Coach Mongo, Marco, has been working in the field for close to 10 years having first started working in facility management and personal training at UIUC where he completed his undergraduate in Kinesiology. Having moved up the ranks to student-leadership team functioning as facility managers watching over day-by-day operations at the recreation centers as well as training a wide variety of clientele, he accumulated a widespread of knowledge, certifications and experience to be able to work as a contractor for the military. Leaving Illinois and starting out at Fort Meade, Maryland, he took part under the wellness program under MEDCOM serving as a subject matter expert on exercise science, strength & conditioning for tactical populations, performance nutrition and stress management. Here, his main tasks were performing human performance assessments, educating and consulting with active duty, reservists, retirees and federal employees on the betterment of not only their health and wellness, but to be able to perform at a higher level meeting the demands of their jobs. During his several years at Fort Meade, he also completed his Masters of Science in Exercise Science with a concentration in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention through CALU. Late 2018, Coach Marco took a position working with Air Force Special Warfare locally on AAF Pope off Fort Bragg where he serves as lead strength and conditioning coach for a TACP unit. Here, he currently resides building and developing their human performance program and team opening up a new facility and implementing the best practiced methods to help improve the performance, lifestyle, prevent and manage injuries of our airmen. 

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Coach Mongo started taking interest in powerlifting shortly after blowing out his ACL in senior year of high school during soccer practice. Without the ability to run and limited to mostly upper body training during his rehab from surgery, the weight room took precedence in that was his outlet for physical exertion and betterment of his wellbeing. After fully recovering from surgery and starting college, he noticed a greater awareness of powerlifting competitions as well as younger athletes involved in it. Culminating with several fellow gym-goers and friends, he took a stab at his first competition and saw it as a rewarding endeavor of the ability to create never-ending progress attaining personal goals. It was also an opportunity to apply what he was learning throughout his years of studying and understand how to improve athletic performance from a holistic standpoint. This branched out to coaching fellow friends and clients throughout the years helping them achieve a wide variety of goals including competing in powerlifting & strongman, body composition changes, improving athletic performance for sports, recovering from injuries, preventing injuries, preparing for military-based courses and schools, stress management holistically, and most importantly learning their body to be able understand what works best for them as an individual and why.

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Education and Certifications

B.S. Kinesiology University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (2015) 

M.S. Exercise Science: Performance Enhancement & Injury Prevention; California University of Pennsylvania (2018) 

NASM Certified Personal Training (2012) 

ISSA Sports Nutrition Specialist (2014) 

FMS Functional Movement Screening Lvl 1 (2015) 

NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (2016) 

ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist (2017) 

NASE Level II-Certified Speed Specialist (2017) 

NSCA Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator (2017) 

ACE Certified Health Coach (2018) 

NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist (2018) 

USAW USA Weightlifting Level 1 (2019)

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Best Competition Lifts

Squat: 683.25 

Bench: 457.25 

Deadlift: 688.75 

Total: 1829.0