Top 11 Ways to Build a Championship Program

Take your athletic program to the next level and keep it there

or over three decades at BFS we’ve seen an amazing number of successful athletic programs, and among them we’ve noted underlying themes. Some of these ideas can be implemented immediately, and others may take a few seasons to fully establish. But if you’ve been reading all the high school success stories we’ve featured in BFS magazine for more than three decades, you’ll see that a losing program often can be turned around in a single season – even to the point of taking a cellar dweller team to a state championship. It’s been said that “talent prevails,”

but success in team sports is often not a result of having superstars but of having an overall high level of strong athletes with winning attitudes. And to accomplish that, you may need to create a paradigm shift in your thinking. On September 18, 1985, David Letterman introduced the “Late Night Top Ten List” on his NBC talk show, and the theme has been frequently used in many “how to” articles. Now we’ve come up with our own list of ideas to create a successful athletic program, but we’ve expanded it to a list of 11 ideas that real-life coaches have used to create successful programs.

F1. Create Worthy, Uniﬁed Goals.

Proven, practical tips on taking your athletic program to the next level and keeping it there Learning how to set worthy, unified goals is one of the key aspects of our Be an 11 seminars. Among the goals needed for success on the athletic field are academic goals, such as achieving a 3.0 grade point average, and community goals, such as projects you can do to make your program better. The goals should include specific and measureable steps for achieving each goal, and there needs to be daily accountability for the athletes and coaches to ensure the goals will be attained.

In 1998 we ran a story about Liberty Center High School in Liberty Center, Ohio. In 1993 the Liberty Center Tigers lost their state championship game, but after the game 20 Liberty High eighth graders charged out of their seats and said to their future coaches, “Don’t feel bad, coaches. We’ll be back!” In 1998 those seniors made it to the state championships, facing an opponent with a 13-0 record, and came away with a 49-8 victory. It was truly a team effort, with six players scoring touchdowns.

2. Start a Booster Club. A booster club is the basic support group in the high school environment, and it will help supplement your sport budget with fundraising programs. Booster clubs enable you to do new things and make the experience for the athletes better. Because of the great work they do, it’s important that the individuals who belong to your group are recognized and appreciated by the athletes and coaches.

3. Establish Standards for Your Program. You have to have an accountability system to develop a positive attitude and strong work ethic among your athletes. Start with a weightroom orientation, and have kids sign an acknowledgment form such as the one contained in the BFS Safety Package. You should also establish a dress code, ban portable music devices and keep track of attendance. In 2007 Coach Heather Sonne ran a girls weight training class at Hunter High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Because there were fewer than 20 students enrolled at the time, the class was at risk of being cancelled – and in fact the summer program was Thanks to positive attitude directed toward success, the girls weight training class at Hunter High School grew from less than 20 participants to 92 in two years!

0DUN:.ROGRV(DJOH6WXGLRVZZZHDJOHVWXGLRVFRP ZZZIDFHERRNFRP(DJOH6WXGLRV cancelled due to lack of attendance. Sonne encouraged all the female athletes at the school to join the class and work hard; 22 girls showed up the following year for the summer program, and 92 girls participated in the summer program in 2009. Their hard work paid off: Going into the 2010 sports year Sonne had 12 girls power clean 135 pounds and nine girls vertical jump 23 inches!

4. Encourage Athletes to Compete in Multiple Sports. Athletes who compete in more than one sport continue to develop year-round – competition is a huge plus. Colleges like to recruit the best athletes from schools, and there are benefits to helping athletes be “competition tough” by playing in frequent competitions in front of an audience. Every year BFS sponsors a BFS High School Athlete of the Year award, one for male athletes and one for female athletes. One of the requirements is that the nominees must compete in multiple sports; we made this rule because we want our student-athlete role models to support the entire athletic program, not just one sport.

5. Unify Your Strength and Conditioning Program.

The recipients of the 2010 BFS High School Athlete of Year awards are Amy Elizabeth Media and Austin Ryf. Both of these athletes excelled in multiple sports.

Coaches should have a unified program so that everyone in the school is working toward achieving success in all areas. All athletic programs should use the same terminology and should be unified in all the following areas of athletic fitness: rest and nutrition, year-round training, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 record keeping, sprint training, agility training, endurance training, flexibility training, plyometric training, strength training, skill training and mental training. Unified training can be incorporated as part of the PE curriculum.

