Niko Palazeti

Niko Palazeti is in his fifth season as an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Buckeyes. A strength training and conditioning coach now at three Power 5 schools, he joined the Ohio State staff in January 2017.

Palazeti was a three-year member of the Michigan State football team and a two-time Spartan letterwinner (2011 and 2012 seasons). Injuries prompted him to retire from the sport in 2013, and he spent that season as a student intern in the Michigan State strength and conditioning department. He graduated with his degree in psychology that year and then was Spartans’ graduate assistant in 2014. He earned his master’s in kinesiology from MSU in 2016.

Palazeti’s first full-time position as a strength and conditioning coach came in 2015 at Mississippi State University. After one season, he moved on to the University of Maryland, where Palazeti held a similar assistant’s position during the 2016 season with the Terrapins.

A native of Northville, Mich., Palazeti was an all-state football player for Detroit Catholic Central in 2009 when he rushed for 1,279 yards and 24 touchdowns while helping his school to a Division I state championship and an unbeaten, 14-0 season.

Palazeti has been married to Kelsey (Kroll) Palazeti since 2016. She is from Wixom, Mich. The couple has a one-year-old daughter, Mia.