Alex Derenthal enters his second season as an assistant strength coach working with Georgia State football. In his first year at GSU, he was part of the Panthers’ 2019 bowl team that set a school-record for regular-season victories.
He joined the GSU staff in 2019 after two seasons working with the football team at Georgia Tech.
Before returning to Georgia Tech in 2017, Derenthal spent four years as the head strength and conditioning coach at Reinhardt University in Waleska, Ga., where he oversaw all aspects of strength and conditioning for the school’s 21 varsity sports. With Derenthal at the helm of its strength training, Reinhardt football won the 2016 Mid-South Conference, advanced to the NAIA national semifinals and was ranked No. 3 in the final NAIA poll. The Eagles also earned a playoff berth and top-10 national ranking in 2015 and produced 44 all-conference players and two all-Americans in four seasons.
In his first stint at Georgia Tech (2011-13), Derenthal interned with the football, baseball, softball, swimming and diving, and track and field programs.
Before getting into the strength and conditioning field, Derenthal served as a football graduate extern at Temple under head coach Al Golden.
Derenthal was a four-year letterwinner and two-time team captain as an offensive lineman at Temple (2004-08). He signed a free-agent contract with the New York Giants in 2009 before returning to college athletics at his alma mater.
He graduated from Temple in 2008 with a B.S. in kinesiology and earned a M.S. in exercise science from California (Pa.) in 2012. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA and also has obtained a Performance Enhancement Specialist certificate through NASM.
