Every day before and after school, the weight room is abuzz with athletes striving to improve their athletic performance. Behind these workouts, strength coach Conor Mitchell curates detailed routines for each sports program. An intense yet encouraging coach, Mitchell has quickly become a staple of Mounds View sports culture.

Growing up, Mitchell always had an interest in sports. He played soccer and ran track in high school and majored in sports psychology at Bethel University. He then took on an internship under the head strength coach at Bethel that sparked his passion for all sports and strength and conditioning as a whole. “The strength conditioning internship at Bethel really allowed me to broaden my views of all these other sports and how they work, learning the whole background of every sport, and then looking at the ball mechanics [and] how people move,” said Mitchell. 

Mitchell became the Mounds View strength coach during the 2022-2023 school year. He currently holds a weight training and conditioning program before and after school and trains athletes of different sports. He creates all of the workouts based on athletes’ strength training experience, as well as the specific ball mechanics or movements for each sport. 

During his first year, Mitchell described this job as “pulling teeth,” as he had to figure out how to implement his own training methods while adapting to what students had grown used to with the old coach. Transitioning from training college students to high school students was also difficult because the atmosphere in college was much more serious. As a result, Mitchell was very intense his first year, often making athletes do push-ups as punishment. “I think I almost weeded kids out that first year because I was too strict on what I wanted versus now, we have the same standard, but my coaching style has gotten better to how to actually coach kids while keeping that standard high, but wanting them to actually stay in the program,” said Mitchell. 

Since then, Mitchell has prioritized building relationships with athletes, leaving a positive impression and gaining a community of students who like him as a person. “[He is a coach] that you can’t hate. He’s really amicable. He’s just really easy to like. He’s really nice to everyone, and I like the fact that he makes an active effort to talk to everyone there,” said senior Linus Tong. Even now, alumni often come back to chat with Mitchell, building upon connections created during weight training. 

In addition, Mitchell is passionate about instilling good values in his athletes. He emphasizes not only discipline in the weight room, but also in an athlete’s overall life. “I think [with] strength and conditioning, [people] just think of the physical side, but most people don’t think of the mental side of it too. ‘How do we train these kids not just to be better in here, but how do [the skills learned here] relate to the rest of their life?’ Because if you got to be disciplined here, that’s going to relate to other areas of your life, too.” He also encourages athletes to be curious and to ask him questions about why he includes certain exercises in their training regimen. 

Overall, Mitchell’s encouraging atmosphere and attitude has made a positive impact on athletes — one that other coaches can see. “The weight room can be hard and lifting can be challenging, and you don’t always feel like coming in here and working out. But when you have a guy like Coach Mitchell motivating and putting together workouts that you can trust are gonna get great results, it can help you push through those days where you don’t really feel like working out,” said football coach Aaron Moberg.