Miami Dolphins Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum announced today that Wayne Diesel has been named sports performance director and Dennis Lock was promoted to director of analytics after serving as head analyst.
In his role, Diesel will oversee all of the team’s sports science initiatives and will work closely with the training and strength and conditioning departments. His focus will include player injury prevention and rehabilitation in an effort to reach optimal performance.
Diesel joins the Dolphins after spending the previous eight years (2007-15) as head of medical services with the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club of the English Premier League. With Tottenham, he oversaw the efforts of doctors, physiotherapists, sports scientists, podiatrists, nutritionists and chiropractors, and helped coordinate the medical service department’s work to optimize player recovery and prevent injuries. During his tenure with the Spurs, they defeated Chelsea FC in 2008 to win the Carling Cup and then achieved Champions League status in 2009-10 for the first time in the club’s history.
Before his arrival at Tottenham, Diesel held the same title of head of medical services from 2003-07 at Charlton Athletic Football Club. He arrived in the United Kingdom in 2002 to work for Gloucester Rugby Football Club, holding the same title again, and helped them win the PowerGen Trophy and finish first in the league before losing in the playoff final.
Diesel has 12 years of experience running private physiotherapy practices, including setting up the first physiotherapy practice at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa based in Cape Town. While in South Africa, he worked as head physiotherapist for a range of different sports, including national women’s gymnastics, men’s hockey, swimming, football and rugby as well as provincial cricket and football. Additionally, Diesel was appointed as the head physiotherapist for South African teams at the All African (1992), Olympics (1996) and Commonwealth Games (1998). He also held the position of president of South African Transplant Games Association and western province chairman of South African Sports Medicine Association.
A native of South Africa, Diesel graduated as a physiotherapist from the University of Witwatersrand in 1986 and then gained a first class pass in sports science in 1988 allowing him to proceed directly to a PhD in exercise physiology, which was completed in 1994. Diesel and his wife, Jean, have one son, Nicholas, and one daughter, Christine.
Lock is entering his second season with the Dolphins. In his role, he supports football operations through statistical analysis and research.
Lock is currently finishing his PhD in statistics from Iowa State University with a dissertation on utilizing statistics in sports. While at Iowa State, Lock worked as a consultant for many academic departments as well as the Iowa State University men’s basketball team. During this time, he also served as a co-author on a prominent statistics textbook.
Originally from Canton, N.Y., Lock received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Lawrence University in 2008. He, and his wife Amy, are expecting the birth of their first child in May.
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