Putting the Team First at Lawrence High School

By BFS

good strength program: they just needed to take itto the next level herited a Cardinals team that was just coming High School a Group Il m3 school in central New aasey off one of those“down” seasons, as they had finished with a He played on the offensive and defensive lines for the Cardinals under head coach Ed Shirk and graduated in 1986. But although Radice’s football playing days ended after college, he was always true to his school.

2-8 record.

For the past 23 years the Cardinals’ football program has seen some great seasons, some good seasons, and a few, well, not-so-good seasons. “At times we were 9-0, and at times we were 2-8 — we were up and down.” When Radice took over the head coach position five years ago from Len The following three years the Cardinals managed to win exactly half their games each year, but this was followed by a 4-6 record. Radice was perplexed—he knew he was doing a lot of things right, one of which was implementing the BFS program, but something was missing in his strength and conditioning program. And he figured John Rowbotham was just the guy to help him find it.

Rediscovering BFS A BFS clinician and son of BFS President Bob Rowbotham, John met “T just can’t believe how well these changes worked,”

Radice after the end of the 2003 season at the Atlantic City had 33 kids bench over 200 pounds, 17 bench over 225 and 18 kids Clinic in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They had several lengthy talks about squat over 300 pounds. We also had four guys bench over 300 and the Cardinals’ conditioning program, talks that helped Radice develop squat over 500. “It was not just about making personal records but an action plan to take his program to the next level. “We were foldeveloping the confidence that came with it.” Weightroom pride soon lowing the BFS program, but John pointed out that we really weren’t translated into team results.

This year, Radice took his program to another level by bringing out BFS clinician Lance Neven for a BES clinic.

“When we were 4-6, we were not as confident as we should have been going into games and we were not certain if we were going to be beat What Nevan did was to help the Cardinals perfectly implement the up physically,” says Radice. “This year the players felt that they were BES program and create unification of all sports. Among the problems going to be more physical than their opponents and that they were they addressed were that the athletes were not warming up with the going to be competitive in every single game — they felt that they Dot Drill, not concentrating on flexibility, not spending enough time could compete against the best teams in the state.”

And although the on technique in the power clean and not hitting the bonus reps in the Cardinals didn’t win a state championship, the team achieved three program. Those changes, along with Radice’s commitment to developmore wins than the previous year, won the conference title and made ing a unified school lifting program with BFS, made a big difference the playoffs. and resulted in the best testing results ever in school history BFS Clinician Lance Neven was brought in to Lawrence High School to teach the value of unification, 2. of machines.

Return all free weights and bars to the appropriate place after each use Inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated.

As another plus, nine Cardinals of the 2004 team went on to play in magazines, which don’t have anything to do with athletics.” college. Anthony Herald was one of those athletes. Radice said that as a junior, Herald lacked strength and flexibility and wasn’t good Although Radice has been exposed to other workout ough to play varsity. cially those being used in Division | colleges, he doesn't consider them “As a senior he followed the BFS program to being astarting tackle on the offensive line and had a appropriate for the high school environment. “At the | great season.

Next year Herald will play at a division III college in New one, you don’t have that much time to spend in the weig troom and, Jersey.

He never would have had a chance to do that if not for his liftyou're not dealing with division | athletes — you're usually dealing with beginners or maybe a few kids who might play at the divisi ing and conditioning program — it made him into a player.”

IIT level.” Another issue is the fact that kids in high school mature at This season, wrestling, baseball, and girls’ basketball and softball will be joining the football team in using the BFS program. S: different rates. “I have freshmen who are on the regular BFS program, but | have a couple of sophomores who are still on the readiness the rationale for bringing in Coach Neven at the clinics, to program just because they re not ready to jump into a heavy weight program.” don’t perform the core lifts and instead use workouts from muscle Another key factor in a successful weight Quickly and easily show your athletes how to properly perform the following lifts:

Squat. Bench Press. Power Clean. Quick lifts. Hex Bar Deadlift. : ep.

© much information out there about lifting nd how to get yourself pt matter of convincing them they’ because the sets and reps change each week. They are thrilled when they are breaking records, and they know that by working hard in the weightroom they are going to play at some level. e. “T've been supervising the weightroom er among his athletes. had one serious injury in the weightroom.” As for injuries on the field, Radice says he hasn’t hada serious injury on the football field in the they putting the team first, and how are their decisions going to affect last two years and that the overall injury rate has the team? At Lawrence High School no one player is bigger than the gone down.

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From BFS Magazine — September/October 2005. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).