Nat King Cole probably never envisioned lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer to be so athletic intense in North Texas. Back in 1963, the popular song was about bikinis hot dogs, beaches, and pretzels. That’s nearly everything that will send a football coach over the edge from his players in 2015.
The program of athletes working out with coaches in the summer is not a new concept, however, the attendance and participation level is new.
“The attendance before Coach (Zack) Hudson got here was pretty bad.” said assistant coach and football offensive coordinator Dale West. “Last year, we had 40 total coming last year and now we’re averaging about 60 per day.”
West says that the difference is the expectation of the athletes from the coaches. It’s voluntary and not mandatory, but they set the expectations that the kids should show up regularly.
The program is not sport-specific due to University Interscholastic League rules. It’s general strength and conditioning for athletes entering seventh grade through senior year.
“We’ll do about a 45-minute weight workout and then we’ll go outside and do an agility station for about 30 minutes and then we’ll do the running station for 30 minutes.” said West.
The coaches split up the long-distance runners from the sprint runners. On Thursday, a group ran “the ladder” of 400 meters followed by 300, 200 and 100 meters. That particular run is not the most popular with the athletes.
“You can do more stuff in the summer because you have more time.” said West. “We’re not on a time crunch, so we can work them up to two hours where during the school day you only get 45 minutes.”
The high school kids are encouraged to attend the first session which starts at 7:30 because it is a little more high intense. The junior high kids come later as the coaches slow things down in order to get them more acclimated to the lifting process. Most of the entering seventh graders are lifting for the first time.
“We try to show them (junior high kids) how to do the workout without heavy weights just to show them how to do a workout.” said West.
One benefit that the coaches receive from this is the ability to find out which kids are motivated enough to attend the workouts.
“In August, you can tell which kids have been here and which ones haven’t.” said West. “First of all, you can tell by the condition that they’re in. If they haven’t been working, they’re exhausted. The kids that show up, it’s just another day for them.”
The first week was all teaching for the junior high kids. Seeing some of the lifting techniques for the first time, they learned proper safety for becoming an athlete.
“Once we put the weights on them and ran them, they had jelly legs.” said West. “But we’re already seeing improvements by leaps and bounds. They’re going to be really sore in these first couple of weeks. They’re going to be sore in places that they didn’t even know they had muscles. That’s a good thing.”
The athletic department measures the progression of the strength and conditioning program by tracking the athletes max weights in August, December and just before spring break. As of right now, Joel Menjivar is the leading lifter in bench press. He suffered a torn Achilles Cruciate Ligament on Halloween night versus Whitewright.
“If he weren’t injured, he’d probably be our biggest lifter across the board. He’s getting pretty strong.” said West. “If his knee wasn’t hurt and he could do a full squat, he’d be our biggest squatter by far.”
As far as the running part, Andrew Griffin had the best 40 meter time with a low 4.6.
“Some people were surprised by that, maybe because he’s so young, but short and jacked up, but he’s fast.” said West.
Griffin is one of the ones that is penciled in to replace the graduated Anthony Hawthorne, who set the all-time Howe school rushing records last season.
Brandon Wall should replace Joaquin Lopez at quarterback, while the homerun hitter of the offense Stratton Carroll will return after suffering a torn ACL the same night as Menjivar. Tyler Grisham will also return and this could create one of the best backfields in school history.
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