Madison High School, Rexburg Idaho

This is our Lower or "Hell Room." The athletes know that their greatest gains come from work done here! the afternoon hours; (2) Young men don't particularly like By being in class by 7:00 a.m.; (3) During the winter months Ferron E. Sonderegger the roads are often snowed in at 6:30 a.m.; some students State Director of NSCA couldn't get to class; (4) We couldn't really call the weight Defensive Coordinator: room "Home;" (5) We couldn't put up charts or motivaMadison High School-Rexburg, Idaho tional ideas anywhere; we needed a place to hang our hat. At Madison High School we take a great deal of pride The tradition, however, was on it's way. The football team in our strength facility.

It has given our athletes a new was beginning to talk about "lifting." dimension in an already strong program. In 1985 we moved Our next step was to have our own facility. Jerrold into the" A-I" (largest Idaho division) division in athletics. Crittendon, our athletic director, had suggested that we Our football team had won several State championships in build a room under the football or basketball bleachers. the" A-2" division and we knew that in order to survive This was a good idea but as in many districts, there was in the "A-I's" we had to have a strength program. The no money available for such a project at the time.

We following is the story of what we did to get our program needed a facility with apparatus by the end ofJanuary 1986. started and the benefits of it. Our head football coach, Kelly Thompson, suggested we The first step was to get administrative approval. Even change a storage room on the north of the gym into a though we had no facility, a strength class was put into weight room. This idea was met with mixed emotions. the curriculum for Fall, 1985. For the fall semester, we However, we began remodeling under the assumption that arranged to have our first hour strength class at 7:00 a.m. "it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission." We took at Ricks College.

care of the problems associated with moving and dismantlIt was a great start but it had several disadvantages: (1) ing the storage area and soon had full approval to develop Research shows that trainability of muscles is greater in our teaching station. 44 Continued on Page 49 THE STRENGTH OF THE CATS: Continued from Page 44 The Upper Room: We call this our "Junk Food Room." The lifts up here aren't quite as important. The first phase for our project involved tearing out walls, painting floors and walls, and restoring the weights that Dr. Greg Shepard had in his program at Madison 15 years earlier. This was all accomplished by the start of Spring semester 1986.

We had little equipment and the room was small, but it was "ours." What we did have was old and rusty but the kids began to train in earnest. We had 32 athletes in a 15' by 30' cracker box. At this time we learned that to have a top notch strength program you need to use the talents of other community people. That was when we met Duane Busby, an extremely talented young man who took an interest in our project. He began to design our room into what it now is. Duane, coach Thompson, and myself came up with the idea of turning our weight room into a double decker room. Phase two was about to begin.

We began moving football equipment, basketball and wrestling uniforms into a nearby box car for storage. We had to dismantle numerous storage shelves and then rebuild them in another area of the building. We carpeted the upstairs and put in a four speaker stereo system that Duane donated. Duane added some decoration ideas which greatly added to our atmosphere. We did more painting and tearing out and added mirrors at all our lifting stations. Our boosters club and several community people donated money to make our project possible. Most of that money went to build or buy new equipment.

Perry Robinson, our ag instructor, built some absolutely beautiful apparatus at half the cost of purchasing it. The upholstery was done by a local business. We now have the following in our weight room: 2 bench press 1 lat pull 2 incline press 1 leg ext. machine 2 squat racks 1 preacher curl 2 clean-deadlift stations 1 double dip station 1 power rack 2500 pounds of weigh ts 6 BFSmats 8 Olympic bumper plates 4 plate holders 1 full set of dumbbells 1 chalk box 9 Olympic bars 1 bulletin board 3 E.Z. curl bars We still have some things to finish but we have come a long way. If you want a good strength program you have to work at it and be willing to let others get involved in the program.

