Coaching Management 15.10

Coaching Management VOL. XV NO. 10

FOOTBALL

POSTSEASON

DECISION DAY DEBATE Discussing an Early Signing Period ■

Becoming an Athletic Director

■

Extra Degree Leads to Title

EDITION

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$7.00

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Circle No. 100

Coaching Management Football Edition Postseason 2007

CONTENTS

Vol. XV, No. 10

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LOCKER ROOM

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37

COVER STORY

Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Battle over text messaging continues …

Study finds high school players suffer more serious injuries than college players… Getting athletes to go to class …

Coach returns to sidelines seven years after retiring … USC tries new approach with Web site … Midnight Madness for Kentucky high school team.

Decision Day Debate

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YOUR CAREER

Tossing the Whistle

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

Dante Jones, of Edmondson-Westside High School in Baltimore, is more concerned about the way his players perform away from the field than on it.

Getting players to work past their natural tendency to favor their left or right side can help them develop into more complete athletes.

CHAMPIONSHIP SOLUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 TEAM EQUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 FOOTBALL FACILITIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 POWER RACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 STRENGTH TRAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 NEW TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 MORE PRODUCTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 WEB NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Publisher Mark Goldberg Editor-in-Chief Eleanor Frankel Associate Editor Dennis Read Assistant Editors R.J. Anderson, Kenny Berkowitz, Nate Dougherty, Abigail Funk, Greg Scholand, Laura Ulrich Art Director Pamela Crawford Photo Researcher Susan Morrello Business Manager Pennie Small Special Projects Dave Wohlhueter

Balance of Power

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37

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS

Boiling Point

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42

Head Coach Andy Lowry helped Columbine High School produce the final degree of heat it needed to win an unlikely state title.

On the cover: Like many high school players, Will Hill of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J., announced his college choice, the University of Florida, well before February’s signing date.

A look at the debate over establishing an early signing date for football begins on page 18.

Marketing Director Sheryl Shaffer Marketing/Sales Assistant Danielle Catalano Circulation Director Dave Dubin Circulation Manager John Callaghan Production Director Don Andersen Assistant Production Director Jim Harper Production Assistant Jonni Campbell Prepress Manager Miles Worthington IT Manager Julian Cook IT Assistant Jayme Peck

COVER PHOTO: EUGENE PARCIASEPE JR./SHALE RIDGE LLC

27

Ever think about making the jump from coaching to athletic administration?

Here’s a look at the challenges you’ll face, and how to stick the landing.

Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

18

Coaches and others discuss the pros and cons of establishing an early signing period and offer tips for helping players during the recruiting process.

Advertising Sales Associates (607) 257-6970 Diedra Harkenrider, ext. 24 Pat Wertman, ext. 21 Ad Materials Coordinator Mike Townsend Administrative Assistant Sharon Barbell Business and Editorial Offices 31 Dutch Mill Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 257-6970, Fax (607) 257-7328 info@MomentumMedia.com

The Coaching Management Football edition is published in November and April by MAG, Inc. and is distributed free to college and high school coaches in the United States and Canada. Copyright © 2007

by MAG, Inc. All rights reserved. Text may not be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publisher. Unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Coaching Management, P.O. Box 4806, Ithaca, N.Y. 14852 Printed in the U.S.A.

Mailing lists for Coaching Management Football are provided by the Clell Wade Coaches Directory.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD NCAA Bans Texting, For Now Text messaging was designed as a way to exchange short messages quickly using cell phones. But the debate over its role in college athletic recruiting has turned out to be anything but short. And it shows little sign of ending soon.

After almost two years of discussion about the hardships some high school athletes faced as the result of barrages of text messages from college coaches, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors passed a rule

in April that banned coaches from texting recruits. The new rule quickly struck a nerve, and 34 schools filed override requests, which forced the board to reconsider its decision.

Although the prohibition was reaffirmed by the board in August, the rule will face a vote by the Division I membership at the annual NCAA Convention in January 2008.

If five-eighths of the membership agrees to override the Board of Directors, the ban, which has been in place since Aug. 1, will be lifted. Other-

wise it will remain in force, at least until superseded by further legislation.

Any new override vote, however, will have to come without the support of football coaches. Although they have been among the most vocal opponents of the ban, Grant Teaff, President of the American Football Coaches Association, says the group does not support repealing it completely.

“If there is an override of the decision, we go back to unabated text messaging, and that’s not what we want,” Teaff says. “We want it to be abated. We’ve been working with the NCAA to put limitations on text messaging while still allowing its use, but we’ve been unsuccessful in doing that. So we are working on a new proposal.”

Teaff has reason to think these efforts will eventually bear fruit. The NCAA Board of Directors was less than enthusiastic about the ban passed in April. NCAA Vice-President Jim Berst told the Associated Press that support for the ban from student-athletes played a large role in the decision to prohibit text messaging. But he also indicated that despite approving the ban, the board remained open to other ways of dealing with the issue.

The board “recognized we had a dilemma where studentathletes suggested there were some problems with text messages whereas coaches and assistant coaches wanted it to continue,” Berst said. “I think it recognized there may be other ways of monitoring communications in the future, so it’s open to proposals.”

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

Teaff says his group may have a solution. “Our assistant coaches have worked on this issue for six months and their idea, which I support, is to control text messaging by limiting it to certain days or months rather than by time of day,” he says. “Those are the restrictions we have now on telephone calls.”

