Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Vice President and Athletics Director Gerald Harrison has named Medgar Harrison as the department’s Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Performance, with Justin Collett joining the staff as the Director of Football Performance and Zakary Lawler as Assistant Director of Sports Performance. In addition, Maryam Nalbandian joins the sports performance staff as a Director of Sports Nutrition.
“After a diligent search, I believe we have a group of dedicated sports performance coaches (Harrison, Collett, and Lawler) and a nutritionist (Nalbandian) who will help all our student-athletes reach their potential,” said Gerald Harrison. “All three of these new staff members have proven they have the ability to develop individuals at all levels and help them and their teams reach their goals. They will jump right in this spring to help our student-athletes elevate their performance as we strive toward our goals in the ‘Total Gov Concept.'”
Medgar Harrison, a Shreveport, Louisiana native, joins Austin Peay’s athletics department after working with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) as a contractor to assist the unit with service member readiness and unit readiness since March 2021.
A two-time Louisiana-Lafayette graduate, Harrison began his career with the Ragin’ Cajuns as an assistant strength and condition coach in 2008 before joining the Tennessee athletics staff in the same role in 2009. After two seasons with the Volunteers, he was hired as the Director of Strength & Conditioning at Bethune Cookman in 2011. While at BCU, he interned with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns during the summer of 2013.
After helping Bethune-Cookman Athletics to 12 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championships over four seasons, including a berth in the 2013 FCS Playoffs, Harrison moved to direct the Alabama State strength and condition department in January 2014 and was primarily responsible for football and baseball. He helped the Hornets athletics department win 34 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships during his four seasons in Montgomery.
Harrison followed his time at Alabama State with a year as the director of strength and condition at Jackson State before entering the private sector briefly before joining the 160th SOAR.
Collett comes to Clarksville after a three-season stint as a sports performance coach with the Indiana football program. His time in Bloomington followed two years as an intern with the strength and conditioning staff at Tennessee
A 2017 Maryville College graduate, Collett began his career at Maryville as the department’s Head Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for three seasons while also serving as a Scots football coaching staff member. The Hiram, Georgia, native also played four seasons as an offensive lineman for the Scots and helped them win the USA South Athletic Conference title as a senior.
Lawler, a 2019 Tennessee graduate, comes to Clarksville after a year at Pomona High School in Denver, his prep alma mater, where he was the head strength and conditioning coach. Lawler began his career following graduation from Tennessee as an intern in the Volunteers strength and conditioning department. He followed that with a stint as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Duke before joining the staff of Archetype Strength in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was for a year before returning to Pomona High School.
Nalbandian is a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and licensed dietitian nutritionist who joins Austin Peay after working on the athletics staff at SMU. She received her bachelor’s degree from Arizona State in 2020. After receiving her degree, she joined the Alabama-Birmingham athletics staff courtesy of a Wellness Workdays Dietetic Internship and worked with the Blazers’ football program.
Following her internship, she joined Louisiana-Lafayette’s staff as a sports nutrition fellow and worked with Ragin’ Cajuns track and field, women’s soccer, men’s basketball, and cheer programs. After a year at Louisiana, Nalbandian was a sports nutrition assistant at SMU, again working with the Mustangs football, women’s soccer, women’s golf, women’s swimming and diving, and women’s track and field programs.
