The NC State Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning staff added Craig Turner in the fall of 2017 as the Director of Sport Science/Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach. Turner serves as a hybrid coach-sport scientist by providing strength and conditioning services to the men's and women's soccer teams, while also conducting projects that answer high-priority performance-related questions for individual teams.
Prior to NC State, Turner was a postdoctoral researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, conducting his research in collaboration with the Nike Sports Research Laboratory. This research primarily focused on aspects of monitoring training load, testing physical performance, and understanding recovery modalities used within elite soccer. Before that, Turner worked as a full-time sport scientist and strength & conditioning coach at the Nike Academy (U-21 soccer program aiming to develop professional soccer players) until 2015. He has also worked in the English Football League as an intern and youth strength coach (2011-12) and as a sports science consultant within the Croatian premier league (2015-17).
Turner is originally from Oldham, England. He holds both his B.S. (Hons) in science and football, as well as a Ph.D. (an investigation into the sleeping patterns of youth soccer players during the competitive season) from Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Additionally, he is a certified strength and conditioning coach (NSCA) and a BASES accredited sport and exercise scientist.
