When Lee Fiocchi graduated from Hermiston High in 1997, he wasn’t thinking much about a possible career path.

All Fiocchi wanted to do was play football. He did not have a dream job such as becoming a doctor or a teacher or a television broadcaster, he just wanted to play college football and then earn his way into the NFL. But during the summer before his senior football season at Eastern Illinois University, Fiocchi and a teammate spent some time in Florida to train at a private facility and it was during that time that the proverbial light bulb went off for him.

“I recognized that I enjoyed the physical preparations and that really kind of opened my eyes to this sports performance niche,” Fiocchi said in a phone interview. “When I realized my degree path would allow me to work within the field that kind of switched my mindset a little bit, post football and to what I wanted to do.”

Now, 19 years after moving away from Hermiston, Fiocchi has earned what just may be his dream job. Starting January 1, 2017, Fiocchi will be the head strength and conditioning coach for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There he will be in charge of overseeing all of the development of the speed, strength, and reactional movement capabilities for the big league club.

“People work their whole careers in their field and never get this type of opportunity, so I guess it’s kind of beyond a dream, honestly,” Fiocchi said. “It was just more of a natural progression of just trying to learn and grow and improve myself and being the owner of a private business facilitating athletes of all ranges has really been more than anything I could have hoped for. But I’m excited to get started.”

Fiocchi grabbed the attention of the Angels organization, predominately General Manager Billy Eppler, with not only his successful overall resume but the work put in at Dynamic Sports Training — the sports performance company Fiocchi founded and has operated in Houston since 2008.

“They got my contact and felt like I could be a potential fit so they reached out to me to see if I was interested,” Fiocchi said.

And he was.

After Fiocchi’s football playing days finished, he first dabbled in coaching as a graduate assistant for two years at Eastern Illinois where he also assisted with the team’s strength and conditioning coach. But once it was time for Fiocchi to complete an internship in order to graduate he focused on the classwork and shortly after began his internship at a private facility near Chicago.

The internship turned out to be Fiocchi’s first big career break, as just five weeks into his tenure one of the strength coaches had to step down and Fiocchi was hired on and elevated into a position of authority as an intern.

“At that facility I worked with a professional soccer player, professional hockey player, and a professional football player along with the primary athletes that were prep level,” he said. “So that was some pretty good exposure.”

Fiocchi completed his internship and graduated from Eastern Illinois in 2004 and soon was looking elsewhere to continue his career. He was still focused on working with football players, and had a special interest in training college athletes as they prepared for the grueling process of the NFL Combine. He started looking around at facilities in the southern states and soon got a job in Houston doing just what he wanted.

Not long after he moved to Houston, Fiocchi was on the move again to join renowned trainer Pete Bommarito — who Fiocchi met while training at IMG Academy — as Bommarito split from IMG and opened his own facility. Fiocchi was one of the key coaches for Bommarito’s NFL Combine training, but soon after got his first exposure to training professional baseball players as well.

Fiocchi impressed enough during his short tenure that he was elevated into the director of MLB off-season training programs at Perfect Competition in Davie, Florida, where he got to work directly with players like Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers, as well as retired players Miguel Tejada, Magglio Ordoñez, and Raul Ibañez.

After a couple years in Florida, Fiocchi got married to his wife Crystal and the couple decided to settle down in Houston where they first met. But instead of looking for another place to work, Fiocchi thought it was time to start on another dream of his — owning his own business. He started Dynamic Sports Training in 2008, which started out as a simple boot camp-style workouts that he coached at a local park. But he pounded the pavement to advertise and worked some connections to try and grow the business, which happened slower than he had hoped.

Finally Fiocchi caught another break as he got connected with the head baseball coach at Houston Christian High School and he started working with the school’s baseball team. That relationship slowly blossomed for Fiocchi and DST and before long he was working with most of the school’s athletic teams.

“And since then we have been able to establish a relationship and we operate out of (Houston Christian) school’s facility under a contract where we’re able to provide them services and also be able to train our athletes at their facilities,” Fiocchi said. “So it’s been a really good relationship.”

That partnership helped DST grow into what it is today, operating out of two locations and being a go-to place for top amateur and professional athletes to enhance their performance. On top of that, DST has also supplied the strength and conditioning for the University of Houston’s baseball team, which Fiocchi spearheaded. He will still be involved with the overall operations at DST while he is working with the Angels, but the infrastructure that’s in place allows the company to thrive in his absence.

“It gives some guys some opportunities to really develop in the company but in terms of day-to-day operations it’s not really going to impact anything,” he said. “And I’ll still be back in Houston during the off-season.”

Once Fiocchi met with the Angels, he knew it was a no-brainer to take the job. Getting the chance to work with one of the best players in the MLB in Mike Trout and a surefire Hall of Famer in Albert Pujols is enticing, but the vision of the organization really sold Fiocchi.

“I’m more excited about where the organization is going,” Fiocchi said. “They (Angels) really want an athlete-first approach and they felt like hiring me was their most important piece in developing that culture of doing what’s best for the athlete.

“But it’s cool. I’ve been working with a lot of athletes prior to this and I’m prepared regardless if I’m training a nine-year-old or whatever age a guy like Pujols is, I’m going to put myself in a position to be a resource for those guys.”

Fiocchi is also looking forward to the challenge of working with the team through the grueling MLB season, and learning all tricks of the trade.

“I’m semi-familiar with what some of those demands are for them playing in 162 games and I’m ready for that challenge,” he said. “Everything from the day-to-day operations to the adjustments we’ll have to make to help perform on a nightly basis.”

And with the Angels playing in the American League West Division, Fiocchi is looking forward to some opportunities to see some family members during the season.

“The good thing is we play Seattle, they’re in our division,” Fiocchi said, “and hopefully I’ll be able to see some of my family for the games.”

He still has plenty of family living in the Pacific Northwest, as his father and grandmother still live in Hermiston — with his father still living in Fiocchi’s childhood home — and he also has a brother living in Kennewick, Washington and one living in Portland. With Fiocchi’s busy schedule as well as his wife’s schedule as a teacher, it’s made it difficult to visit Hermiston as often as he would like.

“We were just back a few months ago in August and that was the first in about three years I think,” he said. “I do miss it, the community and where people know you pretty well, so it’s always nice to get back here.”

———

Contact Eric Singer at (541) 966-0839.