How this Football Program in Idaho rebounded after a 2-win Season

High school football programs often have their ups and downs, and for three years Parma High School in Parma, Idaho, was definitely experiencing a down.

They’d won only two games in 2004, three in 2005, and two in 2006. That’s when Greg Asbury took over as the athletic director and implemented a plan to get back to the ups. The plan worked, and in 2007 Parma won eight games and made it to the quarterfinals. It just got better from there – the following year they won 11 games and became state champions. MARCH/APRIL 2009 From seven wins in three years to state champions!

Asked what the problem was with the Panthers’ football team before he arrived, Asbury replied, “Very few of our players were lifting, and those who were lifting were not doing so effectively. We also had a problem with numbers, as we only had 32 kids in the entire program – now we have over 50.” Asbury adds that the football program had also experienced frequent coaching changes, making it difficult to build upon the success of previous years. When Asbury became athletic director, one of the key steps he took to help his athletes succeed was to make it easier for them to get into the weightroom.

Besides offering PE classes throughout the day so that players could lift, he also started a “zero hour” workout program in which he opens up the weightroom at 7 a.m. so there will be no excuses for an athlete to miss training. “I tell our players that if they want to play football, they are going to be in that weightroom,” says Asbury. “I believe that when a team works and sweats together in the weightroom, they build a strong bond that carries over to the playing field.” Although his players work hard, Asbury says he makes certain that the kids have fun. “In this day and age in sports, you’ve got to have fun out there – it can’t be a grind.”

He also implemented the BFS program, which he has used since the early ’80s while coaching at other schools. “Parma was doing BFS until 2000, but they fell off it, and as a result the team lost their continuity…so I brought BFS back. We also got our girls into the program, and I should mention that the girls volleyball team won the state championships and our girls basketball team is currently 18-2.” The girls’ success is no surprise to Asbury – he has two daughters who trained with the BFS program. “My youngest daughter, Whitney, who is a senior, is our school record holder in the pole vault, and she is the strongest girl in the school,” says Asbury. How strong?

At only 125 pounds bodyweight, Whitney has bench pressed 145 pounds and has a 140 power clean and a 215 deep squat. Parma is a 2A school with only 327 students, and Asbury believes it is essential to the success of the entire athletic program that their athletes play as many sports as possible. There are a lot to choose from at Parma. “In the spring we offer as many sports as the 5A schools: football, basketball, tennis, golf, track…we even have rodeo, which isn’t a school-sponsored activity but is available. So with my football players, I tell them that I expect them to do something else too.

And my track program typically has 55 kids, over 100 if you count the kids from our middle school who come out.” What’s interesting is that at the beginning of this school year, during the school’s first assembly Asbury asked all the students to stand up if they were involved in any kind of extracurricular activity such as sports. “I don’t think there were five kids in that entire auditorium who were still sitting down – we estimate that 99 percent of our students are involved in one of our programs. So at Parma our kids are active – we even have 22 cheerleaders, which is a large number for a school of our size, and over 50 kids in the band and over 60 kids in drama.

A lot of the credit for this goes to our teaching staff, who really encourage our students to get involved in the many opportunities available at Parma.” Because Parma offers such a rich social environment, the school is a wonderful place to be a student, says Asbury. “Every school has cliques, but at Parma it doesn’t matter because everyone respects each other and we have very few discipline problems. I think a primary reason is that we are so active. Here’s a great example: Because of serious injuries to two star players, our basketball team is really struggling, but last Saturday night we had a quarter of our student body in attendance supporting our team. They just rocked the place.

In the state championship game at Boise State University, the entire bottom section of the stadium was almost full of our students and members of our community – and there are only about 2,500 people in our town. Now that’s school spirit!” MARCH/APRIL 2009 Girls sports are strong at Parma. Shown are the 2008 state champion volleyball team and pole vaulter Whitney Asbury!

Strict adherence to the BFS program is a key factor in the success of the Parma High School athletic program.

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From BFS Magazine — March/April 2009. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).