6. Strive to Have Be an 11 Athletes. Encourage athletes to make great choices on and off the field with a Be an 11 program. Athletes should be respectful in the classroom and make their community better with service projects. Athletes need direction, and when they get it, they will help build the program and leave the program better than they found it! 3KRWR1DY\6,' 7. Maintain a Uniﬁed Weightroom Layout and Standards. The weightroom should be laid out in a safe and efficient way to maximize space and make the room efficient. Start by setting weightroom rules and standards, such as “no sandals” and “three spotters for high-risk lifts” such as squats and bench presses.

Every piece of equipment has an assigned place and should be returned to the assigned place when not in use. You should also have teaching aids such as posters up on the walls. We live in a litigious society, and to help prevent accidents and potential lawsuits, it’s important to follow the highest standards of safety. In addition to offering a BFS Safety Package that contains educational materials that will help keep your athletic program out of the courts, every issue of BFS magazine presents our “Dark Side of Sports” column that discusses issues relating to safety, liability and professional standards.

8. Encourage Athletes to Break Personal Records Bobby Doyle represents the best of BFS. The son of BFS clinician Bob Doyle, Bobby could clean 300 pounds in high school and went on to become a starter for the Midshipmen.

Young athletes respond best to seeing results on a continual basis. Start by having athletes strive to break at least eight personal records each week, all year long, in field tests (dot drill, vertical jump, 40-yard dash and core lifts: power clean, parallel squat, bench press). Coaches can encourage record-breaking with “top 10” boards and by keeping athletes abreast of their Personal Power Rankings. You should also encourage the development of team goals, such as, “We want to break 10,000 personal records by next season,” so at the end of each week they will add up the number of broken records for each athlete and add that to the total number of records broken.

FEATURE STORY A great way to motivate athletes to break personal records is to purchase a copy of the BFS Beat the Computer software program. By simply inputting an athlete’s current personal records, the computer will set up challenging workouts based upon breaking those records. The program also provides an easy way for athletes and coaches to keep track of their progress, and produces personal progress reports and team rankings. of pride in your athletes for the athletic program. First, keep the school and the facilities clean, have the art department do a school logo on the wall in the weightroom, and put up motivational sayings in the weightroom, locker room and classrooms.

Make the weightroom a place of pride and excitement.

11. Support Other Programs in the School During your season take time to go and watch another team from your school compete, and 9. Develop a Uniﬁed encourage your athletes to do the Feeder Program Getting young athletes involved the BFS Readiness Program same. During your off-season Get a head start by develop- will give them an edge in athletic ﬁtness. go once a month as a team to ing a feeder program with the support another program that is middle school programs that follows the same basic standards and principles set by the high in-season, and once or twice a year go as a team to a school school team.

With a football team, for example, the athletes play or other non-sport activity and support the students in will have two more years to get accustomed to the same type your school. The 11 steps above will help build a championship of offense and defense. You can also use a readiness program program and will give your athletes a great experience as to teach athletes how to lift and behave in the weightroom. they progress through school. And when you win that state championship, be sure to tell BFS about it so we can share 10. Establish Pride in Your Program your story with others through our seminars and publica“Be true to your school” is the message of a classic tions.

Beach Boys song, and it’s important to establish a sense After defeating the Naval Academy in 2010, the Air Force cadets stormed the playing ﬁeld to show their support.

BFS: THE FIRST STEP TOWARD ATHLETIC SUCCESS positive changes in the lives of young people through character education and sports ﬁtness seminars. To support coaches and physical educators in their work with young people, we offer certiﬁcation programs and continuing education materials that teach how to increase the safety and effectiveness of their sports and physical education programs through the concept of uniﬁcation. To support excellence in youth athletics and physical education, BFS offers the highest-quality exercise equipment at the best prices.

Our experienced staff also assists – from concept to completion – with all aspects of developing the best possible strength and conditioning facilities and programs. How are we doing? Just ask some of our fans: “There are all kinds of different ways to work out, but BFS is a proven product. It’s been around since the ’70s, they’ve grown and changed, and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Bringing in BFS was a commonsense solution.” Pat O’Brien, Head Football Coach, Sickles High School, Tampa, Florida “BFS bonded the team, so that not only did it strengthen them physically, it strengthened the unity of the team. And team unity is obviously important in a team sport such as soccer.

