How the Wildcats learned that to win, you first must believe

Four-year starter Tyler Beard hands off to his fullback Shane McGowan.

Many high school football players dream of one day playing professional football on Sundays. Others dream of becoming coaches so they can continue enjoying the thrills of Friday Night Lights. And in a perfect world, wouldn’t it be great to come back and coach at the school you graduated from? In Cincinnati, Ohio, there’s a coach who is doing just that. Welcome to the world of Barry Pettyjohn and the Wildcats of Deer Park High School. Pettyjohn has been the head coach at Deer Park, a Class 2A school, for the past five years.

He graduated from the school in 1982, and after college ball in Pittsburgh he played offensive line for the Houston Oilers in 1987 and for the Miami Dolphins for the following two years. With such impressive qualifications, it may be a surprise that he decided to return to his alma mater. After all, the Deer Park Wildcats were not so wild on the football field. In fact, the team hadn’t had a winning season since 1999, and the last time the team was in the playoffs was in Pettyjohn’s senior year! In his first year as head coach, Pettyjohn managed to coach his team to a respectable, for them, 5-5 record.

The next year it was back to their losing ways – they lost every single game, and they managed only two wins the following year. Says Pettyjohn, “I think part of the problem was not always getting the best quality of kids to come out for the team, but most of all it was that the kids lacked confidence in themselves. When we went 0-10, you could see their confidence falling, and the next year we had kids playing who had never won a varsity game, and that’s why we went 2-8. That’s when I said that was enough and that we needed to get these kids confidence – and the best way to get confidence is in the weightroom.”

“When I came in we were lifting weights and we had a pretty good strength program going, but – although they were good kids – they didn’t work as hard as they could,” says Pettyjohn. “I had been a part of a lot of different weightlifting programs, but I found out that in working with kids it’s not what believe #60 Willie Cox, #53 Gary Barnett I believe in, it’s what the kids believe in.” So he started searching for another strength training program, a better program. Having heard good things about BFS since his playing days, Pettyjohn attended a clinic in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and after that experience he’d made up his mind on what path to take.

“I was sold on the BFS concept about how you can get the maximum amount of work done and increase your strength in a minimum amount of time. It made sense to me, and I bought into it and so did my athletic director. Then we had a meeting with the parents and showed them the DVD that Dr. Shepard had made overviewing the program, and they bought into it.” With all heads nodding approval, Pettyjohn purchased the BFS Beat the Computer program and set up times for the athletes to lift before and after school. A boost in their confidence was only the beginning.

“When we were 0-10, that year we didn’t have one person who could bench over 250 pounds, and I don’t know if we had anyone who could squat over 300. This year we had eight kids bench over 250, and there were kids box squatting 450 and even 500. The gains in the weightroom are unbelievable.” In addition to implementing BFS’s simple approach to conditioning, Pettyjohn also applied that philosophy to his on-field coaching. He says, “If you keep things simple, then there is no confusion. I think sometimes as coaches we have egos and we want to show how many different plays we know, how many defense schemes we know, how many different kickoffs we know, and we confuse the kids.

But it’s not what the coach knows; it’s what the kids know. So although we run a lot of different formations, we run six or seven different plays out of them. Coaches JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 know a lot of things in their head about how to play the game, but no coaches play the game. What matters is what the athlete knows so that he can play the game fast; that’s the biggest thing – you have to play football fast.” In 2006 the Wildcats had a simple motto: “Play to Win!” And win they did, scoring eight victories, their last one against a team they hadn’t beaten in 18 years, and making it to the playoffs.

“Everyone at the school and in the community was so excited – they called what was happening “Cat Scratch Fever,” and for the first time it was cool to wear a Deer Park football shirt. We even had a bonfire before the state playoff game, and whereas we usually get 1,000 people at a game, for the playoffs we had more than 3,000!” Although they fell short of their ultimate goal of winning the state championships this year, the Wildcats of Deer Park High School are already back in the weightroom getting ready for next season. They know it won’t be easy. “Now other people are gunning for us and saying, ‘We want to beat Deer Park this year!’” says Pettyjohn.

“But we have a good group of kids coming back who are united and motivated – and they have great confidence!”

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From BFS Magazine — January/February 2007. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).