Pacitti, who was an offensive lineman at Widener University, an NCAA Division III program near Philadelphia.
He figured out about the work ethic necessary to get on the field early, making his way into the lineup as a freshman and holding down his spot for a four-year career in which the program won 20 games over his final two seasons. He saw the edge he was given by working on his mind and his body and reaped the benefits of the discipline that came with it.
What he's done at UTC isn't small: He managed a $500,000 improvement to the strength and conditioning center last school year, making it one of the best in the FCS, and managed the implementation of the Food City Nutrition Center, which is "stocked with nutritional products to aid student-athletes in their training, but is also a place where they can go for expert guidance on proper nutrition based on their individual needs," according to a school release announcing the center last May.
"To be able to get that piece done with Food City and our partners there and really invest in the stuff that we're feeding our kids was huge for us to where you can see the changes in their bodies," said Pacitti, who was promoted to assistant athletic director for athletic performance last year. "Those guys that were dudes for us have a chance now to get to the next level, because we're able to give stuff to them rather than them go out and do it on their own. It's one thing to be able to educate them and teach them about it, but it's another thing to be able to provide them with it."
No doubt it's helped. The Mocs have won 15 games over the past two years, and while having two playoff games last fall meant the season ended a bit later than what had become normal, the team was in the weight room a couple weeks later and preparing for the 2024 season — with hopes of taking another step forward this year.
This week, the Mocs returned to the field for another early session of spring practices, part of the year-round process every football team endures.
"Coach Pacitti's importance is very large in a program like a football team," senior center Reid Williams said, "especially because I believe staying strong and maintaining, lifting throughout the season will keep you healthy ... Out of season, he does a great job getting us stronger, getting us faster, getting us ready for the season.
"He keeps us lifted in a way that will keep us healthy throughout a 13-game season like we had last year, so he has a big role for sure."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.