St. Olaf College Athletics

John Waters is in his third year as the assistant athletic director for athletic performance at St. Olaf in 2025-26 after being hired in August 2023.

Along with Assistant Athletic Performance Coach Cade Rickford, Waters is responsible for the strength and conditioning programming for each of St. Olaf's 26 NCAA Division III varsity sport programs.

Waters came to St. Olaf with over five years of experience at the NCAA Division I level and most recently served as the associate director of athletic performance at Arkansas State for the last two-plus years. At Arkansas State, Waters was the associate director of athletic performance and worked with the Red Wolves’ football program, assisting in all athletic performance design and operation. He also worked as the director of sport science, designed the strength and mobility program for quarterbacks and all freshmen, as well as the return-to-play protocols for injured athletes. Waters also coordinated the maintenance and daily operation of the Centennial Bank Football Operations Weight Room.
  
Prior to his time at Arkansas State, Waters was the assistant director of strength and conditioning at Central Michigan University, where he was the head strength and conditioning coach for the softball and women’s gymnastics programs and assisted with the football program.
 
Waters also spent time at Elon University as an assistant sports performance coach, assisting the director of sports performance in all aspects of the strength and conditioning program. At Elon, he was the head sports performance coach for the baseball, women’s soccer, track and field, and women’s golf teams and assisted with the football program. Waters also was a strength and conditioning intern for the University of Iowa’s football program in 2017.
 
Waters graduated from Augustana University (S.D.) with a bachelor of arts degree in exercise science and went on to earn his master of science degree in exercise science - injury prevention and athletic performance from California University of Pennsylvania. While at Augustana, he played four years of football for the Vikings, recording 178 tackles and serving as a team captain as a senior.