RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque announced on Monday the promotion of Chase Haselhorst and the addition of Dan Park to serve as assistant strength & conditioning coaches. 
 
"Having two full-time salaried assistants is a big step for our athletic department," said UTRGV Athletics Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Lucas Monroe. "Chase has done an excellent job working with his teams and stepping up when we were down one person on staff. He filled a void and allowed us to do more specific work with teams. When bringing in someone new, we wanted someone with experience. Dan's been in a few places and he's got experience with different teams, athletes and coaches." 
 
Chase Haselhorst 
Haselhorst joined the UTRGV Strength & Conditioning staff as an athletics assistant in July 2021. He has been promoted to Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach and will continue working with volleyball, women's soccer, women's golf, and men's and women's tennis.  
 
"I didn't expect to get quite a bump up right away, but I'm super grateful that Lucas gave me the opportunity. I'm excited to know my future is at UTRGV and it's awesome that I get to stay with my current teams," Haselhorst said.  
 
Haselhorst creates and implements strength & conditioning programs for a variety of sports and spends a lot of time in the weight room and at different training venues to facilitate workouts. He studies the performances of his student-athletes and communicates daily with coaches and athletic trainers to ensure he's helping every individual live up to their potential. 
 
While the strength & conditioning staff was down one assistant coach, Monroe credited Haselhorst for stepping up and taking on a larger load. Some days, Haselhorst would facilitate five strength & conditioning sessions. With a new coach joining the staff, Haselhorst is excited to have more time to really focus on the five teams in his care and develop relationships with the student-athletes, which he said is key to success in his position. 
 
"I can have the greatest program, I can be the best coach, but if the student-athletes don't trust me, that doesn't mean anything. Building those relationships is paramount in making sure we have success in here during the offseason," Haselhorst said. 
 
Monroe praised the dedication Haselhorst has to creating those connections, saying a "massive thing" he brings to the table is truly becoming a part of the teams he works with. 

Haselhorst is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He has a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with minors in Sports Psychology and Sports Management from McKendree University, where he was a strength & conditioning graduate assistant in 2018-19. He earned his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Sports Business Management from Webber International University in 2020 while serving for two years as a graduate assistant strength & conditioning coach. 
 
While overseeing his five teams, Haselhorst also assists with all other Vaqueros teams and oversees student-athlete nutrition. Being involved in so many teams is an opportunity he appreciates, and he attacks every day determined to make his student-athletes, and himself, better. 
 
"I'm a sports junkie. I grew up playing so many different sports and always being active. For me, being around different sports is awesome. It's so enjoyable and it keeps it fresh," Haselhorst said. "I always try to keep growing by being critical and rethinking what we do. It's going back and looking through our program and saying, 'Where can I make this better?' It's never being content with having success. If you're preaching about pushing, you better be doing the same thing and leading from the front instead of barking from the back." 
 
Dan Park 
Park joined UTRGV Athletics on Dec. 5, 2022 as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach and will work with the women's basketball and men's and women's track & field/cross country programs. 
 
"I'm really thankful for Lucas and everyone who was a part of the hiring committee. I'm super excited for the opportunity to work at a school that's on the rise. There's a lot going on at UTRGV and I'm happy to be a small part of it," Park said. "I'm excited to meet the coaches and the student-athletes and to get going." 
 
Park earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Human Performance (Kinesiology) and a Master of Education in Higher Education and Leadership from Iowa State University. He recently received his Master of Applied Science in Sports and Fitness Management from Missouri Western State University (MWSU). Park also attended Marshalltown Community College for a time, where he played baseball. 
 
"Dan has a wide array of experience with a bunch of different teams, which is how our department operates," Monroe said. "He's going to bring a certain level of maturity. The entire time with Dan's interview process, with Zoom and phone calls, he was very put together with his programming and able to communicate effectively with us, which is a great thing." 
 
Park served as the football strength & conditioning intern at Austin Peay State University from May to Aug. 2022, helping to implement the summer strength & conditioning program while working one-on-one with injured or modified student-athletes and overseeing the nutrition station. From Jan. 2021 to May 2022 he was a graduate assistant strength & conditioning coach at MWSU, where he gained experience designing and implementing strength & conditioning programs for baseball, women's lacrosse and men's and women's cross country while assisting with other sports.  
 
In Aug. 2013, Park became the first strength & conditioning coach in school history at Iowa Lakes Community College. He worked there for three years, overseeing the strength & conditioning needs for 15 varsity sports. He trained one individual national champion and two national runner-up teams and served as the interim swimming & diving head coach. 
 
From 2008 to 2012, Park was a strength & conditioning coach at Tipton Community Schools and a speed and agility coaching intern at Acceleration Iowa Sports Training. He is a Level 1 USA Weightlifting coach and Level 1 USA Track & Field coach and is certified in CPR/AED. 
 
"I've worked at various levels, in private sector training to high school, junior college, NCAA Division II and Division I. I've had a chance to work with almost every sport out there and with a wide variety of athletes over the last decade or longer, and I'll draw from those experiences to help the student-athletes here," Park said.
 
Park is prepared to maximize his student-athletes' athletic ability, but even more, he'll strive to positively impact all the Vaqueros and help make them stronger in all avenues of life. 
 
"Not only do we as strength coaches physically work them out, help get them stronger and keep them safe to minimize injury risk, but we also want to make them better students and better people. Being able to make a positive impact on a student-athlete is my biggest thing," Park said.  

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