Stephen Vassalotti is in his seventh season as the head strength and conditioning at Dakota State in 2023-24.
Prior coming to Dakota State, Vassalotti was the head strength and conditioning coach at Marshalltown High School for one year. He developed annual training plans for multi-sport athletes. He also was the Peak Performance Director where he worked to improve overall fitness levels for firefighters, the police department, marathon runners, and the general population.
He worked at the University of Northern Iowa as the men's basketball strength coach in 2015-16. He also was the volunteer strength coach for the UNI football team during the summer of 2015.
Vassalotti earned his Bachelor of Science degree in health, wellness, and recreation from the University of Dubuque in 2013. He also earned his master's degree in business administration from Dubuque in 2015.
As a graduate assistant, Vassalotti assisted all the sports teams with daily training and conditioning sessions. He designed and implemented unique training programs for the track & field, men's soccer, and men's/women's tennis teams. He planned weekly workout schedules, input data from lifting sessions to track individual improvements and creatively utilized the university's workout facilities.
He served as Head Performance Coach at the Merge Performance Institute from June 2013-May 2015. He programmed, demonstrated, and provided young athletes (ages 10-18) with knowledge of all major strength movements, speed, agilities, movement patters, general body awareness, and proper Olympic lifting techniques.
Vassalotti served an internship with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL from January-March 2013. He prepared workouts, organized coaching schedules, and managed daily operations. He trained and helped hockey athletes.
He earned All-Conference honors as a member of the football team at Dubuque, where he started 41 games from 2009-13.
