Chris Kerr’s influence on Liberty hockey

Chris Kerr, the director of sports performance for club sports, wants nothing more than to hear the words “well done, good and faithful servant” when he enters heaven’s gates. 

In many ways, the New Jersey native lives like a servant day-to-day for the Liberty hockey programs. In his role as director of sports performance, he works daily with athletes to ensure they perform at their best physically and mentally. 

Kerr joined the club sports staff in 2014, and his first-year club sports had two national championship teams in women’s hockey and wrestling. It was the first time club sports had ever had a national champion team. Kerr deflects his impact on those championships. 

“At the end of the day, what I do is a supplement. Just like when you are having a meal, you cannot survive off supplements,” Kerr said. “You need to have your meat and potatoes.”

What exactly are those meat and potatoes? 

“The meat and potatoes are the coaching staff. The recipe is how the players interact,” Kerr said. “I would say I just stepped into the right kitchen at the perfect time.” 

Since Kerr’s first year, the emphasis of his department has changed immensely. The change warranted a new name and was implemented just a few months ago when the department switched from “strength and conditioning” to “sports performance.”

“We aren’t just in the weight room anymore,” Kerr said. “We are advising coaches on practices, layout and structure. We are advising on what to feed their teams, when to wake up and when to travel, based on sleep rhythms and patterns. It has become much more holistic.” 

Kerr typically begins his day with either meetings or his own personal training. The personal training, for Kerr, is essential to his approach to sports performance. 

“Training myself is incredibly important because I will do everything to myself before I implement it with a team or with an athlete,” Kerr said. “I need to make sure what I am about to do with a hockey team isn’t going to mess up their hips because it messed mine up. I use myself as the guinea pig.” 

Kerr spends much of the day working directly with coaches, teams and athletes – something he views as a blessing. 

“It’s a labor of love,” Kerr said. “I wouldn’t even call it a job. I feel blessed to get to do something I love every single day and pour back into our young men and women.” 

After a great offseason in the weight room, the consensus around the men’s D1 hockey team is that they are in the best shape of their life. Kerr hopes that isn’t the case. 

“Hopefully not,” Kerr said. “Hopefully (that’s) not the best shape, so there’s still room for improvement. Hopefully, they are in good game shape, but hopefully, there is still some growth left in the tank.” 

Kerr has served Liberty clubs sports for over eight years now, and as he looks over his time here, he does not want the individual successes he has with athletes to be his story. Kerr wants to look back and say that his impact went beyond the ice. 

“I want it to be that for four to five years (I) poured into young men and women who then went out and changed the world for Christ,” Kerr said. “I am super blessed that I get to live out (Liberty’s) tagline: training champions for Christ.”

Elmore is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on Twitter