There’s nothing “off” about the off-seasons for varsity sports at Drexel. That’s when things get busy for Michael Rankin, the man tasked with making sure the Dragons are in tip-top shape.
“You hear it all the time, the importance of the off-season,” says Denise Dillon, Drexel’s women’s basketball coach. “That’s when we get better, and the speed and the agility and the strength offered by Rankin and his department is so crucial. We’re lucky to have him here.”
For the past 12 years, as Drexel’s director of strength and conditioning, Rankin has inspired and transformed thousands of Dragon athletes with his dogged work ethic, innovative approaches, motivational techniques and, perhaps most importantly, contagious passion for fitness.
Rankin and his staff implement training programs for every varsity sports team on campus, then work closely with student-athletes in a weight room Rankin has improved over the years.
“He’s the best,” says Zach Makovsky (BS ’06), a former Drexel wrestler and professional mixed martial artist. “There’s reason and logic behind all the training. He’s taught me so much about how to structure my training.”
Makovsky continues to train at Drexel’s Walter Spiro Varsity Weight Room in preparation for fights. Several other Drexel alumni who play professionally in various sports do the same, a testament to the state-of-the-art facility Rankin designed and his value as a strength and conditioning coach.
“It’s a huge advantage to have a guy like that and a facility like this one at Drexel,” says Makovsky.
That’s music to Rankin’s ears. A gym fanatic for as long as he can remember, Rankin is still pinching himself after finding a way to make a career out of his passion.
“That’s my favorite part of the job, knowing that in some way I had a positive impact on these kids,” Rankin says.
After a college football career was cut short by injury, Rankin, a native of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, graduated from West Chester University with a degree in kinesiology.
He landed a four-month internship in Boston with Mike Boyle, who at the time was the strength coach at Boston University and who also ran a private facility that worked primarily with professional athletes. Rankin returned to the Philadelphia area with a wealth of knowledge and a dream of making fitness a career. He became a graduate assistant in the strength and conditioning program within Drexel Athletics, and in 2003, that led to the full-time position he currently holds.
“There’s reason and logic behind all the training. He’s taught me so much about how to structure my training.”
Whether it’s Rankin leading by example (he isn’t shy about jumping into a workout as a training partner when motivation is needed), or by his innovative strategies (he recently implemented a smartphone and tablet application that allows athletes, coaches and medical staff to monitor workouts), or his intensity and enthusiasm, Rankin has inspired thousands of student-athletes during his tenure at Drexel.
He goes at it 100 percent,” says Jocelyn Quaile, a recent Drexel graduate and standout women’s lacrosse player. “Before I came to college I did not know anything about weight lifting. He taught me basics as a freshman, and from there, he really motivated me to be better.”
Rankin oversees the 3,500-square-foot training room in the Daskalakis Athletic Center, utilized by all 18 varsity teams and loaded with cutting-edge equipment that includes a band wall, battling ropes, stall bars, plyometric boxes, stability balls and climbing gear. It’s a major improvement from the much smaller, non-air-conditioned room he inherited a dozen years ago.
“It didn’t happen overnight,” Rankin explains. “Everything down here has been a piece-by-piece progression, but if you have the plan, you can see what you’re chipping away at. I absolutely love that, and a big reason why I’m still here is because I want to see it out.”
Another driving force for Rankin: the student-athletes he deals with on a daily basis. He takes pride in seeing them physically develop from freshman, and helping them battle back to top form after an injury.
“Everyone tells me I should take some credit [for student-athletes’ success], but they are the ones doing all the work,” Rankin says. “They’re the ones coming in here, getting focused, moving the weight, running as hard as they possibly can. They have a lot on their plate as student-athletes and still find time to come in and put forth a heck of a lot of effort.”
“I have a lot of admiration for these kids,” he says.