Nate Carson has always been at home on the football field. All through his life, he knew exactly what he wanted to do, coach college football.
Carson found that making a living off of his dream job’s salary would be unattainable, so he searched for a new angle. Turning to education, Carson worked at a middle school for two years before finding his position as assistant varsity football coach for the Bucs. Carson took on a new responsibility last January, starting a private off-season training service for football players, Momentum Athletic Performance.
Now that the season is over, Carson is expecting to take on a new wave of athletes from Grand Haven.
Training sessions are completely personalized. The two hours an athlete spends with Carson are constructed to focus on their biggest need. Carson re-creates scenarios where an athlete stumbled to help correct what went wrong. Carson and his players agree that work through Momentum is measurable in the changes in an athlete’s performance.
“There is a noticeable difference within six months of working with me,” Carson said, “I look at films and compare when they were developing and you can see the difference, you can see the growth.”
Momentum Athletic Performance has been thriving since its start in January, however, there have been location struggles. Carson has been working hard to secure a permanent place to host training sessions.
“I try to use as many local fields as possible around the area,” Carson said, “ I often have a drive out to Grand Valley State University so I can use their facilities. I’ll go drive into the Jenison area and even Grand Rapids for training sessions.”
Carson hopes to use Buccaneer Stadium for the summer sessions.
Momentum Athletic Performance’s rates are $25 for a two-hour session. Groups of students from the same school receive 20% off their training. Grand Haven athletes pay only $10. Carson hopes to draw more Bucs to his training with the discount.
Carson is actively working with seven collegiate and around 25 high school athletes. One of these athletes is Landon Christensen.
“Not only is Coach Carson a great coach, but he’s just a really great guy overall,” said Landon Christensen, a student-athlete for North Muskegon High School, “He’ll invite you to his house for breakfast to watch films and find what went wrong and fix it. He’s just a good guy.”
Christensen started work with Carson in December of last year after sustaining a knee injury.
“I really started working with him because I needed to get my speed and everything back. It was kind of nerve-wracking because it was the first time I did something like this,” said Christensen, “ He knows his stuff for sure.”
Momentum Athletics has been alive for nearly a year and has already impacted dozens of students.
“As long as kids still find a benefit in it and as long as I’m still growing and helping these kids figure out recruiting.” Carson said, “ I think I’ll do this as long as I possibly can.”