Staff Profile: Brandon Merli – Director of Athletic Performance
Brandon Merli is the Director of Athletic Performance and Head Strength Coach at Victus Academy. He is also the Director of Sports Science and Development Coach for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
Brandon’s philosophy for strength training is pretty simple: it’s movement over muscle. He always wants to make sure the movement patterns are correct and that students develop proper movement patterns before they start to strengthen the movement patterns. It’s about the quality of movement before they add the strength to the movement.Brandon believes that Victus Academy helps student-athletes
“by the way they break down movement, movement patterns and skills on the ice as well as off the ice and continues to reinforce them and breaking down the skill set that they can’t find with their teams and adding it 4 times a week is huge enable to develop their skills” and “the volume they get off and on ice… it’s something you can’t get anywhere else.”
Brandon grew up playing hockey in Kitchener since he was 3 years old when his dad put him in and since then he’s loved it. He went on to play Tier 2 Junior A in Markham and from there was drafted to the Kitchener Rangers. He played in Kitchener for 4 years and 2 years playing minor professional hockey before attending Wilfrid Laurier University where he went to school. After graduating university, he got his post-grad certification in sport science and sport conditioning and was able to get the job of Head Strength Coach for the Kitchener Rangers.
A few years after that opened his own gym, Redline Conditioning and in September 2019, he started at his current role at Victus Academy. President Matthew Schmidt believes that
“Brandon is the perfect coach for our students. He has OHL pedigree from his playing and coaching days and he commands respect from our students. His attention to detail with respect to strength movements and technique directly translates to stronger movements on the ice. His professionalism and high athletic standard is a perfect example of what our students should continue to strive for on a daily basis.”