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2013 Georgia State Football
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SUPPORT STAFF
FOOTBALL STAFF
ben
POLLARD
Assistant Director of Athletics
Athletics - Speed, Strength &
Conditioning
Third Year at GSU
B
en Pollard, who possesses more than two decades of
experience working with major college programs,
joined the Georgia State staff in June 2011 as Assistant
Director of Athletics for Speed, Strength and Conditioning.
Pollard works directly with the Panther football program
while overseeing strength and conditioning for all GSU sports.
Pollard has spent much of his career working with FBS
powers, including stints at Mississippi State (2007-09), Texas
A&M (2004-07), Alabama (2001-04), and TCU (1998-01).
From 1998 through 2009, he trained numerous future NFL
players while working with football teams that played in seven
bowl games and won four conference titles. He also spent nine
years (1989-98) at Sam Houston State, serving as head strength
coach and kinesiology instructor.
Before coming to Georgia State, he served as head strength
and conditioning coach at Texas State University. That followed
a one-year stint at Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas.
Pollard is certified as a Master Strength Coach by the
Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association
(CSCCA). He also holds certification from the United States
Weightlifting Federation (USWF) and as a National Strength
and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA).
He began his career as a graduate assistant strength coach at
Texas Tech, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1984 and
master’s degree in 1989.
Pollard is married to the former Leslie Willis and has three
children: Harrison, Melissa and Everett.
sarah
GIGANTINO
Director of
Football Operations
Fourth Year at GSU
G
eorgia State’s director of football operations is Sarah
Gigantino, now in her fourth year with the Panthers.
Gigantino joined the GSU staff in February 2010
as the program prepared for its inaugural season. She spent
the previous three seasons as director of football operations
at Northeastern, which discontinued its football program
following the 2009 campaign.
Before going to Northeastern, where she served under head
coach Rocky Hager, Gigantino worked in the athletics depart-
ment at Maryland and at the Campus Recreation Center at
Georgia Tech. She also served an internship in the New York
Jets’ college scouting department.
Gigantino received a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and
sport management from JamesMadison in 2004 and then earned
her master’s degree in sports administration from Georgia State
in 2006. She worked with the Dukes’ football program while an
undergraduate at JMU.
Active in the American Football Coaches Association
(AFCA), Gigantino served as the Colonial Athletic Association
representative to the AFCA Football Operations Organization
from 2009-12. She was one of 10 operations directors across the
country to be selected for the Director of Football Operations
Administration Symposium at the 2013 AFCA Convention, and
she previously participated in a panel on women and minorities
in the profession in 2011.
