Associate Head Strength & Conditioning Coach - Foo
Marco Candido is currently in his 6th season at Oregon State University where he is the Associate Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for Football under longtime friend Mike McDonald. He helped guide the team back to its first bowl game in over 10 years and its third ever 10 win season. His previous stop was at the University of Illinois where he was an Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach working with Football under Joey Boese and alongside Willie Jones for 2 seasons.
Prior to Illinois, Candido spent 8 years at Washington State University in various roles primarily as an Assistant Strength Coach for football under Darin Lovat (4 years) and Jason Loscalzo (4 years). There he helped lead the team to 2 bowl games after a decade hiatus. He was also an Assistant Strength Coach for Olympic Sports for 5 years with 2 of those years being an Assistant Director of Olympic Sports. He was under the late Master Strength Coach Dave Lang and alongside good friend Master Strength Coach Cori Metzgar. Marco was the Head strength coach for Men & Women's Track & Field (5 years), Women's Tennis (3 years), and Women's Rowing (1 year).
After graduating with his masters Marco accepted a paid internship at Washington State University working under Master Strength Coach Rob Oviatt. The following year he landed his first full time position as Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Drake University working alongside Mike Burch. He is forever grateful to Head Football Coach Rob Ash for entrusting his football team to him. While at Drake he was the Head Strength Coach for Football, Volleyball, and Men & Women's Track & Field for 2 years.
Marco got his Masters in Education emphasis Exercise Physiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a Strength & Conditioning Graduate Assistant under his mentor Master Strength Coach Stacey Torman. He assisted with all sports, while being in charge of Softball and Men & Women's Tennis. He was able to be a part of the football teams first ever bowl game. During his time at UAB he did a summer internship at Arizona State University working under Master Strength Coach Joe Kenn. Marco also worked with the local Arena Football team the Birmingham Steeldogs as an Offensive Assistant and Assistant Strength coach.
Candido played football at Occidental College where he helped the team win a conference championship, something that had not been done in over 10 years. He was awarded the team's strength & conditioning award, coaches'; award, and was named a team captain as a senior. During his time at Oxy he was a student assistant strength coach, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. Immediately following undergrad, he went on to be a Graduate Assistant Defensive Backs / Strength Coach for one season at the University of La Verne under Matt Durant.
Marco is a son of Portuguese immigrants and grew up in Gustine, California. His love for strength & conditioning started at a young age playing sports and training, which led him to become a state bench press champion and record holder as a high school senior.
