Since 1976 · The BFS Story
Fifty years of building champions.
BFS started with three teacher-coaches who believed student-athletes deserved a real system — one program for every sport, taught with perfect technique, run on personal records instead of comparison. Fifty years and 10,000+ schools later, that’s still the whole idea.
1976
Founded by three teacher-coaches
10,000+
Schools & teams equipped
1,000s
Camps, clinics & certifications run
198
Free magazine articles
From the archive — the program in its first decade.
The story so far.
The founding
Three teachers and coaches — among them Bob Rowbotham — see a need in physical education and athletics for a more comprehensive way to develop student-athletes. Bigger Faster Stronger is born.
Coaches teaching coaches
BFS clinicians take the program on the road — thousands of camps, clinics, and in-service days on school weight room floors, backed by BFS Magazine's free coaching library.
Be An 11
The program grows past the barbell: Be An 11 brings character and leadership education to the same athletes — because the goal was never just stronger kids.
The WRSC standard
The Weight Room Safety Certification codifies what BFS clinicians had taught for decades into 11 criteria — a real credential that answers the liability question for schools.
Powered by TeamBuildr
In partnership with TeamBuildr, every BFS program is pre-built in the app your athletes already carry. Assign the year, coach the room — the system runs itself.
One mission, three moves.
The mission of BFS is to bring about positive change in young people’s lives — through the athletes, through their coaches, and through the rooms they train in.
Reach the athletes
Seminars and courses for students covering character, fitness, training, and performance — Be An 11 and the camps that carry it.
Be An 11 →02Equip the coaches
Professional development and certification in weight-room safety and strength & conditioning — the WRSC and the clinics behind it.
WRSC Certification →03Build the rooms
Weight-room expertise and resources for programs at every level — assessment, design, equipment, and on-site consulting.
Build the Room →Run by a coach.
President & CEO John Rowbotham grew up inside the program — a BFS student-athlete in junior high, three state championships in high school, hundreds of camps and clinics delivered since. He’s the son of co-founder Bob Rowbotham, and he still coaches football at his alma mater in Salt Lake City.
Behind him: the clinicians and reps who run BFS events across the country, an advisory board of doctors and researchers, and the first generation who built the program.
Meet the Whole Team
The next fifty years
Powered by TeamBuildr.
BFS is proud to partner with Hewitt Tomlin and TeamBuildr. Every BFS program — the 52-week Total, the Readiness on-ramp, and every season block — comes pre-built in the coaching platform, on every athlete’s phone.
“I remember the first day we did the plyometric boxes. I said, ‘This is ridiculous – we can’t do this!’ But the second time they got much better, and within two weeks we were really just taking off on them.”
Bob Turner
Head Football Coach at Edenton-Holmes High School