The Niverville Nighthawks hired Crystal Stott to be the team’s head strength and conditioning coach in the spring of 2022. Her hiring represented the official partnership between the team and ShopGym, the facility Crystal owns.
ShopGym has a distinct college-like atmosphere, which is ideal for Junior A hockey as most players are looking to move on to college hockey in the future.
“ShopGym represents the epitome of functional fitness,” said Nighthawks General Manager and Head Coach Kelvin Cech. “I was blown away when I first met Crystal, both with her philosophy and the facility the guys will get to use.”
Crystal was born and raised in Niverville, a town in which her dad was the official game announcer of the Niverville Clippers senior team.
“Some of my earliest memories are going to games and being in a packed arena,” said Crystal. “Watching the most exciting ticket in town was fantastic. Plus there were lots of scraps on and off the ice. Fan fights were a regular occurrence, hopefully that’s not the case moving forward with the Nighthawks. But Niverville loves its hockey.”
Crystal played a variety of sports growing up, but focused on softball and volleyball in high school before moving into Muay Thai, functional fitness, and weightlifting as an adult.
“When I first got to see the ShopGym I was instantly excited that I’d be working out there in the fall,” said Nighthawks defenceman Eric Martin. “The facility is really nice and getting to meet Crystal was great. She gave off the vibe of someone who is super excited to be training the brand new team in the town and being part of the organization.”
Shes owned and operated ShopGym for twelve years where she has trained numerous AA and AAA hockey teams. A certified functional strength and nutrition coach, she has a special focus on hormone health and nutrition for athletic performance. Her standards for functional movement and for teaching athletes the importance of strength training, recovery, and nutrition, will be invaluable to the Nighthawks.
“I am very excited to work with the excellent team that’s been assembled to help these athletes reach their athletic potential,” said Crystal.
“It’s her life’s work,” said Kelvin. “With Crystal and the tribe at ShopGym, it’s truly a glimpse for our players into an elite functional and healthy lifestyle. We want to give them a headstart on fitness, and together with our sport science and player development coach Rob Pambrun, we can go above and beyond here.”