GORHAM, Maine – The University of Southern Maine Athletics Department is excited to announce the hiring of Matt Murray as the department's new strength & conditioning coordinator. Murray brings over 15 years of experience at both the college and professional levels. He takes over for longtime strength & conditioning coach Jim Giroux, who retired at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
 
"We are very excited that Matt Murray has joined the University of Southern Maine as our new Strength & Conditioning coach," said Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, John Sutyak. "Matt's extensive experience at the highest levels of both collegiate and professional athletics will elevate our already strong strength and conditioning program. His arrival reinforces our commitment to maximizing student-athlete performance, injury prevention, and long-term athletic success here at USM."
 
Murray comes to Southern Maine from the Charlotte Checkers, a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, where he served as Head Strength & Conditioning Coach during the 2025-26 season. During that time, Murray directed all aspects of the team's off-ice performance including strength, power, conditioning, and recovery. Before his time in Charlotte, Murray worked for the team's parent club, the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, during the 2024-25 season in which the Panthers won the Stanley Cup.
 
Murray also spent several years working at the NCAA Division I level with stops at Northeastern University, the University of Maine and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. He began his career as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Northeastern before spending eight years as a member of the sports performance staff at Maine, rising to the role of Associate Director of Sports Performance. While at Maine, Murray designed strength programs for the Black Bears men's and women's ice hockey and field hockey programs. Murray then went on to UMass Lowell, where he served as Head Sports Performance Coach for the men's ice hockey and softball programs from 2021-2024.
 
Murray, a native of Billerica, Mass., earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Endicott College in 2010 and went on to earn his Master of Education with a concentration in strength and conditioning in May of 2016 from Maine. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).