By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
ONE FEATHER STAFF
Heisman trophy winner and running back extraordinaire Hershel Walker once said, “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”
Damon Taylor, CHS freshman, does dips in the CHS weight room on Wednesday, May 4. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather)
That attitude is prevailing in the weight room at Cherokee High School.
Weights and sweat have been flying for the past school year and it’s making a difference.
“We like to stay on the cutting edge when it comes to training our athletes,” head football coach Craig Barker commented. “We’ve already seen a ton of results. It’s going to help us all. It’s going to be beneficial to our entire athletic program.”
Devyn Smith, CHS sophomore, does bench presses as Coach David Hines spots him.
David Hines is new this year to the Cherokee coaching staff taking over the reins as head baseball coach and as an assistant football coach. He introduced the Bigger, Stronger, Faster program to Cherokee.
Four Strength and Conditioning classes are held daily and the weight room is also open and manned by coaches both before and after school for those students whose schedules don’t allow for them to be in the weight room otherwise.
Dre Jackson, CHS junior, is all smiles as he cranks out a set of bench presses.
“As a 1A school, we have to manufacture athletes,” said Coach Hines. “We gear the workouts to that person. We try to make it as individual and personal of a program as we can.”
He said those programs include free weights, plyometrics, speed and sprint training, and interval training. A record board hangs in the room and will be filled this upcoming week with the top performances on various stations including bench press, squats, etc.
Injuries can derail seasons and weight training is a fine way to prevent them. Coach Hines said that there have been no injuries in baseball this year and he credits the strength training.
Coach Barker agrees, “Weight training is so important in injury prevention. Being in shape and being physically fit is the best way to prevent being injured.”
And, the work won’t stop when school lets out for the summer. The weight room will be open all summer long Monday-Thursday. “There’s no excuse for them not to get in here and work,” said Coach Hines.
Coach Barker commented that the facilities are comparable to, and in some cases better than, some colleges. “Our weight room is second to none. It’s an unbelievable facility.”
