22 years ago Mark Uyeyama was a 14-year old Canadian kid visiting Disneyland for the first time with his family, but not even the so-called ‘happiest place on earth’ challenged his commitment to football fitness.

Each morning before beginning his adventure through the grand gates of the Magic Kingdom, Uyeyama and his Uncle Ron, a high school football coach, ran drills in the parking lot of their hotel. Sprinting laps, strength and conditioning exercises and agilities, whatever it took to make sure Uyeyama was ready to start at fullback and middle linebacker for his high school team.

“I really took to the preparation part of football,” Uyeyama says. “I wasn’t the biggest kid, but I made sure I was physical, tough, strong and ready to compete. I prided myself as being the most prepared guy on the field.”

Fast-forward two decades, and you’ll find Uyeyama back in California doing the same thing. Except this time he’s playing the role of coach, and his trainees are Frank Gore, Patrick Willis and the rest of the San Francisco 49ers.

Uyeyama just completed his first season as the head strength and conditioning coach in San Francisco. His job is to do everything he can to get the team physically ready to play on Sundays.

“It’s a whole lot more than just lifting weights,” he says. “It’s everything you can imagine… strength, speed, nutrition, stretching; whatever it takes to squeeze the most out of the guys on game day.”

Nobody can deny that the Niners were well prepared most of the time this season. San Francisco finished with a 14-4 record and nearly reached the Super Bowl if not for an overtime heartbreaker last weekend against the New York Giants.

Uyeyama’s journey to the NFL sidelines began in Richmond, B.C., where he was raised in a self-described football family. Uncle Ron remembers playing with his nephews and sons all the time, and noticed Mark always working hard to get bigger, stronger and faster.

“I’m not surprised about where he’s gone and where he is,” says Ron Uyeyama. “He was always willing to go that extra mile.”

Mark broke into American collegiate football as a nose guard in 1994 at the same place Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers got his start, Butte Community College in California. He then moved up to Division 2 with Northern State in South Dakota.

“In his day he was a very good football player, tough as nails,” says Uncle Ron. “He was willing to run through a wall for you, and as a coach you just love that.”

Uyeyama’s playing days eventually came to an end, but he stayed in football and took an internship at Utah State focusing on strength and conditioning coaching.

“I always knew I wanted to coach when I stopped playing,” Uyeyama says. “And I quickly found the aspect of the game I was passionate about. I’m in love with the preparation components of it.”

For the next decade Uyeyama would climb the ladder to the NFL. He filled a variety of roles, including student assistant to Utah, graduate assistant to Arizona State’s football team, coaching assistant and eventually the head coach at Utah State University.

“It’s been a roller coaster ride, but a very enjoyable one,” he says. “It’s been a lot of hard work but I’ve had tons of support from my family.”

While Uyeyama worked as a student assistant at Utah in the summer of 1999, Joe Kenn was the director of strength and conditioning. Kenn says he recognized Uyeyama’s passion and loyalty for conditioning and the game of football right away.

“My ultimate goal in preparing young coaches is leadership,” Kenn says. “You could tell Mark was my kind of guy just from the emotion, passion and all out effort that he gave the kids.”

Kenn worked his way up to the NFL like Uyeyama, and currently serves as the head strength and conditioning coach for the Carolina Panthers. He says he admires Mark’s personality and teaching abilities.

“You always want to see guys like Mark succeed because they got to where they are the right way,” he says. “You can give somebody the keys to the ignition, but somebody’s got to turn the car on, and Mark’s worked really hard to rise up.”

He says one of the best traits he notices in Uyeyama’s work is his ability to listen and tend to each of the players’ individual needs.

“Yes it’s the NFL, but you can’t just grind the players up (in training) and spit them out,” Kenn says. “You’ve got to see from a physical development standpoint how they all adapt, and Mark puts in so much work to do that.”

Uyeyama points out that in professional football, each player has a different schedule and routine.

“Their body is their business, and everybody responds differently to training,” says Uyeyama. “We work hand in hand with the entire coaching staff to make sure we go above and beyond with every single guy on our roster.”

Though the job occupies Uyeyama’s mind constantly, he says he loves his work and is very fortunate to be doing what he’s doing.

“The number one goal is to go out and get a win on Sundays,” he says. “And the most rewarding part is to celebrate it with the family and friends that helped you along the way.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Uyeyama supervises stretches at a 49ers practice. Courtesy of 49ers.com