On the surface, forensics science and human performance might seem worlds apart. The former involves meticulously piecing together evidence to solve crimes, while the latter seeks to optimize athletic performance on the field. Yet both disciplines share a core principle: the art and science of problem-solving through data. At WVU, Troy Bishop has found an unexpected yet harmonious bridge between the two.
Growing up in Felton, Del., Bishop attended a technical high school and learned to weld. However, he was inspired by his father, a police officer, to pursue a career in law enforcement. His interest in forensic science led him to WVU, renowned for its top-tier program in the field.
Circumstances, though, sent him along a different path.
The detour began during Bishop’s freshman year when a hometown neighbor and WVU PhD candidate encouraged him to take a job at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI). There, he supported exercise physiology graduate students with research studies and maintained recovery equipment. The experience introduced Bishop to the practical applications of data in human performance, and what started as a side job ignited passion for a different kind of puzzle.
In Bishop’s sophomore year, the WVU women’s soccer team found itself temporarily without a strength coach. Despite a lack of soccer expertise, RNI staff recommended Bishop to assist the team with its sport science because of his growing expertise in the technology utilized in the field and by the team.
He began managing Catapult, a sophisticated GPS and data-tracking system used to monitor players’ performance and recovery. In addition to his understanding the technology and data, Bishop’s commitment and adaptability stood out.
“I just wanted to help wherever I could,” he recalled. “If they needed help picking up the field or anything, I’d do what they asked because I was always at practice.”
The team went on to win the 2022 Big 12 Conference Tournament, for which Bishop was awarded a championship ring.
Despite being just a sophomore, Bishop’s role with the team continued to grow. With the departure of the director of operations for soccer at the beginning of the spring semester in 2023, Bishop assumed some of those responsibilities like flying a drone during practice, making sure video footage was captured and uploaded properly and other logistical and operational tasks. As his responsibilities grew, so did the trust from the coaching staff.
This past season, Bishop was tasked with working with head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown on developing the team’s periodization plan. The periodization plan is crucial in soccer (and other endurance sports) as it creates and implements strategies to optimize player performance, recovery and reduce the risk of injury.
“She let me take the lead and shared her insights,” he says. “We had conversations about where she might see things differently, but her allowing me to do that showed that she had trust in me.”
While keeping many of the same hours as the student-athletes, Bishop was still balancing part-time work and full-time school. He added coaching and performance science as a major and, for a time, was working towards a dual major in that and forensics science. However, his experiences working in sport and his growing excitement for tackling performance-related challenges led him to focus solely on coaching and performance science, while retaining a minor in forensic science and continuing working on cold case research.
“In forensics, you’re putting together the puzzle of how a crime happened,” Bishop says. “In sports science, I’m solving puzzles, too—figuring out why one leg might be weaker or how to optimize performance based on data.”
Bishop has an innate talent and sense for working with data, but it’s in the subtleties of coaching in which he’s been able to grow while in the major.
“The faculty here have coached, and they’ve coached at the highest levels,” he says. “They’ve all done what they’re teaching – it’s not like they don’t have actual experience. I’ve gone to my professors and shared with them the problems I was having, and they’ve talked with me and helped me work through them because they’ve dealt with something similar before. Their experience and knowing that they have done what you want to do at the highest level is a big, big thing for me.
“Every professor I’ve ever met, whether in forensics or coaching performance science, they’ve all in the field at some point. That brings a great value to what they teach.”
Bishop intends to graduate in December of 2025, and his future goals include pursuing a master’s degree in sport science or kinesiology. He dreams of working at the professional level, perhaps in soccer, a sport he’s come to love.
“I’m definitely a soccer fan now,” he says with a smile.
For Bishop, success isn’t about choosing between forensics and sports science—it’s about blending the analytical rigor of one with the practical impact of the other. And whether he’s cracking a cold case or perfecting an athlete’s performance, he’s solving puzzles every step of the way.