Ethan Saloom Joins Sports Performance

by: Hank Hooper, Associate Athletic Director
The introduction is overdue, but for the past 50+ days, Ethan Saloom has been pushing our kids to get better. Ethan was hired as an assistant Sports Performance coach, and he brings a world of ‘smarts’ with him. Once destined to become a mechanical engineer, it just didn’t feel right, so the path was changed. His love of sports was too strong, and that field of endeavor in some capacity was calling. He was sure his degree in exercise science would lead him to physical therapy, but COVID created an alternate path. The pandemic slowed everything and everyone down for a time, and it allowed Ethan to really eyeball his future and find an answer to the question of what he was going to do with his degree. He decided on building something – Athletes.
Ethan was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana and attended St. Thomas Moore Catholic High School. There, he was a three-season athlete and played football, soccer and was a sprinter on the track team as he was destined to do. His older sister was a dancer through college, and his older brother ran the steeplechase and cross country in college. The athletic gene was strong in the Saloom family, and Ethan followed suit. He moved on to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and started two years on their club soccer team. The gridiron bug eventually got him, and he later joined the Ragin’ Cajuns football team as a walk-on wide Receiver.
 
After earning his bachelor’s degree in exercise science in 2019, Saloom served as an intern at Louisiana Tech University in the Summer of 2021 where he worked with the football program. He joined Louisiana Tech and interned at the University of Louisiana from 2020-2021. At the University of Louisiana, Saloom primarily trained in Cheer, Dance, Cross Country, and Women’s Tennis. He also assisted with Men’s & Women’s Basketball, Track & Field, Baseball, and Softball. Before Louisiana, Saloom spent 3 years working in Physical Therapy clinics as a technician. Saloom joined the University of Oklahoma in the Fall of 2021 where he served as a Graduate Assistant on the Olympic Strength and Conditioning staff. During his stint with the Sooners, he trained Women’s Rowing, Women’s Golf, and Track & Field while assisting with Baseball, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Volleyball, and Men’s Wrestling. Saloom also completed an internship with the Football program’s Sport Science staff in the Summer of 2022.
 
Saloom completed his master’s degree in Sports Data Analytics from the University of Oklahoma in 2023 submitting his thesis using performance tracking data on the physical demands of Division-I Women’s Soccer players.
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