The staff at the Sports Institute is a wide variety of professionals from various fields to meet Southern Minnesota's athlete's athletic training needs.

The staff at the Sports Institute consists of professional trainers and coaches to help you increase your athletic performance level through training at the Sports Institute in Mankato.

Craig Fritz
Co-Owner
Strength Performance Coach



Contact Craig at craigf@siathlete.com

Craig is the Performance Director as well as Strength Coach at the Sports Institute. With a Bachelors Degree in Health Science, Fritz is also a Certified Trainer through the American Council of Exercise. Fritz is also a Certified Strength Coach member through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Craig’s accomplishments are many. He played baseball for Bethany Lutheran College for two years. He then played baseball at the University of Northern Iowa for two years. Next was his career in professional baseball in Moosejaw Saskatchewan, Canada . Finally, Fritz is currently in his eleventh year playing for the Mankato Twins baseball team. Craig is also owner of Fritz Sports Performance, providing area schools with strength and conditioning camps. Craig’s past experience with a variety of high school prospects, college athletes, and professionals makes him a well-rounded trainer and an asset to the Sports Institute.

Craig is a 1991 graduate of Cleveland, MN high school, 1998 graduate of Mankato State University and he and his wife Sherri live in LeSueur and have two children, Olivia and Rhyan.   



Jody Lunz 
Director of Softball Academy



Contact Jody at jody.lunz@gmail.com

Jody played 2 years on Minnesota ’s All State Team. She was St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Player of the Year. She was a four-year starter for the University of New Mexico and played on the All Conference WAC Team as well as the SW Region All Region Team. In high school, she was one of two players in the nation invited to the Pan American Games Tryouts. Lunz was the head softball coach at Albuquerque Academy for 10 years and is a four-time conference Coach of the Year. Lunz is now the Assistant Softball Coach at Minnesota State University – Mankato.  

Kevin Dixon
Athletic Performance Coach



Contact Kevin at kevin.dixon.si@gmail.com

Growing up in burnsville, Dixon played mostly baseball and hockey. He continued playing both baseball and hockey through high school at Burnsville High School and was all conference both junior and senior year along with all-metro in baseball his senior year. He played for three years at Minnesota State University - Mankato, starting as a freshman at catcher before getting hurt and redshirting. Dixon is still the home run record holder at Minnesota State University - Mankato with 18. He was all-conference and all-region his sophomore year at MSU. He hit and pitched for the Mankato Moondogs in 2004. Dixon has been invited twice to Cleveland's Fall Instructional League in Florida. He was a Northwoods League All-Star as a pitcher and winner of the Northwoods League Home Run Derby. Among Dixon's other accomplishments, he was drafted in the 5th round of the 2005 MLB Draft. He then became a member of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Short-Season A) in 2005 and then Lake County Captains (Low A) and Kinston Indians (Advanced A) in 2006. Dixon recently concluded his season with the Kinston Indians for 2007.


Shane Bowyer 
Co-Owner

Speed has always been an interest of Shane Bowyer, which is one of the main reasons for opening the Sports Institute. Bowyer brings 12 years of collegiate coaching to the SI. He was an All-NCC baseball player and two-time CoSIDA player at Minnesota State University . Following his playing career, Bowyer was an assistant at Indiana State   University and MSU under his father Dean Bowyer. In 1995 Shane was the head coach at Marycrest International University in Davenport, Iowa where he led the Eagles to their best winning season. Bowyer then was the head coach at Lindenwood University in St. Louis for three years. He coached two All-Americans and led the squad to a school record 40-13 record. That season the squad finished the year ranked in the top eight in the nation in both hitting and fielding and stole more than 100 bases.

Bowyer returned to Mankato in 1999 to help start a Northwoods League franchise (now Mankato Moondogs). In the first two years he was both General Manager and head coach. Bowyer was also sponsored by the Minnesota Twins to participated in the Major League Baseball Scouting School. Bowyer also teaches management in the College of Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato. 

Shane is a graduate of Mankato Loyola and he and his wife Laura have two children, Austin (12) and Gabrielle (10). 
 

Dean Bowyer 
SI Baseball Director





During Bowyer’s 30-year tenure as MSU’s coach, the Mavericks have captured a total of 20 league championships - three when MSU was in the Northern Intercollegiate Conference (NIC) and an incredible 17 in the North Central. As mentioned, MSU has made it to the NCAA post-season party 19 times under Bowyer, and three of those teams made it all the way to the NCAA Division II College World Series. The most recent CWS trip came in 1986 when the Mavericks racked up a 35-15 won-loss mark and finished fourth at the Series. Other CWS teams for MSU and Bowyer were in 1980, when the Mavericks took third, and in 1979, when MSU went 26-22-1 and was ranked seventh in the nation. Dean was inducted into American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January of 2006.


Robert Pettitt
MSU Exercise Scientist

Contact Bob at robert.pettitt@mnsu.edu 

 

Robert Pettitt is an exercise scientist at Minnesota State University, Mankato and has worked in various capacities of sports performance and strength and conditioning coaching across seven states within the US.  He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist with the National Strength & Conditioning Association and a certified athletic trainer with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.  Bob is an expert in the assessment of endurance athletes and has published over 50 research articles and abstracts on the validity of endurance exercise measurements along with the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries associated with distance running.  His textbook, Exercise Physiology Laboratories (2009), is available through Kendall-Hunt Publishing (ISBN 978-0-7575-6638-7).  He has a PhD in Exercise Science with emphasis in Exercise Physiology from the University of Utah, an MS in Exercise Science with emphasis in Human Performance from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and a BS in Physical Education with emphasis in Athletic Training from SUNY Cortland.

Hockey Coaches

Kevin Dixon

Jeff Sinell

Interns