Soccer athlete Keegan Ziada has proved to be incredibly successful post his U.S journey with NSR Australia.
Keegan is currently the Manager of Exercise Services at a large athlete and rehabilitation centre, is also the head of Athlete Development and Strength and Conditioning for a pre-AFL development team, and works for Rowville Sports Academy, dealing with over 600 athletes a week.
The young talent started his journey at Division II school, Limestone College in South Carolina, before moving on to play for a year with NCAA I institution, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
With a passion for exercise and the human body, Keegan completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Science in Athletic Training. He began his Masters in Milwaukee, before heading back to Australia, where he continued his Master’s degree in clinical exercise physiology.
Keegan admitted that “at times” he was worried his U.S education wouldn’t help him if he returned to Australia.
“I made a lot of calls to Uni’s and head of departments and spoke to them,” he admitted.
Although worried, Keegan eventually experienced a seamless transition.
“At the end of the day, my degree athletic training might not exist here, but all my courses and all my classes transferred. They all relate, they’re parallel. I had to do exercise physiology, and I had to do anatomy, so all of those little subjects that make up that one degree, they all matched, so it wasn’t too much of an issue,” he said.
Aside from having to take an extra “easy filler” subject, Keegan was able to get employed with relative ease, and admits his U.S journey aided him in this process.
“Being in an environment like the U.S college system…in terms of exposure to different sports, how prolific sports is in the U.S, probably aided me in getting a job over here, with the amount of exposure I got,” he said.
We know there’s a lot of NSR athletes with a desire to get into exercise studies…so Keegan’s own story must be a HUGE relief and motivator for you!