A bill just got introduced in Congress about how the federal government codes our jobs. I know how that sentence reads. Stay with me anyway.
Rep. Burgess Owens introduced the STRONG Act in June, and the goal is simple: give strength and conditioning coaches our own line item in the Standard Occupational Classification system. Right now, we don't have one. We get folded into "Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors" or "Coaches and Scouts," neither of which describes what we actually do.
What the SOC Actually Controls
The SOC is the dataset the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to track every occupation in the country. Wages, job growth, workforce needs, education requirements. If your job doesn't have its own code, none of that data exists for you. You get averaged into categories that don't reflect your training, your certifications, or your actual scope of work.
Think about what that means in practice. A coach with a master's degree, a CSCS, years of experience programming for contact sports, and a caseload that includes building athletes and return-to-play protocols gets lumped in with someone teaching a Tuesday night spin class who tells people that 3-pound dumbbells will “tone” their arms. Same box on a federal spreadsheet. Same wage data. Same job growth projections.
What the Bill Does
The STRONG Act directs the Office of Management and Budget to consider a dedicated occupational code for S&C coaches in the next SOC revision, ideally under the Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations group. If OMB says no, they have to explain why, in writing, to committees in both the House and Senate.
No new funding required. No new agency. It is a mechanism that forces an actual decision instead of another decade of silence.
The NSCA has been pushing for this since well before the bill existed, requesting inclusion in the 2028 SOC revision on behalf of over 60,000 members. The STRONG Act gives that request statutory weight. APTA has endorsed it too, which says something about how the broader performance and rehab community sees this profession now compared to twenty years ago.
Why This Matters for the Industry
Data drives everything downstream. Wage benchmarks. Insurance classifications. Grant eligibility. Whether a school district budgets for a full-time coach or keeps stacking the role onto someone's existing contract. Whether the next round of labor statistics shows this field growing or shows nothing at all, because it was never measured to begin with.
Coaches have spent years fighting for legitimacy, one title, one certification, one budget conversation at a time. This is a chance to fix it at the source. If the government can't see the profession clearly in its own data, every other fight gets harder, from pay to staffing ratios to how administrators justify the position at all.
This also matters for the tech and vendor side of the industry. Platforms, certifying bodies, and associations all build products and policies around who the industry recognizes as a legitimate practitioner. A federal code doesn't just validate coaches. It gives everyone building around this profession a clearer target.
The Action Step
Bills like this move or stall based on visible support. Here's what actually helps right now:
If you want to read the bill text itself before you call anyone, it's public record here: H.R. 9527 on LegiScan.
If you have never called a representative's office in your life, this is a low-stakes place to start. You're not asking for money or a large legislative overhaul. This is an ask for accuracy and better data around an industry that has been a staple behind athletics, first responders, and the tactical community.
We've spent a long time arguing about what to call ourselves. This is an opportunity to make our voice heard, especially when it comes to legitimizing our roles, negotiating for a higher wage bracket, and building better opportunities for ourselves.
