From Wartburg to the NFL

Trever Heitz ’25 has had plenty of experience working in a weight room. As a high school student in Charles City, he was a student leader who helped his friends and teammates develop plans to reach their goals. As a college student, he has gone back to Charles City to run the summer weightlifting program, as well as worked with the strength and conditioning coaches in the Waverly-Shell Rock Schools and in Wartburg’s athletic weight room. He’s interned with Division I programs at Wichita State and Iowa State University.

But nothing can compare to his summer interning with the Buffalo Bills football team in New York. So how does a guy from Charles City land such a prestigious gig?

“I worked really hard for the right people,” Heitz said. “Professor (Patricia) Dietz connected me to the people at Wichita State, and some of the people out there knew the guy in Buffalo. They all gave me a good word with the next person and that built into a network that landed me the interview.”

Heitz was in Buffalo from April 8 through June 17, when the NFL went into its mandatory break. He came back to Iowa for a few weeks to work with the Iowa State football team and then returned to Buffalo to again work with the professional athletes through training camp and their first preseason games.

In the Bills weight room, Heitz was responsible for running his assigned athletes, including defensive end A.J. Epenesa and former Olympic gold medalist Gable Stevenson, through their workouts. In addition to his work with the players, Heitz also had the opportunity to learn more about data collection using the most cutting-edge equipment from VALD Performance.

“We measured everything to look for variances from day to day and week to week so that we could catch an injury early or to adjust a player’s strength and conditioning program. Having the experience from the EliteForm technology in the Wartburg weight room was helpful because I had experience with how that kind of data collection works, but this was at a whole other level,” Heitz said.

During the preseason training, Heitz was on the field at Highmark Stadium leading the team in their pregame stretch.

“This was my first ever NFL game, and I was on the field and on the sideline. It was unreal. There were so many people, more people than I have ever seen. Then to see the Bills Mafia (the nickname for the team’s fanbase) was wild. It was an amazing experience,” Heitz said.

And one he could very well have again; he’s already been invited back to intern with the Bills.

Once that is done, Heitz will head off to graduate school to pursue a master’s degree that will help him land in a Division I strength and conditioning program.

“I have wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach since I was 12. I would love to work in the NFL, but I know there are only about 120 positions available at that level. That would be the dream, but I’m trying to be realistic, and I would be just as happy working with a DI football program,” he said.