Inside The Huskies

Former UW Football Weight Coach Hired by Old Dominion

Tim Socha spent the past eight years working for the Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake staffs.

Dan Raley

Tim Socha, a demanding University of Washington football strength and conditioning coach who wasn't retained by Kalen DeBoer, on Wednesday was hired by Old Dominion for a similar role, though it won't involve football.

Socha joins the Conference USA school in Norfolk, Virginia, to head up the training for its Olympic sports athletes, which includes men's basketball, and men's and women's soccer and golf. 

Two months earlier, Old Dominion hired Chad Snodgrass from West Virginia as its weight-room leader for football.

While some called for him to be retained by DeBoer and the new staff, Socha still had to answer for a performance falloff for both UW offensive and defensive lines during the recent 4-8 downturn.

Socha spent the past eight seasons working with Husky football players, this after he held he same position for eight years at Boise State, beginning with the Broncos' watershed 13-0 season in 2006 that ended with a Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma. 

He followed coach Chris Petersen to Seattle as his strength coach in 2013 and carried over to Jimmy Lake's staff.

A former University of Minnesota offensive lineman in 1995-98, Socha could be a gruff and an intimidating figure when drawing results out of UW football players. 

Following a spring football practice last April, he was heard inside Husky Stadium sharply dressing down a running back who he felt wasn't taking a workout drill seriously enough.

Socha, who grew up near Green Bay, Wisconsin, also worked as a strength and conditioning coach at Wyoming and as an assistant for Louisville. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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