Mercer’s athletic program has had one of the best training facilities in the state since the 2006 merger of Harrodsburg and Mercer. The Mercer County Sports Complex looks a little different these days with new weight benches, new dumbbells and a much needed new coat of paint. The biggest difference is the man in charge and his impact across the school.

Jeremy Carlson has been with the Titans for one year as both the strength and conditioning coach for the vast majority of all the Mercer athletic teams and the head coach of the boys soccer team. He’s brought stability and new life to the Titans program. Originally from Seattle, Wash., Carlson moved to Kentucky to play soccer for the Centre Colonels. He chose Centre because he wanted to be a college soccer coach and he knew he wanted to move to a small town. After four seasons with the Colonels, including an Academic All-American nod his senior year, Carlson graduated with a degree in history and a minor in sociology. His love for strength and conditioning came from a lack of it during his time at Centre. With no weight-lifting program offered for their athletes at the time, Carlson took it on himself to train and hold his teammates accountable in the offseason.

After college he joined the Centre men’s soccer team as a volunteer assistant coach with hopes of being a head coach one day. During this time he became a Certified Strength Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). In 2017, Carlson became the strength and conditioning coach for Centre College. “One of my big missions is to help those who are less fortunate than me and not so much from an economic standpoint, but more from I didn’t have a strength and condition coach, in high school or college,” said Carlson. He spent four years training 24 different college teams and was the director of the Buck Fitness Center. He also completed his masters in exercise science.

Carlson found himself at an NSCA conference for high school strength and conditioning coaches and fell in love with it. After spending a year as the Boyle boys soccer head coach it only reinforced his desire to work with high school age kids. “I loved it, I didn’t know how much I would enjoy working with that age group because the kids at the high school level are still impressionable enough to make a lasting impact,” said Carlson. He joined the Mercer staff in 2021 and he’s already made his mark on the program updating and adding some equipment at the complex. He’s also made an effort to fix and upkeep the current equipment from his experience of running the Centre gym.

Carlson currently works with nearly every team at the school whether it’s in class or the team level. He’s unified the strength and conditioning program and it shows. Carlson’s current goal is to establish a foundation amongst the athletes. Within one semester, he grew his two weight-lifting classes of 60 students to four classes with 160 students. He credits the administration’s willingness to buy in and the cooperation of fellow coaches. “We’re trying to do everything at a championship level and there’s only one place all the teams intersect at and that’s the weight room,” said Carlson. His biggest challenge is building a definitive culture in the weight room.

Carlson is combating this challenge with the Mercer Power lifting teams as an example which he oversees currently as a club, but hopes to work on it getting recognized by KHSAA as a sport in the future. Power lifting gives kids who are not always the star athletes a chance to show how much work they put in and is another opportunity for Mercer athletes to earn scholarships to college. Carlson highlighted the kids as the most rewarding part of his job. “To see somebody like Malachi Davis lift crazy weight and be excited to show me or Beau Brown coming up to me after the state track meet to thank me for the time and effort,” said Carlson. Whether it’s the track state championship or a Tuesday night basketball game Carlson can be found supporting the Titans. “It’s important to me, you talk about building a culture, so I have to present, I have to be there so they can see it’s not just the weight room I’m interested in. I can care less how much you squat, I think it’s fun don’t get me wrong, but I want to see them succeed,” said Carlson.

He’s bought in to making all the Mercer teams the best he can even calling in a favor to have former Superbowl champion Tim Masthay come and help the kickers on the football team for a day. Carlson has Mercer headed in the right direction and with only a year in he’s already shown that. No one comes more qualified. Coming from the college level and being the state director of NSCA Kentucky chapter, he is the man for the job. Carlson is currently working on his masters in teaching to check any box he needs to for his role at the school. Mercer has always had the facility to be a great sports program and to win championships, but now the ship has the captain it needed.