LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV Football has officially announced a trio of hires to round out the new staff working under first-year Director of Strength and Conditioning Tanner Maher.
 
Malakai Fifita and Charles Nelson are the program's new assistant directors of strength and conditioning while Thomas Bacchia is the Rebels' associate director of strength and conditioning.



 
Fifita followed Maher from BYU to UNLV as he spent the last two seasons with the Cougars as a football strength and conditioning intern. During his time in Provo, he oversaw group training programs for walk-ons and players returning from religious missions and helped lead a team of interns.
 
Before BYU, Fifita was a football strength and conditioning intern at Washington State in 2023. Across his three months in Pullman, he assisted with offseason and preseason training, multiple training stations during on-field sessions and other day-to-day activities.
 
Fifita graduated from BYU in 2024 with his bachelor's degree in exercise science and is an NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist.
 
FIFITA'S FILE
2025-PR   UNLV -- Assistant Director Strength and Conditioning
2023-24    BYU – Strength and Conditioning Intern
2023        Washington State – Strength and Conditioning Intern
 



Nelson came to Las Vegas after serving in the same position at Baylor in 2024. During his time in Waco, he organized and configured weight room setup and breakdown, developed and monitored velocity profiles for all student-athletes and collaborated with multiple departments to monitor performance utilizing various technology systems.
 
Prior to going to the Lonestar State, Nelson spent two years in Florida from 2021-22, including working for a short time with Maher and the Gators. In that span, he was a football strength and conditioning intern at South Florida (2022) and Florida (2021). He also served three stints at Warner University in Lake Wales first as an intern and then football strength and conditioning coach and then tennis strength and conditioning coach.
 
Nelson earned his bachelor's degree in exercise science from Warner in 2023 after playing football at his alma mater from 2018-19.
 
NELSON'S FILE
2025-PR   UNLV -- Assistant Director Strength and Conditioning
2024        Baylor – Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
2022        South Florida – Strength and Conditioning Intern
2022        Warner University – Tennis Strength and Conditioning Coach
2021        Warner University – Football Interim Strength and Conditioning Coach
2021        Florida –Strength and Conditioning Intern
2019-21    Warner University – Strength and Conditioning Intern
 


Bacchia also formerly worked with Maher at Florida during the Dan Mullen era, spending two years as an intern in Gainesville. He comes to Las Vegas after working the last four seasons at the University of Massachusetts as assistant sports performance coach. He worked with all student-athletes in Amherst, including running, analyzing and implementing the program's sport science technology.
 
Previous to moving to UMASS, Bacchia was a graduate assistant performance coach at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, including serving as the head strength coach for the softball, golf and cheer programs.
 
The Pennsylvania native graduated with a bachelor's degree in human performance from the University of Tampa in 2019 before joining the Gators.
 
BACCHIA'S FILE
2025-PR   UNLV -- Associate Director Strength and Conditioning
2021-24    UMASS – Assistant Sports Performance Coach
2020        Southeastern Louisiana – Graduate Assistant Sports Performance Coach
2019-20    Florida – Football Strength and Conditioning Intern