Justin Ruff begins his fourth season as the Head Strength & Conditioning coach at Nichols College in 2024-25. In his tenure at Nichols College Ruff has continued to fortify his value and continued to grow his values of strength & conditioning. In his time at Nichols he developed the curriculum and began teaching Introduction to Sports Performance Practicum class for students enrolled in various concentrations. He also built a partnership with Shepard Hill High School, to train and establish a leadership program for the local high school student-athletes.
Nichols claimed one Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship with the Men's Tennis team and also saw the Men's Volleyball team earn their second straight New England Volleyball Conference (NEVC) Championships this season, and they also earned their first NCAA tournament appearance. The Women's Lacrosse team was the most successful they have been as a program, as well as the Baseball team who won 29 games for the first time ever. Ruff helped coach a school record six conference Players of the Year this season.
The Bison claimed two Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championships with the Men's Basketball team and Men's Tennis team. The Men's Basketball team reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament and the Men's Tennis team won their first round NCAA Tournament game. The Men's Volleyball claimed their first New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship this season. With Ruff's guidance countless athletes to break records in the weight room and in the playing surfaces.
Nichols captured a pair of Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championships during Ruff’s first season working with the student-athletes in 2021-22 – Men’s Basketball and Men’s Tennis. The Women’s Ice Hockey program won a program-record 16 games and advanced to the conference semifinals for just the second time in program history. The Women’s Lacrosse program, meanwhile, won a single-season record 11 games and qualified for the CCC playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Ruff spent the 2020-21 campaign as a graduate assistant at Merrimack College, where he was responsible for the programming and conditioning of the college’s Division I men’s ice hockey and women’s volleyball programs. Ruff created daily questionnaires to monitor the sleep, hydration, stress, and body soreness of MC student-athletes, utilized functional range conditioning with his student-athletes, and educated them on the importance of hydration, sleep, and proper nutrition.
A 2020 graduate of Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn., Ruff spent time as a volunteer athletic performance coach at the University of Minnesota working with multiple Olympic Teams. He also worked at Concordia University St. Paul, the Training Haus, and Augsburg University before landing in Massachusetts. He worked with the Gophers women’s soccer and tennis programs (2019) as an undergrad at Augsburg before his time at Concordia with the baseball, softball, football, and women’s soccer teams (2020).
Ruff earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Scienece from Augsburg, where he was a three-year starter for the Auggies football program, serving as captain as a senior. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and holds both USA Weightlifting (USAW) Level 1 and Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR) Level 1 certification.
