LH Panther Mom
07-31-2008, 06:55 PM
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Summer break for high school athletes? Hardly.
Offseason programs keep players active, focused for fall season
By Bill Oram
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, July 31, 2008
LIBERTY HILL — Rock music blared out of the speakers into the weight room, but didn't quite drown out the sound of steel clashing against steel as weights and barbells were dropped, then lifted again and again.
Members of various Liberty Hill High School sports teams hollered across the purple and yellow room, their voices barely able to cut through the heavy din. Nearly 60 of them — mostly football, but also basketball and volleyball — were there at 7 a.m. four days a week, preparing for their upcoming seasons, working for some kind of competitive edge.
"For the most part, if they're in town they're here lifting," said Robert Draper, an assistant football coach who is in charge of the school's strength and conditioning program.
Four days each week throughout the summer, student-athletes crowded the weight room. Football, as well as other sports, has morphed from seasonal endeavors to year-round lifestyle. Showing up for practices and working hard and memorizing playbooks are no longer enough.
Liberty Hill football coach Jerry Vance, who has led the Panthers to two straight Class 3A state championships, knows as well as anyone the importance of summer workouts.
"It's become very vital," Vance said. "Kids don't bale hay anymore. They don't spend the summer throwing 80-pound bales of hay 15 rows up. They grill hamburgers."
In 2002, the University Interscholastic League started sanctioning supervised summer strength and conditioning programs, allowing coaches the opportunity to oversee summer workouts.
"When I played 25, 30 years ago, we didn't have it and at two-a-days we were dragging," Draper said.
Thomas Seites, a senior defensive tackle who has been part of both Panthers title teams, said summer conditioning can be rough, but that it pays off in the playoffs.
"It does get challenging, but you just gotta think, 'Let's get that third ring,' " Seites said. "It felt so good to win a state championship. You do all this and it's worth it."
The workouts prove particularly helpful for the football team, which doesn't participate in 7-on-7 passing games throughout the summer, except once a week against Leander. The exercise does little for the Panthers and their smashmouth, run-first, run-second mentality, Vance said.
"For us, it really has no bearing other than working a little bit on defense," he said.
But it's not just football players who are there. Athletes from virtually every other sport participate.
Charice Hankins, the Liberty Hill softball coach, said the summer program isn't sport-specific or tailored more toward football players than other athletes. In addition to lifting weights, student-athletes jump rope, run sprints and do crunches.
Ashley Orange, a junior who throws the shot and is a competitive weight lifter, said that in past years some girls discouraged others from participating in the summer conditioning because it was "just for the boys." But she said that in her experience, that hasn't been the case.
"They try to work on stuff that the girls can do and the boys can, too," Orange said.
Hankins said rather than a detriment, the football team's presence gives incentive to players from different sports.
"When you're at a school that has two state championships back to back, that's contagious," she said.
woram@statesman.com;445-3677
AAS link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/07/31//0731willco.html)
Summer break for high school athletes? Hardly.
Offseason programs keep players active, focused for fall season
By Bill Oram
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, July 31, 2008
LIBERTY HILL — Rock music blared out of the speakers into the weight room, but didn't quite drown out the sound of steel clashing against steel as weights and barbells were dropped, then lifted again and again.
Members of various Liberty Hill High School sports teams hollered across the purple and yellow room, their voices barely able to cut through the heavy din. Nearly 60 of them — mostly football, but also basketball and volleyball — were there at 7 a.m. four days a week, preparing for their upcoming seasons, working for some kind of competitive edge.
"For the most part, if they're in town they're here lifting," said Robert Draper, an assistant football coach who is in charge of the school's strength and conditioning program.
Four days each week throughout the summer, student-athletes crowded the weight room. Football, as well as other sports, has morphed from seasonal endeavors to year-round lifestyle. Showing up for practices and working hard and memorizing playbooks are no longer enough.
Liberty Hill football coach Jerry Vance, who has led the Panthers to two straight Class 3A state championships, knows as well as anyone the importance of summer workouts.
"It's become very vital," Vance said. "Kids don't bale hay anymore. They don't spend the summer throwing 80-pound bales of hay 15 rows up. They grill hamburgers."
In 2002, the University Interscholastic League started sanctioning supervised summer strength and conditioning programs, allowing coaches the opportunity to oversee summer workouts.
"When I played 25, 30 years ago, we didn't have it and at two-a-days we were dragging," Draper said.
Thomas Seites, a senior defensive tackle who has been part of both Panthers title teams, said summer conditioning can be rough, but that it pays off in the playoffs.
"It does get challenging, but you just gotta think, 'Let's get that third ring,' " Seites said. "It felt so good to win a state championship. You do all this and it's worth it."
The workouts prove particularly helpful for the football team, which doesn't participate in 7-on-7 passing games throughout the summer, except once a week against Leander. The exercise does little for the Panthers and their smashmouth, run-first, run-second mentality, Vance said.
"For us, it really has no bearing other than working a little bit on defense," he said.
But it's not just football players who are there. Athletes from virtually every other sport participate.
Charice Hankins, the Liberty Hill softball coach, said the summer program isn't sport-specific or tailored more toward football players than other athletes. In addition to lifting weights, student-athletes jump rope, run sprints and do crunches.
Ashley Orange, a junior who throws the shot and is a competitive weight lifter, said that in past years some girls discouraged others from participating in the summer conditioning because it was "just for the boys." But she said that in her experience, that hasn't been the case.
"They try to work on stuff that the girls can do and the boys can, too," Orange said.
Hankins said rather than a detriment, the football team's presence gives incentive to players from different sports.
"When you're at a school that has two state championships back to back, that's contagious," she said.
woram@statesman.com;445-3677
AAS link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/07/31//0731willco.html)