A POSITION OF STRENGTH
By Chris Kowalczyk
11-30-09

It seems like the only person that can wear out Daniel Roose is his two-year-old son Devin.

“I call him Mr. Perseverance,” Roose said. “We have a little batting tee in the back yard and he’ll stay out there and take cut after cut after cut. My neighbors think I make him do it. I’ll tell him it’s time to come inside and he’s like, ‘more cuts, more cuts.’”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Roose household. Devin appears to have inherited his father’s hard-charging persona.

Whatever his son can throw at him in the evening, it hasn’t slowed down the high-energy Roose during the day, when he’s serving as the strength and conditioning coach for the VCU men’s basketball team. It’s a good thing, because this year, the Rams may need him more than ever.

Roose was hired this season by Head Coach Shaka Smart to fuel VCU’s explosive, up-tempo attack. Smart’s system is marked by its full court press and high-octane offense. The Rams are a picture of constant motion and often practice with a 14-second shot clock. Players are implored to push through fatigue and pain.

“It’s vital. It’s basically boils down to which team can run and trap and bang and jump for longer periods of time than the other team,” Smart said.”That always inevitably comes back to the weight room and the things you’re able to do to enhance your conditioning. Daniel’s second-to-none in that regard.”

If the Rams were a locomotive, Smart would be the conductor, while Roose would be the soot-covered fellow who shovels piles of coal into the white-hot engine. VCU wants to wreak havoc, and Roose is an agent of chaos.

“[Smart wants] maximum effort,” Roose said. “That’s what I look for from kids. Never are you going to see one of my teams win a bench press competition. I’m not worried about numbers. I’m worried about them being explosive for 40 minutes. I want them to maintain explosiveness so that we’re running teams over in the second half. Anybody can be explosive at the tipoff.”

The style of play is a perfect fit for Roose. He’s unapologetically no-nonsense with the energy of a grade-schooler on field day. He craves progress and he loves winning. When his players see improvement in the weight room and on the court, he’s happy.

“He’s got a toughness about him. He’s very hard working,” Smart said. “He’s a perfectionist in a lot of ways, which is good because he’s demanding on the guys. He takes a lot of pride in making sure that under his watch, they’re doing the right things. “

Outside of the weight room, the 32-year-old Roose displays a sarcastic sense of humor and an everyman appeal, but when he’s conducting a workout, he’s a relentless go-getter. Call it half drill sergeant, half cheerleader.

Roose admits he’s always been this way, but he wasn’t always sure what arena would properly house his approach. When he graduated from Appalachian State in 2001, the North Carolina native coached and taught elementary physical education for a couple of years, a job he called, ‘monotonous.’

As an undergrad, he loved the gym and worked in Appalachian State’s strength and conditioning center. Eventually, he found an opening for a graduate assistant at Campbell University. The position paid about $9,000 and he had to rent a dingy basement apartment, but Roose didn’t mind. Six months into his stay, his boss accepted a position at Belmont University and left Roose in charge of strength and conditioning for Campbell’s 14 athletic programs. He calls the development, “the best thing that could’ve happened.”

He later worked at Marshall University, where he met VCU Director of Operations Kyle Getter, who was serving in the same capacity with the Thundering Herd. In 2007, he left to work at UNC Pembroke, where the school was starting a football program.

Although he was happy at Pembroke, when Smart accepted the VCU job, the wheels began turning. Getter, who worked with Smart at Clemson, recommended Roose for the Rams’ open strength and conditioning post. Roose was fully aware of Smart’s reputation as one of basketball’s bright young coaches.  Once they met face-to-face, Roose knew that VCU was where he wanted to be.

“With me, the biggest thing is facilities, and can I do the things I need to do, and I saw how important basketball was to VCU. That was a drawing point,” Roose said. “The other thing was Shaka’s energy that day. I knew he was someone I would see eye-to-eye with.”

For the VCU players, the transition wasn’t easy. For the previous three seasons, they’d been using a program that included a number of flexibility exercises. Roose’s system focuses on explosiveness and features more lifting.

“It was…challenging,” said Ed Nixon, pausing for dramatic effect. “I was sore all over my body. I don’t have words to explain.”

Nixon and his teammates managed to survive those early sessions, and now they’re seeing big gains in the weight room and on the floor.

“It took a while to adjust,” Nixon said. “But when I look in the mirror, I like what I see.”

That’s good news to Roose, who sets big goals for his players and himself.
“I tell them all the time I want to see them doing jumping jacks in the press,” Roose said. “I don’t care. I want to run our opponents over. I want them to come to the sidelines and tell me how soft the other team is. I want to win every game by 50.”

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