The bottom line is that my 2005 team was stronger, faster and way more in shape than other teams – I will have my teams do BFS until I retire from coaching.” Ben Ritsema, Head Soccer Coach, Reeths-Puffer High School, 2004 and 2005 Conference Champions, Muskegon, Michigan “Lifting and conditioning for nearly 12 weeks in the summer helped our team make great strides in speed and strength.” Matt Gilmer, Class of 2007, Holy Family High School, 2005 State Champions, Football Broomﬁeld, Colorado “We wanted to build on our success, so we brought out BFS clinician Tom Sullivan to give a Be An 11.”

Mark Peach, Head Football Coach, Anderson County High School, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky “I was lucky enough to see Coach Shepard in Nebraska when I was coaching in Dodge, Nebraska, back in 1985; and BFS Coach Jim Brown from Poplar Bluff came and helped me when I was at Blytheville. I think the BFS program is organized in such a way that it is instructive and constructive for the high school situation. If you want to add bells and whistles, that’s when you go to the colleges and pick up parts of their program. But I think that as far as a high school program goes, BFS is tremendous.

In fact, if you look at your program and you look at my program, there are a lot of commonalities – we even do the Dot system that was developed by BFS.” Coach Chris Carlisle, Head Strength Coach, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California “We have seen tremendous gains in strength and speed ever since we started using BFS. We trained year-round, and we still lifted three times a week during the season, even during the week of the state championships.”

“To this day, at 30 years old, I still follow the BFS system exactly, and it still works! I’ve never had a football injury – heck, I’ve never even missed a practice. I give 100 percent credit to the BFS program and my willingness to follow it, so I just wanted to give a huge ‘thank you’ to you and your team at BFS. I’m a living testament that it does change lives and it does work at every level.”

Josh Floyd, Athletic Director and Head Football Coach, Shiloh Christian High School, 2006 State Champions, Springdale, Arkansas Angus Reid, British Columbia Lions Football Team, 2006 Grey Cup Champions 5($/68&&(66,17+(5($/:25/' 9,6,77+(%)621/,1($5&+,9(6$1'',6&29(56,;6&+22/67+$7 +$9(7$.(17+(,5352*5$06727+(1(;7/(9(/%<)2//2:,1* 7+(%)635,1&,3/(6 :::%,**(5)$67(567521*(5$5&+,9(6 Search for any of these schools by name and download a free pdf article. Then subscribe to BFS Magazine and never miss another inspirational story or record breaking technique article.

Un chigan of Mi phy an Tro Heism ndidate Ca 2 Rising from the Ashes: Huntley Project High School Having its school burn down was not enough to stop this football team from winning a state championship By BFS Published: May/June 2009 Going in the right direction with BFS By BFS Published: September/October 2010 Blueprint for Success: Baltimore Public Schools How one school district is leading the field in PE and athletic fitness By BFS Published: November/December 2009 How this Football Program in Idaho rebounded after a 2-win Season By BFS Published: March/April 2009 A Colorado football program has what it takes to win it all By BFS Published: March/April 2010 in Wisconsin By BFS Published: July/August 2009 DEDICATED TO HELPING ATHLETES SUCCEED SINCE 1976 :::%,**(5)$67(567521*(5&20 :HVW6RXWK6DOW/DNH&LW\87 Achieve your goals!

“The new BFS Total Program Clinic is a life-changing experience!”

TOTAL PROGRAM CLINIC Unify Your Sports and Athletic Programs to Win!

$JUHDWVWDUW$%)6&OLQLFLVDJUHDWZD\WRLQWURGXFH\RXUVFKRROWRWKHDGYDQWDJHVRIXQLÀFDWLRQ,I\RXDUH DOUHDG\D%)6VFKRROWKLVFOLQLFZLOOLQWURGXFHQHZDWKOHWHVWRWKH%)67RWDO3URJUDPDQGZLOOUHLQIRUFHWKH LPSRUWDQFHRIIROORZLQJWKHSURJUDPWRH[SHULHQFHGDWKOHWHV The Ultimate BFS Experience: Two Day Total Program Clinic with a Be An 11 Seminar! 2 Day Clinic $2300 (up to 50 athletes). Additional athletes $25 each.

