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How The Military Inspired Dr. Kella Price To Get Back Into Sports

By
Emilee White
//
7.26.2022

Dr. Kella Price is no stranger to coaching sports.

In college, Price started her coaching career as a lifeguard and swim instructor. As Price furthered her education — she obtained an MBA as well as a Master’s in exercise science and wellness, and got her Ph.D. in business and HR Management — she still continued to coach lacrosse at the high school and college levels, but ultimately chose to pursue a career in human resources.

“Through my own personal journey with health and wellness, I started working on employee wellness programs, and really found that working with individuals on a more intimate level — one-on-one as well as in team environments — is really rewarding because you get to see the fruits of your labor,” Price said. “You get to see how what you’re doing and working with clients, empowering them, impacts their life in a positive way with healthy habits, whereas when you work with corporations, you don’t always get to see the impact that you’re making.”

Because of Price’s own experiences, she created the Healthy Fit Foundation to provide education to the community to improve their overall health, which includes aspects like physical, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, intellectual, occupational, and economic. Soon, the company’s range began to grow and Price began working with sports organizations and teams.

“They’ll bring me in for strength and conditioning, coaching, nutrition, and guidance for their teams, filling in the gaps, especially if they don’t have a [large] staff to really assist their team and to optimize their performance,” Price said.
Dr. Kella Price’s Instagram

To better understand her clients — including football teams — Price attends coaching seminars to learn more about the sport. Recently, Price attended a Soldiers To Sidelines football coaching workshop, even though she’s never been a football coach. However Price has been working in strength and conditioning, and to fully understand the sport, she knew she needed to learn all the ins and outs of the sport.

“It’s important for me to understand the game, really get immersed in what’s happening on the field, and understand it better so I can better prepare and equip the players that I work with to perform their best on the field, and prevent injuries,” Price said. “I want to really elevate their performance and everything that they do, not just physically, but mentally with the mindset piece and nutrition to get their body to work exactly as a high-performance machine.”

Football isn’t totally foreign to Price, though.

Bill Troup played professional football through the 1970s in the 1980s and played for the Colts when they were in Baltimore, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the Green Bay Packers. And he just so happened to be Price's uncle. Troup ended up retiring early into his career due to the number of concussions he sustained — his family stated he tallied upwards of 32 concussions in his short career.

Because diseases like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, are diagnosed post-mortem in football players, especially those who were prone to concussions, Troup’s brain was donated to the NFL science research. With her family lineage in mind, you would think that it would be Price’s inspiration to get back into sports. But, you’d be wrong. It was her military-spouse life, and her Marine F-35 pilot husband, that got Price into fitness.

During his 23 years of service in the United States Military, Price’s husband was stationed in many different areas with the family in tow. Price soon realized that she basically had to reinvent herself and start all over in a community, but working in fitness was extremely portable. Even in retirement, Price’s husband is able to be home with his family so she can keep her business portable and growing.

“I’ve been able to work on my business and grow my Healthy Fit brand no matter where we go,” Price said. “Even before COVID, I was recording workouts and doing zoom programming for clients, and that really has enabled me to propel my business.”

Photo credits: Dr. Kella Price’s Instagram