All this led to the story of our 1986 football season. Our players lifted three days a week all through the summer. We worked on various types of squats, presses, cleans and other supplemental exercises. Each workout lasted an hour and a half. A great benefit of lifting is the togetherness it creates. We became a very close knit bunch. We hollered, screamed, and hoisted many pounds. We did it together. Little did we know that we would need that closeness in the weeks to follow. We would have to rely on each other when there was no other place to turn. Continued on Page 51 49 THE STRENGTH OF THE CATS:

We relied mostly on inexperienced juniors in our starting positions. In fact we had nine juniors on defense and six on offense. Our schedule for the first three weeks was murderous. We faced perennial powerhouse Highland in the first game and were trounced 42-78 in the Idaho State University Mini-dome. Our second game was a little better but we could not overcome a strong Idaho Falls team and lost 34-22. There had been a lot of pre-season pressure on our kids. The previous year was our first in "A-I" competition and we finished 8-2 with a share of the Gem State Conference championship (ten teams) and a win over Highland (defending "A-1"

Division 1 State champs) which snapped their 28 game conference winning streak. The kids felt they had to win those first two games. We were primed for defeat against Skyline the third week and lost 40-7 to the defending State champs ("A-I" Division 2). In reality, our season was over. We had nothing to play for. The teams we needed to beat to go to state had walloped us. As coaches we were very discouraged. We all wondered if we ought to get our resumes out and begin a job search. However, an interesting thing happened that night. An 0-3 team matured and grew up. There were a lot of tears, prayers and words of comfort.

I'll never forget the words of our senior captain, "Even if we lost every game, I'm still going to play. I love football." We continued lifting two days a week. We had two choices; (1) QUIT, or (2) roll up our shirt sleeves and go to work. We worked harder in the weight room and on the field. We did have something to play for - Pride. We finished the season 7-3. One team we defeated by one point had defeated Idaho Falls. Our kids became hitters on defense. Many opponents and fans commented on how hard our kids hit. Our offense began to jell and we became consistent. It was really fun to watch the attitude development. The kids were positive and very coachable the entire season.

They were a class act the whole way. At our season ending banquet almost every boy said, "I knew we could win seven in a row." Our strength training program played a great roll in our season. A good program builds positive attitudes, self-confidence, and a Continued on Page 58 Iathlete will stretch on his own and then lift in a group situation. The BFS 1-2-3-4 Flexibility Program affords you this opportunity and luxury. After you have done "One On The Bench" and stretched the hamstrings, do "Two In The Air." Each of these two exercises will take 30 seconds. Therefore, they can easily be done during a commercial. The first stretch is called the "Front Shoulder Flex."

This exercise stretches the shoulder girdle and chest area. Put your arms in front of you with your palms facing each other. Rotate your hands around 180 degrees. Then interlace and lock your fingers by clasping your hands together. The palms should still be faced together. Next, slowly bring your completely extended arms overhead and behind your ears. Go back as far as possible. Word hard! Hold for 30 seconds. The second stretch is called the "Back Shoulder Extension." It stretches the anterior or front shoulder area. Put your arms behind you and clasp your hands together. Keep the back as upright as possible and look straight ahead.

Slowly raise your completely extended arms as far as possible. Work hard! Hold for 30 seconds. While doing this exercise, you may also rotate your neck in a slow circle. These two exercises will help prevent shoulder injuries and give a greater range of motion. This will improve performance by enabling the athlete to throw harder and farther. In the next issue, we will discuss "Three On The Wall." For more complete information, you may rent or purchase our brand new video which fully illustrates the BFS 1-2-3-4 flexibility program. (See pages 8-9) or get our upper limit posters.

* Information All Flexibility Exercises are This series of articles gives in detail the less-than-l0 minute BFS 1-2-3-4 Flexibility Program. In Part Three, we discussed "One On The Bench." In this issue, Part Four, we shall discuss "Two In The Air." Remember, we believe in the "static" stretch method because an athlete does not have to find a partner. Athletes should be stretching everyday and they should have the capability and motivation to stretch anytime and at anyplace. We strongly recommend that coaches in high school do not take valuable lifting time to formally stretch. If you only have 45 to 60 minutes to lift, it is far better, if the Demonstrated by Coach Rowbotham!

Stick figure drawings are not used. Written for coaches in an easy to understand style! To order write:

805 West 2400 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84119

From BFS Magazine — January/February 1987. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).