During a 9 a.m. workout, Mike Sirignano is standing off to the side, observing a handful of Louisville football players. He’s often the one pushing athletes through workouts as the strength and conditioning coach for the program.

But today he's quiet, leaning against a few machines and showing no signs of the competitive fire burning beneath his robust exterior.

It sparked when he was a kid lifting weights in Boston, a way to stay off the streets and out of trouble. It continued when he worked himself into becoming a Division III All-American at Bridgewater State, and it’s what is helping reshape the Louisville program under new coach Scott Satterfield.

“He’s changing their attitudes in there,” Satterfield said.

From the individual workouts to the contest that pits players against one another for bragging rights — not to mention a belt and gear — everything in the Louisville weight room stems from competitiveness.

The environment has Sirignano’s handprint all over it.

“We have to find a way to have fun, and competition makes it fun and it holds them accountable. It’s holding their feet to the fire in a fun way,” Sirignano said.

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Weight on his shoulders

Weight lifting can be a chore for many teenage athletes, but for Sirignano it was an outlet. It was an activity in which he knew he could be better than everybody else.

“I found early that I was lifting weights and pushing myself through pain and discomfort. I wanted to keep doing that because it was something that gave me a leg up on other people,” he said.

He enjoyed it so much that after graduating with his exercise science degree, he opened his own gym. A year and a half later, he sold it and broke into the strength and conditioning industry.

He spent time at Bryant College, Northeastern, Rhode Island, Elon and South Carolina before landing at Appalachian State and, eventually, Louisville.

Throughout his career, though, Sirignano didn’t attach himself to a long list of mentors. Instead, most of what he teaches he figured out from his own experiences.

In 2012, during a month off before transitioning to a job at Elon, he reevaluated his plan. He saw good teaching practices while at Rhode Island and Bryant College, but also saw some things he didn’t like.

“Your concepts are sound, now you have to understand that these kids aren’t great lifters like you or the training age might not be as high," he said. "So how do you put something together to get these kids to improve every day?”

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He came up with a system based on competition. Instead of yelling at his athletes to go harder, his system would be designed for players to do that themselves.

"We don’t just lift the weight because Coach Mike said lift the weight, we do it because it will score us points, so we are competing against the guy next to us,” he said of how the players think. “We find ways to manipulate the programming by how we compete.”

The players are divided into teams. Each is drafted by handpicked captains. The coaches don’t give too much feedback in the process, other than suggesting that a smaller player is selected to balance the groups.

Once the contest begins, players gain points for being on time for their workouts, for instance. They also lose points if someone isn’t on time, gets in trouble or otherwise fails to meet the expectations.

Each individual gains points, along with the team. That’s deliberate.

“Football is a team sport, but everybody has their jobs,” Sirignano said. “Johnny Smith can have 5,000 points, well Tony has only 1,500. Now Johnny can say to Tony, ‘Hey man, you need to do better. You could have 5,000 points.’ It helps those conversations, too.”

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On a mission

When Sirignano arrived at Louisville, he could tell the Cardinals needed to make progress. The “training age,” as he calls it, which describes how long a player has trained for a consistent amount of time, was not where it needed to be.

He refused to place blame on the previous coaching staff, but said that he’s seen an increase in the last six months.

Satterfield said the players have, as well.

“They see their bodies changing. They are losing fat and gaining muscle. They are getting faster,” he said. “Once you see the results of how hard you are working, then it makes you want to work harder. We are in the middle of the summer right now, but it will pay huge dividends when we get on the field.”

The weight program, much like the entire rebuilding process, is designed to take time. Things won’t change right away.

“We are to a point now where we can start throwing more complex things at them or either more intense or more volume at them. That’s evolution,” Sirignano said. “As that goes throughout the year, year three is going to be completely different than year one.

"It’s not about training these kids eight to 10 weeks at a time. It’s a two- to five-year plan and every one of those groups, starting with next year’s freshmen, will have a different plan.”

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Though the summer is considered the designated time for conditioning, Louisville doesn’t plan to slow down during the season. The Cardinals will lift four to five days a week, a number Sirignano said is more than many teams.

“Greatness is a habit. If you devalue one part of the program for X-amount of time during the year, then you are going to lose,” he said. “We try to maintain and or gain throughout the whole year. No aspect of the program ever takes a back seat.”

That includes player safety. Coaches drive players physically and mentally, but can't be with them around the clock, monitoring how much sleep they're getting, what supplements they're taking or how they're eating when they are away from the facilities. So, they try to create a standard of healthy living — when eyes are on them and when they're not.

"You have to sit back and look over the situation," Sirignano said. "We are with these kids more than anybody in the program. We need to protect the culture daily. We have to love them up and push them hard. We have to have mutual respect for each other on and off the field."

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Seeing results

There’s a specific mindset that comes with lifting weights. For Sirignano, it’s about never wanting to fail.

“I don’t want to show weakness, so whether it was a 405-pound overhead squat or another thing, my internal drive is to not fail. And I think a lot of the kids have the same drive,” he said.

He’s taken his competitiveness and inserted it into the weight room, in order to get the best from his players.

Though he’s still teaching, whether it’s on the football field, in the weight room or in life while raising his 20-month-old son, Sirignano is always competing. Against himself, his opponent and anybody else.

Which is why even when he’s standing and watching a 9 a.m. workout, his presence is felt.

“The weight and how much you lift plays a small role into what needs to be done every day,” Sirignano said. “If you are willing to go harder and faster for longer than the man you are competing against, you are going to win. You will break his will at some point."

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