Our Story
In 2019, at the Sports Biometrics Conference in San Francisco, Marc and Adam met. They clicked quickly—different paths, same mission—both were doing their PhDs while working in applied positions, both had a passion for connecting with others and sharing ideas, and both had an intrinsic value rooted in helping others. As two like-minded people with a shared passion, they stayed connected through Zoom calls, visits to each other, and impromptu calls to sort out whatever current challenge the other might be facing at that moment in time. While they didn’t know in what context, they knew they would be working together at some point in the future.
Adam met the professor who changed his life on a brisk morning in Burlington, Vermont: Dr. Declan Connolly. Burlington’s weather app has two settings—“bring a jacket” and “maybe a lighter jacket in August.” Declan, an Irish jokester everyone loved to be around, taught the same way he lived: simple, practical, and fun. Declan was the same way: simple, practical, no fluff. If a number didn’t help the staff make a better decision about Tuesday’s practice—clarify the plan or raise confidence in a choice—it didn’t belong.
When the New York Rangers needed help, Declan made the call that opened the door. In pro sport, Adam saw world-class performance—and how easy it is to collect data just because it’s there. Declan’s voice stuck: If it doesn’t change what we do, why measure it?
Adam returned to UVM to pursue his PhD with Declan and started writing—15–30 minutes a day, a few days a week—about how Declan kept things applied, simple, and useful, and how that differed from the “measure everything” approach he’d seen. The plan was to hand Declan a finished book at graduation. On February 4, 2020, Declan passed away—a day Adam will remember forever. The outline became a promise, and Adam kept writing—clearer, tighter, more practical.
Marc was working full-time as the director of sport science and an assistant S&C coach for Virginia Tech football, while concurrently completing his PhD in exercise physiology. While he loved to coach and be an applied practitioner, Marc was searching for a way to combine his passion for helping others learn and connecting people with his love of problem solving and connecting science with practical application. Adam served as a sounding board and someone who helped him think through how to combine these elements within his life, while doing what he loved. These conversations and subsequent reflection helped lay the groundwork for what was to come.
Meanwhile after chipping away in small chunks writing, Adam had a strong manuscript that needed a sharper edge and a wider lens. Marc jumped in and transformed it. He reorganized chapters around real decisions, stripped the jargon, and pushed for checklists, playbooks, infographics, and tools coaches could use today. His critical eye and fresh perspective made the book smarter, cleaner, and far more useful.
Then thanks to the seeds planted through their many conversations Marc said, “This can be bigger than a book.” He meant a living system: a network of connected professionals and applied resources—templates, tools, office hours, shared learning—so the community could solve real problems together and improve faster than any one author could keep up. That idea became The Sport Science Network: a global hub for innovation, education, and community in human performance, where practitioners, coaches, researchers, and students connect, learn, and build.
The Sport Science Handbook began as a gift for a mentor. With Marc’s vision and craft, it became a practical guide—and the spark for something larger: less noise, more signal, and a home where good ideas turn into better practice. Declan would’ve liked that.
