Henry Greenstein is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Marcos de Niza High School for AZPreps365.com

While a student at Northern Arizona University, Skylar Rubalcaba studied exercise science. Going into his senior year, however, Rubalcaba realized his major was steering him toward an unwanted career path.

“The program there, at the time when I was there, was very geared towards more of a cardiac rehab type [of] setting,” Rubalcaba said, “like a hospital setting, which never appealed to me.”

While inquiring into alternative job choices, Rubalcaba discovered the field of strength and conditioning. He had no frame of reference for what that meant, beyond a brief freshman-year conversation with an NAU strength and conditioning coach.

“So, putting those two together and then starting the research process of figuring out what [strength and conditioning] was — because I really didn’t even know about it at that point — is what got me into it,” he said. 

As it turned out, Rubalcaba was a natural fit. A lifelong athlete who competed in triathlons and cycling at NAU, he learned quickly, securing positions at colleges such as the University of Arizona and Portland State University. In 2019, six years after graduating from NAU, he became director of strength and conditioning at Marcos de Niza High School. 

When Rubalcaba joined the Marcos staff, there had been no prior strength coach in place. Now, having built much of the program from scratch, he uses a combination of class time, after-school workouts and offseason programs to instill healthy habits and discipline in student-athletes. 

“It’s about what you’re doing when nobody’s looking,” Rubalcaba said, “and the results and the dividends pay off when everybody’s watching.”

During typical school days, Rubalcaba gets up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. to fit in his own workout on campus. Then, over the course of the day, he teaches five strength classes to assorted students, using breaks to stay in contact with coaches and administrators. 

After school, he works with groups of in-season athletes in blocks of 30 minutes to an hour. Rubalcaba said he struggled at first to convince coaches to relinquish potential practice time. But then coaches and players alike started to see the results.

“They see the performance on the court: jumping higher, running faster, getting to hold their own a bit more,” said David Stark, the Padres’ boys basketball coach.

Stark said Rubalcaba’s availability outside school hours is important for kids who can’t be in his strength classes during the day. Some players, he added, neglect the importance of strength.

“They’ve been kind of conditioned that lifting throws off their shot,” Stark said, “or it doesn’t really pertain to basketball so much, when it really does.”

Rubalcaba also came up with a way to honor individual students for good habits: crowning them “lifter of the week” on his @mdnstrength Instagram account.

“I don’t like to show myself off at all,” he said “but I like showing their hard work.”

They work hardest during the strength and conditioning summer camp, a creation of Rubalcaba’s in which student-athletes from all sports come in for 90 minutes four or five days a week to train in the weight room, free from the responsibilities of normal school.

Melissa Yee, the girls volleyball coach, said the program helps her players progress from season to season.

“The summer program is huge for us, obviously,” she said, “because we’re the first sport that happens when you get back from summer vacation.”

Yee said Rubalcaba’s background helps him assign the right tasks for the right scenarios. In her team’s case, that means emphasizing agility drills.

“I’m like, ‘I know what I would like the girls to do; what drill do you have for them to do it? … He’s super good at doing that, being open to what specifies towards our sport,” Yee said.

The pandemic has challenged Rubalcaba — he called it “a nightmare” and “impossible.” In the absence of in-class workouts, his classes now educate students on topics such as nutrition, sleep and mental health. 

But the strength and conditioning program’s overall momentum hasn’t slowed. After-school training has continued, and Rubalcaba is eying new chains and bands for the weight room. 

He also said the summer program should be better than ever this year, with participants from six different sports.

“We usually have around 150 athletes the last couple of years,” he said. “I think we’ll probably have around 250-plus, hopefully, this summer, pending everything going well.”

His overarching goal is to impress upon the student-athletes the value of long-term, consistent preparation.

“It’s about what you do in the months leading up to your sport and your competition,” Rubalcaba said, “versus what [you] can do a week or two weeks before.”