Two kinesiology students train America’s elite military officers and Rangers
In the near future, both the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment and the future Army officers studying at West Point will be taught and trained by Lipscomb University exercise and nutrition science graduates.
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
Richard Cleve is earning his master's degree at Lipscomb to then go teach at West Point.
In the near future, both the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment and the future Army officers studying at West Point will be taught and trained by Lipscomb University exercise and nutrition science graduates.
Current master’s student Cleve Richard has been tapped to teach at West Point upon graduation, and 2014 alumnus and former Lipscomb Racquet Club manager Jonathan Flinn is now providing tactical strength and conditioning training for the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment.
Richard graduated from West Point in 2010, and likewise, Flinn served as an infantry man in the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment for eight years.
EXNS student slated to teach at West Point after graduation
When Cleve Richard graduated from West Point in 2010, little did he know that he would be headed back there as a teacher nine years later. And Lipscomb University kinesiology teachers never would have expected him to be trained for his teaching post on the Lipscomb campus, but that’s the way it turned out for both Richard and Lipscomb.
After graduation, Richard became an ordnance and logistics officer in the U.S. Army, eventually becoming a company commander at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he supervised transportation and maintenance for a 600-person battalion.
But the former West Point basketball player had always had a love for sports and the physical side of his military life, so when his five-year commitment was done, he accepted an offer from West Point to teach in the physical education department.
To fulfill that contract, he needed a master’s degree in exercise science, and only three programs in the U.S. were approved by the Army for their West Point teachers. However, due to medical treatments his wife Margaree needed at Vanderbilt Medical Center, Richard was allowed to choose a Nashville program, and he chose Lipscomb’s Master of Science in exercise and nutrition science. He began his studies this past May.
“I’ve loved every day at Lipscomb,” Richard said. “It’s a close-knit environment, and a great Christian university that promotes an attitude that is not only good in life, but also in line with everything we learn at West Point: to do the right thing and to hold to strong values.”
Richard’s senior internship is with the Vanderbilt University strength and conditioning team, working with the bowling, lacrosse, women’s basketball and swimming team.
He will use his master’s to teach West Point students about sports that promote wellness for a lifetime, nutrition and “military movement,” how to move with heavy gear on, how to traverse an obstacle course, etc., he said.
“I’m looking forward to the mentorship aspect at West Point, being able to help individuals prepare for their futures,” Richard said. “I’ll be a good source to inform them about the school, because I’ve been through the experience.
“Watching the instructors and professors here at Lipscomb provided me with good models of how to be as a teacher and how to help students from an educational standpoint. I have been able to talk to them and understand why they do certain things and why certain classes are offered.”
EXNS alumnus trains 75th Ranger Regiment
Jonathan Flinn (’14) served as an infantry man in the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment from 2004 to 2012, and now, after earning an EXNS master’s degree from Lipscomb, he is back with the Rangers as a civilian contractor training soldiers in tactical strength and conditioning.
Jonathan Flinn, 2014 graduate
The Rangers, known as the 75RR, is the U.S. Army’s premier large-scale special operations force, and it is made up of some of the most elite soldiers in the world. Flinn was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a rank of staff sergeant.
“The soldiers I work with have to be able to do a little of everything: go an unknown distance, carrying an unknown load, climb, crawl. Pretty much everything,” Flinn said.
Upon leaving the Army, Flinn hoped to pursue a career in physical fitness. He and his wife wanted to live in Nashville, due to family connections in the area, so he figured he would attend Middle Tennessee State University for his master’s.
But when driving into town, he saw a Lipscomb billboard and checked the university out online. The personal attention of the EXNS program chair and faculty won him over. “They really made me feel like I was wanted at Lipscomb,” he said.
Flinn wasted no time maximizing his degree. As soon as he arrived on campus in 2013, he began volunteer work doing strength and conditioning for the athletics department. He also became a graduate assistant in the kinesiology department and upon graduation worked as the Lipscomb Racquet Club Manager.
He left for his position at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia, in June 2018.
His Lipscomb experiences like working with freshmen as he taught the Lifetime Fitness course and training women athletes helped him learn how to work better with different groups of people, like the younger, next generation of Rangers he now trains, he said.
“One of the biggest things I learned was how to communicate better. Coming out of the Army, there is a certain way to communicate, and going to Lipscomb helped me learn how to have different communication styles and relationships with people,” Flinn said. “The listening part of communicating is what I learned the most.”