Whether it is a pre-teenager or someone in their 60s, or high-level college athletes and everyone in between, Newtown’s Steve Conway works with a vast age range of athletes, as a personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach.

Conway was recently hired in a full-time position at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. The path Conway took to his role at Iona is quite unusual. Most personal trainers get into their role after earning a degree in Exercise Science, said Conway.

A 2013 graduate of Newtown High School, Conway played soccer, baseball, and basketball, and ran track; among the highlights was the NHS baseball team’s conference championship in 2012 for this All State athlete. Conway went on to play baseball and soccer in college, earning a double major in Political Science and Communications, as well as a minor in Journalism at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. A former Newtown Bee sports intern, Conway had an internship in video production at MSNBC for the night time talk show Hardball with Chris Matthews. His first job out of school was at ESPN where he worked as a production assistant, doing video and sound for a gambling show called Daily Wager. After a year, the impact of COVID led to Conway being let go but it turned out to be a good thing for this fitness enthusiast.

During his time at ESPN, Conway got his personal trainer certification and began working as a personal trainer at NYA Sports & Fitness a couple of years ago. In an effort to pursue a career at the collegiate level, Conway earned his strength and conditioning specialist certification.

That led to an internship at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y., where Conway worked with football and other sports teams in 2021. Only a couple of months into his tenure at Fordham, Conway heard about an opening at Iona and soon thereafter he was hired as the assistant strength and conditioning coach, working with a variety of teams, including baseball, men’s basketball and soccer, women’s volleyball and lacrosse, crew, men’s and women’s water polo, and men’s and women’s swim and dive. Now that he is on board full-time, Conway works with 19 sports teams and is thrilled with what he is doing.

“I got really fortunate,” said Conway, 27.

“I love it. I can relate to them a lot,” Conway said of working with college athletes close in age to him, ranging from about 18 to 24 years old.

The return to the collegiate sports setting was a welcome one for Conway.

“I missed being on the field, being around sports, being in a weight room,” he said.

Conway enjoys seeing the hard work of athletes in the weight room pay off on the field or court.

“Every athlete is different and every sport is different. I really needed to learn the ins and outs of each sport,” said Conway, adding that there are different muscle groups addressed for each sport.

“As a strength coach you never want to do anything in the weight room that’s going to hurt them on the field or on the court,” Conway added.

Conway has also served as an assistant and volunteer baseball and soccer coach at Newtown High School throughout the years. His sports world has come full circle in multiple ways; not only does Conway help coach some of the high school athletes who previously came to see him play on the same fields, but Conway is even working with two of his former coaches in a flip-flopped role.

Jim Kenning and Ken Good, who coached Conway’s youth travel basketball team years ago, now see Conway for workout sessions at NYA. In their former roles, Kenning and Good were instructing Conway and pushing Conway and his team members during conditioning drills. Now the roles are reversed.

“They joke about how they used to have me run and how I am making them run now,” Conway said.

Kenning and Good, along with Pat Deakin — all of whom had children who competed in various sports at Newtown High and all former athletes in high school and/or college — join Conway for an hour of weight lifting, truck tire flipping, and other activities early in the morning a few times each week.

Good, 57, referees for basketball and lacrosse, so these workout sessions are great for keeping him fit for those roles.

“I think it’s all about staying active and staying healthy, and trying to prevent bad injuries from happening — they can be debilitating,” Good said. “He’s really good at what he does. We have a lot of fun in here.”

Kenning, 62, is a former lacrosse coach who also played baseball and basketball, and Pat Deakin, 61, continued playing baseball up until about a year ago when the impact of the coronavirus led to the team being disbanded.

“It’s a great challenge for me because they’re all former athletes and they still want to be competitive,” Conway said. “I know they like to get after it. I can teach them the same way I teach the athletes at Iona. I know when to push them. When we need to take the foot off the gas we do that as well.”

In more ways than one. Conway has used his car as a workout tool, having these athletes pull the car with bands as a strength-building tactic.

“He keeps it fresh with various workout techniques, “Deakin said.

Conway times the trio as they work together taking turns flipping a large tire from one end of the NYA turf field to the other — and back. This group is motivated to beat times. They are very competitive.

“Anything I can do to challenge them, even if it’s a little crazy, within reason, I’ll do it,” Conway said.

And his workout clients enjoy it.

“We challenge each other. It’s fun,” Kenning said. “I’m enjoying exercising now more than I ever did.”

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.