Fort Bend Baptist Academys path to victory
Fort Bend Baptist Academy features one of the finest high school football stadiums in the country, part of a recent multimillion dollar renovation and expansion program.
Eagles Soaring High Fort Bend Baptist Academy’s path to victory ohn Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed, was a man who traveled the Midwest in the 1800s planting and tending to nurseries of apple trees. Bruce Lane is also a nurturer, but rather than helping trees grow, he moves from high school to high school helping sports programs develop unified success. One of Lane’s many success stories is J.T. Wall, who appeared on the cover of the Spring 2002 issue of BFS magazine.
Lane coached Wall for two of his high school years; in addition to putting up impressive numbers as a running back, in the weightroom Wall accomplished the rare feat for a high school athlete of bench pressing 400 pounds. Unfortunately, being from a small school, Wall was passed over by the D1 schools. But he persisted, transferred Jto the University of Georgia, made the team as a walk-on and after graduation played in the NFL. Now Wall is the assistant head football coach at his alma mater, John Milledge Academy. BFS recently caught up with Wall, who commented, “It was a great honor to be among the select few that BFS has selected to be on the cover of their magazine.
BFS and my strength coach at Georgia helped me reach my dream of being an NFL player. I have the utmost respect for the BFS principles I learned in high school and still use them today in training the current John Milledge football team.”
New Athletic Growth Two years ago Lane was the head football coach of Augusta Christian High School in Martinez, Georgia. His teams were state champions in 2005 and state runner-ups in ’06 and ’07. Then Lane traveled west to take over the responsibilities of head football coach at Fort Bend Baptist Academy in Sugarland, Texas. Fort Bend is a private school founded in 1987 that has an enrollment of 835 students. In addition to running the strength and conditioning program for the football team, Lane also works with the volleyball, baseball and boys basketball teams.
It’s also worth noting that the athletic director for the Eagles is Bill Bufton, who had used BFS during his own high school years and has been instrumental in helping to make major improvements in the athletic facilities at Fort Bend Baptist. Using the unification principles of BFS that enable athletes to continually MARCH/APRIL 2011 J.T. Wall started the BFS Program in high school under Coach Bruce Land and became an eventual walk-on starter at the University of Georgia and played in the NFL. break personal records and to excel in all areas of athletic fitness, the Eagles have had remarkable success in many sports.
Says Lane, “Our baseball team went the final four, our girls softball team won the state championships and had the Gatorade Player of the Year, and our football team won eight games and made the playoffs for the first time in school history.” One individual who has seen the influence of BFS firsthand is Coach Lane’s son, Christian. A senior fullback/ linebacker, Christian Lane moved with his father from Augusta Christian to Fort Bend Baptist, and he says, “At Augusta Christian we were already using BFS; and our strength coach, Keith Walton, and Coach Lane taught us not only the BFS program but also how it helped other football teams be successful.
At Fort Bend Baptist our team had not really lifted as a group before, and BFS brought us together and helped us learn how to win before we ever reached the field. It was easy to get the guys to buy into BFS by telling them how it had worked in other places.” Coach Lane says that when he first came to Fort Bend Baptist, he was focused primarily on his football program, which had won only three games in the previous two years. “They The Fort Bend Baptist Academy Eagles are experiencing success largely due to their training as a group. really had not trained as a group, with many of them going outside the school to work with personal trainers.
But we were successful in getting all our varsity players to get involved in the voluntary summer strength and conditioning program, and obviously they have seen the benefit of the BFS program with their performance on the field.” While the US economy struggles to grow and stabilize, the athletic department at Fort Bend Baptist has been able to acquire funds for expansion. Says Lane, “In the past 18 months we were able to move into a multimillion-dollar athletic complex that includes a 2,500-square-foot weightroom and a new stadium.
And after the first of the year we completely revamped the playing surfaces and installed field turf, so being an independent school we’ve been blessed with some gracious parents, administrators and other supporters from the community to invest in the athletic program at Fort Bend Baptist.” Asked about other reasons for the success of the Eagles, Lane says that everything he does with athletes is based on a “team concept.” He plans events that develop camaraderie upfront “so that the kids really want to show up – and the strength and conditioning program helps to build their self-confidence.”
Lane also says that when he arrived he helped to establish weight training classes as an elective to make it easier for athletes to get in their workouts. Lane says that one of his current goals is to “stay the course” with the BFS program. “We just want to encourage kids to come out for sports so they can experience what our athletic program has to offer. If you’re an athlete, Fort Bend Baptist Academy is a great place to be!”
This season the Eagles won eight games and made the playoffs for the first time in school history.
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From BFS Magazine — March/April 2011. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
