THE SPORTSTRENGTH MISSION
To provide every athlete with sport specific information, resources, and instruction so they may achieve their next level of physical performance.
MARK KEIL, CSCS
CEO
Mark’s career began with an internship at the Oral Roberts University Sports-Performance facility. He worked with ORU’s teams to develop speed, power, and strength in each of the athletes. The following summer, Mark interned with the Colorado Rockies Organization before taking a job with the Minnesota Twins. He spent two seasons as a performance coach in the Twins organization and has since worked with the Tulsa Oilers, FC Tulsa, and numerous high-schools and club teams in Oklahoma. He continues to assist coaches with team development and actively speaks at coach conferences across the region.
Outside of training, Mark spends time with his wife and their new baby girl.
Kyle Tillman
CTO
Kyle grew up playing a variety of sports before taking an interest to computers during his first year of college. After a 10-year break to pursue his passion of software development, he returned to finish his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois. In the 25 years that followed his initial programming class in GW Basic, Kyle has created software for some of Tulsa’s largest employers in the oil and gas industry, car rental, pre-employment screening, and veterinary technology sectors. He has expertise in the Microsoft technology stack as well as Android and iOS development.
When not coding, Kyle can be found spending time with his family, traveling to Caribbean beaches, or brewing beer.
Kayce nelson
CFO
Kayce is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of Northeastern State University, with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. Her career includes 25+ years in the accounting field with positions in corporate accounting with a publicly traded company, a controller for a privately-owned manufacturing company, small business owner and public accounting. For 13 years she was Partner, COO, and Culture Leader at one of the largest CPA firms in Tulsa. Kayce’s experience includes client service, recruitment, team development, and culture leader, with an emphasis on mentoring. Kayce is a Gallup‐ Certified Strengths Coach and has trained and coached over 150+ people. In 2020, Kayce started a new business D1 Gyms, LLC which includes 3 training gyms for basketball, volleyball and agility. Kayce is a wife and mother of 4 daughters, ages 24, 20, 17 & 9.
OUR STORY
SportStrength began when Mark realized the huge need for sports performance development in grade school athletes. Athletes were 1) not performing at peak levels in high school, 2) were getting injured often, and 3) were not adequately prepared to step into collegiate and professional sports. Many schools lack the funding to hire a full-time Performance Coach, leaving the burden to (already overworked) coaches. So, Mark figured – why not create a comprehensive training program for grade school athletes that would increase athletic performance and mitigate sport-related injuries? This would allow the coach to train his team at an affordable rate and provide individual athletes, who’s team is not training with SportStrength, the ability to develop the strength and power required for their next level of competition. Then Mark ran into Kyle, the tech guru. It took one (very long) lunch meeting for them to realize what they could create… and the rest is history.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
SportStrength believes that athletes should begin participating in Sports Performance training at a young age. This is because every athlete, regardless of whether they continue in sports, needs to learn how to move properly. If they can learn this while they’re young, then they’ll have the rest of their athletic career to build off this foundation.
At SportStrength, we do not overlook mobility training.
Do we have our athletes lift heavy? Yes. Do we have our athletes train hard? Yes. But strength and power is only beneficial if the athlete can use that power through the full range of motion. That’s why our programming consists of many supersets (pairings) of strength exercises and mobility routines. Training in this way will foster the athlete’s longevity and ensure maximal performance.
Our objective at SportStrength is to provide the athlete with the latest training methods, thereby allowing the athlete to excel in the present while preparing them for their future.