Be an 11 Seminar: $20 per athlete ,QDWZRGD\FOLQLFD%)6LQVWUXFWRUFDQFRPHWR \RXUVFKRRODQGVKRZ\RXKRZWRXQLI\\RXUDWKOHWLF SURJUDPWRHQVXUHDWKOHWHVZLOOSURJUHVV\HDUURXQG :LWKPRUHKDQGVRQLQVWUXFWLRQDQGDGGLWLRQDOWLPHIRU RXUFOLQLFLDQVWRDQVZHU\RXUTXHVWLRQVWKLVLVDPRUH FRPSOHWHSHUVRQDOL]HGH[SHULHQFH &RDFK5LFN%RMDNJRWPHWREHOLHYHFRPSOHWHO\LQ%)6 +HVSHQWWKUHHGD\VZLWKXVDQGGLGERWKD%H$Q ZRUNVKRSDQGD%)67ZR'D\OLIWLQJFOLQLF7KLVKHOSHG PRWLYDWHXVLQWRRXURIIVHDVRQµ .HYLQ%HOFKHU+HDG)RRWEDOO&RDFK&HQWUDO+6 3KRHQL[$UL]RQD Additional Options:

Up to 50 athletes. Addl athletes add $25 each Up to 50 athletes. Addl athletes add $10 each Certiﬁcation Clinic Regional Certiﬁcation $ 299 Per Coach - Practical & Theory 299 Per Coach - Practical & $ Course, 1 Day, Hands on Practicum and Online Exam Theory Course, 1 Day, Hands on Practicum and Online Exam Additional Athletes $10 Each per Student Up to 50 athletes. Add’l athletes add $20 each Great Results!

