Maurice Sims will join the Missouri State football staff as the program's head strength and conditioning professional, Bears' new head coach Casey Woods announced today.

A strength and conditioning professional with more than 10 years experience will head up Missouri State's sports performance efforts.

"We are so fired up to have coach Maurice Sims overseeing the sports performance efforts of the Bears after four years climbing his profession as head strength coach of three different institutions," said Woods.  "He will set the tone for energy, structure and discipline in our growing program. His wisdom, passion and experience will be just the right formula for building the foundation of our culture and physical performance. We welcome Coach Mo to the Bears family! It takes Us ALL! Join the Climb. Go Bears!"
 
Sims spent the past year at Florida A&M University as assistant AD for performance and wellness. Prior to that, he joined coach Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders at Colorado shortly after the Buffs hired Coach Prime in December 2022.

He worked as the director of strength and conditioning for the Jackson State Tigers for the 2022 season.
 
Sims spent the 2020-21 seasons at Georgia as the associate director of strength & conditioning, helping the Bulldogs to a 22-3 record in those two seasons and 2021 national championship with a 14-1 mark. 
 
Prior to his arrival in Athens, he spent a season at North Carolina as an assistant under coach Brian Hess in 2019.  Prior to that, he was at Army for two seasons, helping the Black Knights to a 21-5 record in two seasons, including a 70-14 win over Houston in the 2018 Armed Forces Bowl.
 
Sims spent two seasons out of college football at Stack Sports Performance and Therapy in Atlanta in 2016-17 after two seasons as the assistant strength & conditioning coach for football at Indiana in 2014-15, where he was the head of operations for the development training program and assisted with the development and implementation of sport specific training programs.
 
Before Indiana, he spent two seasons at North Carolina A&T from 2012-13 and also spent two seasons at Bethune-Cookman from 2010-11. He started his career as a football strength intern at Tennessee in 2010. 
 
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., he earned his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from UT Chattanooga and his Masters degree in Transformative Leadership from Bethune-Cookman. 
 
An all-conference defensive back at Concord University prior to transferring to UTC, Sims is certified through the College Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association and the National Strength & Conditioning Association.   

His hire is contingent upon formal approval by the Missouri State University Board of Governors at its next scheduled meeting.