Derqaoui Added To Strength And Conditioning Staff
June 14, 2016 | Soccer
BOULDER – Colorado soccer coach Danny Sanchez announced on Tuesday that Karim Derqaoui will join the team's staff as the strength and conditioning coach.
He is replacing Steve Englehart, who was promoted to director of basketball strength and conditioning at CU earlier this spring. Derqaoui will also work with CU's tennis program.
"I am thrilled to be joining the CU Boulder athletics department, in my opinion a standout example of excellence in intercollegiate sports," Derqaoui said. "Perhaps the most attractive aspect for me was the department's belief in promoting a fully-integrated approach to working with student-athletes. This includes progressive collaboration on several levels between sports coaches, the strength/conditioning department, and our extended medical personnel. When I toured the new Champions Center, I felt it clearly set a new standard for student-athlete training, monitoring, and treatment. Furthermore, our academic resources are first-class and the campus is incredible. At the end of the day, I feel everyone is working to achieve the same vision: create a sophisticated and integrated environment for student-athletes to succeed in sports as well as develop into exception individuals of strong character. To say that I'm excited to join the Buffs would be an understatement and I look forward to working alongside the fantastic people I have had the privilege of meeting thus far."
Derqaoui brings extensive performance training experience to the Buffs, including six years with professional soccer teams around the world. He spent the 2014 season with FC Dallas as the club's principle athletic performance coach and worked with the coaching staff to create daily and weekly training plans for the first team. He oversaw performance monitoring of the first team and implemented individual training programs to meet the unique needs of each player. He also collaborated with the medical and physical therapy staff during end-stage rehabilitation of players and worked with team nutritionists to maximize the recovery.
In 2013 he was the lead athletic performance coach for PFC Litex, a first-division team in Bulgaria. After his time in Bulgaria he visited over 20 elite European sports organizations as part of an extended sabbatical. He spent time with professional soccer clubs, national training centers, and also professional handball. Such sites included Liverpool FC, Paris Saint-Germain, FC Bayern Munich, Ajax Amsterdam and Scotland Rugby.
Prior to his time in Bulgaria, he spent two years as a performance consultant for elite international soccer with Athletes' Performance in Phoenix (currently EXOS). He worked extensively with international professional soccer projects such as Luneng Taishan FC of the Chinese first-division; Al-Gharafa SC of the Qatari first-division; and an individual with the Mexican National Team that helped the team qualify for and reach the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Beginning in 2010 he served as the principle athletic performance coach for the Portland Timbers of MLS for two seasons. As part of a strategic partnership he also worked with the Providence Sports Care Center in Portland, assisting with treatment of injured Portland Timbers players, general population patients and community outreach initiatives.
He received his bachelor's degree in sport and exercise science from San Francisco State University in 2007, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He continued on to receive his master's degree in 2009 in exercise physiology, completing his thesis on preseason conditioning for soccer. He is currently working on his second master's degree at CU in integrative physiology.