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ÀGHQFHDQGOHDGHUVKLSWKURXJK WKHSURFHVVRIVHWWLQJDQGDFKLHYLQJJRDOV DQGFRQVLVWHQWO\EUHDNLQJSHUVRQDOUHFRUGV 7KH7RWDO3URJUDPFDQEHDVWHSXSLQ KLJKVFKRRODQGLQOLIH ,WLVQRWDIDGRUDVKRUWFXWWKH7RWDO3UR JUDPLVDWLPHWHVWHGUHJLPHQWKDWUHTXLUHV GLVFLSOLQHDQGKDUGZRUN7KHVHDUHWKH TXDOLWLHVWKDWPDNHLWDJUHDWV\VWHPIRU WHDPEXLOGLQJE\RIIHULQJRSSRUWXQLWLHVHY HU\GD\IRUVWXGHQWVWRKHOSDQGHQFRXUDJH HDFKRWKHUWRJRDOLWWOHKDUGHU :KLOHLWLVQRWDQHDV\SDWKLWLVDVLPSOH RQH)RURYHU\HDUVFRDFKHVDQG DGPLQLVWUDWRUVKDYHIRXQGWKH7RWDO3UR JUDPWREHKLJKO\HIÀFLHQWDQGUHPDUNDEO\ HIIHFWLYHSDUWLFXODUO\ZLWKLQWKHFRQÀQHVRI VWXGHQWҋVEXV\VFKHGXOHV%\XWLOL]LQJWKH 7RWDO3URJUDPDFURVVDOOVSRUWVDQGLQ3( FODVVHVERWKFRDFKHVDQGDWKOHWHVKDYHD IUDPHZRUNWKDWNHHSVWKHDWKOHWHLPSURYLQJ DQGSURYLGHVHDFKFRDFKZLWKPHDVXUDEOH UHVXOWV:HFDOOWKLV8QLÀFDWLRQDQGZKHQ DQHQWLUHDWKOHWLFGHSDUWPHQWDQG3(FXUULF XOXPDUHRQWKHVDPHSDJHWKHUHVXOWVDUH DPD]LQJ%)6KDVLWҋVURRWVLQWKHIRRWEDOO DUHQDEXWZHHQFRXUDJHDOOFRDFKHVPHQV DQGZRPHQVDQGDGPLQLVWUDWRUVWRDWWHQG D7RWDO3URJUDP&OLQLF 6$)(7< %)6KDVRYHU\HDUVRIH[SHULHQFH ZRUNLQJZLWKFRDFKHVDQGDWKOHWHVLQWKH ZHLJKWURRPDQGXQGHUVWDQGVWKDWVDIHW\ LVSULRULW\RQHZLWK\RXUDWKOHWHV$WD7RWDO 3URJUDP&OLQLFRXUFOLQLFLDQVVSHQGDV PXFKWLPHRQSURSHUZHLJKWURRPEHKDYLRU DQGVSRWWLQJDVRQSURSHUOLIWLQJWHFKQLTXH 7KLVKDVWKHGRXEOHEHQHÀWRIKHOSLQJNHHS WKHDWKOHWHVLQMXU\IUHHDQGEXLOGLQJFDPD UDGHULHEHWZHHQWKHOLIWHUVDQGVSRWWHUV%\ HPSKDVL]LQJWKHSURSHUVDIHW\SURWRFROV DQGWKHSHUIHFWOLIWLQJWHFKQLTXHZHDUH EXLOGLQJQRWRQO\VWUHQJWKEXWUHVSRQVLELOLW\ DQGOHDGHUVKLS 68&&(66 :KHQ\RXEULQJLQWKH%)67RWDO3URJUDP \RXDUHEULQJLQJLQDSURYHQURDGPDSWR VXFFHVV6XFFHVVFDQEHGHÀQHGLQPDQ\ GLIIHUHQWZD\VEXWZHNQRZWKDWVXFFHVVRQ WKHÀHOGLVDYHU\FRQFUHWHGHÀQLWLRQ%)6 LVFRPPLWWHGWREXLOGLQJZLQQLQJSURJUDPV DQGZHKDYHWKHWUDFNUHFRUGWREDFNWKLV XS7KHPDMRULW\RIVFKRROVWKDWKRVWD 7RWDO3URJUDP&OLQLFLPSURYHWKHLUZLQORVV UHFRUGLPPHGLDWHO\0RUHVWDWHFKDPSLRQ VKLSVKDYHEHHQZRQXVLQJWKH%)67RWDO 3URJUDPWKDQDQ\RWKHUVWUHQJWKDQGFRQGL WLRQLQJSURJUDPLQWKHFRXQWU\ 7KH%)67RWDO 3URJUDP'HOLYHUV 6WUHQJWK6SHHG DQG&KDUDFWHU 6RXWKHDVW +LJK6FKRRO<RGHU :\RPLQJ $QXSGDWHRQ)RRWEDOO DQG0HQҋVDQG:RPHQV %DVNHWEDOOWHDPVDW6RXWKHDVW +LJK6FKRRO'XULQJWKHSDVW \HDUVWKHVHWHDPVKDYH HQMR\HGDKXJHDPRXQWRI VXFFHVV7KHJLUOVEDVNHWEDOO WHDPZRQWKH6WDWH7LWOHLQ DQGZDVUXQQHUXSLQ WKH0HQVEDVNHWEDOO WHDPZDVUXQQHUXSLQ 6WDWH&KDPSLRQVLQ DQGUXQQHUXSLQ7KH )RRWEDOOWHDPKDVZRQWKH 6WDWH&KDPSLRQVKLS\HDUV LQDURZDQG 2QHRIWKHPRVWLPSUHVVLYH VWDWVIRUWKHIRRWEDOOWHDPLV WKH\KDYHZRQVWDWHWLWOHVLQ GLIIHUHQWFODVVLÀFDWLRQV 7KH6RXWKHDVWIRRWEDOO WHDPKDVEHHQLQWKH6WDWH &KDPSLRQVKLSJDPHRIWKH ODVW\HDUVZLQQLQJWLWOHV LQWKDWVWUHWFK:HDUHHLWKHU RQHRIWKHODUJHVW$WHDPVRU RQHRIWKHVPDOOHVW$WHDPV :HWU\WRLQVWLOOLQRXUDWKOHWHV WKDWZHFDQFRPSHWHDWDQ\ OHYHO:HIHHO%)6KDVEHHQD ELJFRQWULEXWHUWRRXUVXFFHVV DQGZLOOKHOSXVVWD\RQWRS &DOOWROHDUQDERXWKRVWLQJ D7RWDO3URJUDP&OLQLFDW\RXUVFKRRO9LVLW ELJJHUIDVWHUVWURQJHUFRPFOLQLFVWRUHDG PRUHDERXWWKH7RWDO3URJUDP

From BFS Magazine — January/February 2011. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).