Elijah Salters was born and raised on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He spent his childhood playing football all the way through high school and later went on to join his school’s powerlifting team where he was able to represent his school in the 2019 State Championship Powerlifting competition and placed 3rd overall in the state. Salters’s time in powerlifting helped him discover his interest in sports medicine.

After graduating high school, he attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College where he was able to work for the sports medicine department as a student athletic trainer. As a freshman, Salters served on the student training staff for the college’s football team who went on to win the 2019 State Championship and later the NJCAA National Football Championship title. His other duties also included being the sole trainer for the college’s softball team for both his freshman and sophomore years. 

As graduation for MGCCC got closer, it was becoming clear to him that though sports medicine was still his main interest, athletic training was not his specific path. It was then that Salters transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi to pursue his bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science while taking time to research the other job opportunities that the field had to offer. As a former powerlifter and still regular weightlifter, it was easy for the field of strength and conditioning to catch his attention. 

At the beginning of his senior year of undergraduate school, Salters was approached to return to MGCCC and serve the athletic department as one of the school’s first strength and conditioning intern coaches where he worked with every sports team on campus and primarily served as the baseball team’s primary coach with the guidance of his strength and conditioning director. At the end of the fall semester, Salters decided not to return to MGCCC as an intern to focus on his last semester of academics before graduation. Once his classes were completed in the spring, Salters went on to serve as the head intern strength coach for Traction Sports Performance in Hattiesburg, MS where he was the designated voice for the class of interns that entered the facility with him.

In the process of concluding his time at Traction, Salters began looking into the opportunities that existed for someone with his kinesiology-based background in the Houston area. He saw Athlete Training and Health as an opportunity to not only sharpen his skills as a coach, but also have the chance to change the life of athletes of all levels. He felt his time spent in both the athletic training and strength and conditioning world has given him skills that are still relevant and beneficial to his growing career as a sports performance coach. Along with his duties here at ATH, Salters is also pursuing his Master’s of Science in Strength and Conditioning from Logan University. He looks forward to growing both personally and professionally with the help of his supportive staff members at Athlete Training and Health.