Although the ban has been in effect since Aug. 1, Teaff is optimistic that coaches will eventually be able to text message recruits again. “I think the Management Council is quite open to something different and it’ll probably happen,” he says. “Hopefully, we’ll get the NCAA to create a task force that would look at every aspect of text messaging and then come up with a solid plan that would be a winwin for everybody involved.

That’s been done on other occasions, and I’m confident it will happen on this one.”

Even with the Division I ban, text messaging will still be part of the recruiting picture for many high school athletes.

There continues to be no limits on its use in Division II and Division III, although both will consider new regulations, including a possible ban, in the coming year.

While most of the attention on the Division I ban has been focused on text messaging, the new rules go beyond it by limiting allowable electronic correspondence—which are not regulated in time or number—to e-mails and faxes. This means use of any other forms of electronic communication, such as instant messaging, message boards, and social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook, is also prohibited. Future technologies that have not yet been developed are also banned until they receive specific approval from the NCAA.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

University of Illinois freshman Arrelious Benn and his colleagues in the recruiting class of 2007 will be the last to receive text messages from coaches, at least for a while. Over the summer, the NCAA banned Division I coaches from texting recruits, but efforts to bring it back with certain restrictions are continuing.

The challenge has been finding regulations that everyone can live with. A proposal that would have limited text messaging to 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the week and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends, which was opposed by the Football Issues

Committee, never made it past the Management Council.

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD H.S. Injuries Differ From College At any level, injuries are a part of football. However, a recent study has found significant differences between the injuries suffered by high school and college players.

The research, which appeared in the August issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, found that collegiate players are twice as likely as high school players to sustain an injury on the playing field. However, in somewhat of a surprise, the research also revealed that high school players are more likely to suffer serious or season-ending injuries, including fractures and concussions, than their collegiate counterparts.

Comstock says many of the study’s findings were predict-

about how frequently equipment has to be tested and reconditioned,” says Comstock. “But those guidelines may not be followed as closely at the high school level.

“Or, it may be something as simple as fitting the helmets,” she adds. “Fitting a helmet correctly is a pretty complex, multi-step process and there’s a possibility that not every coach and athletic trainer at

ing are introduced gradually to new players through well supervised drills,” she says.

“Coaches should also make sure younger players have the physical capabilities and the technical skills necessary to execute blocking and tackling correctly before they’re allowed to play in a game.”

The study collected data for nine sports using an internet-based reporting system

Although college football players are more likely to get hurt than high school players, the younger ones are more likely to suffer serious injuries. That’s one finding from a study that compared high school and college injury data. Researchers say high school players tend to suffer more fractures because their growth plates have not yet fully matured while equipment issues may lead to a greater risk for concussions.

Comstock says the higher rate of concussions among high school players is an even more intriguing discovery. One reason for the discrepancy is that protective equipment used at the high school level may not be up to par with that used at the collegiate level.

“The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) has some great guidelines

the high school level is following those guidelines as closely as coaches and athletic trainers at the collegiate level.”

One reason for the higher rate of serious injuries at the high school level, says Comstock, is the extreme range of size and skill levels among participants.

“One thing coaches can do to help lower the risk of serious injury is to make sure high-risk skills like tackling and block-

that athletic trainers logged onto once a week during the school year. Athletic trainers reported how many student-athletes practiced and played in competitions, and how many sustained injuries each week. Then for each injury, the athletic trainer filled out a detailed report that included the athlete’s age, size, and specific injury—what body part, how severe it was, whether it required surgery,

To read an abstract of “Epidemiology of High School and Collegiate Football Injuries in the United States, 2005-2006,” which appeared in the August issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, go to: http://ajs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/ abstract/35/8/1295.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

RICHARD ORR SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Using data from the 2005 season reported by athletic trainers at 100 high schools of varying sizes across the country, the study’s authors compared their numbers to college data gleaned by the NCAA and National Athletic Trainers’ Association. “The NCAA has been incredibly successful in using data from its Injury Surveillance System to help drive discussion by its rules and medical advisory committees, which have brought about changes that have improved the lives of collegiate athletes,” says Dawn Comstock, faculty member at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and principal investigator and co-author of the study. “Their injury rates have lowered significantly over the last two decades as a result of the surveillance study. We feel it’s time for high school athletes to benefit from a similar system.”

able, such as the higher percentage of fractures among high school players than college athletes. “High school athletes are not simply mini versions of their collegiate counterparts,” she says. “They have less muscle mass and their growth plates are not completely matured. There’s pretty good research out there indicating that immature growth plates may be a risk factor for fractures.”

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD how much playing and practice time was missed, and possible risk factors.

will graduate,” says Ted White, Georgia’s Director of Academic Services. “It’s that simple.”

“For example, in football we measured if it was a running play or a pass play. Were they tackling or being tackled?

Were they blocking or being blocked? Was the field wet?

Did the injury result from an activity that was penalized by an official?” says Comstock.

Under Georgia’s system, players who miss three classes in a semester are automatically suspended for 10 percent of their team’s games, and each additional absence costs them another 10 percent. Bulldog athletes also pay a price for missing tutoring sessions— after one “freebie,” each noshow costs them $10, payable in cash or deducted from a future scholarship payment.

So far, the study has provided Comstock and fellow researchers with an expansive database. And they’re more than happy to share the information with others. The NFHS is one such group utilizing the data. “They’ll call us up and say, ‘Our football rules committee is meeting next weekend, and this is on the agenda. Can you give us any data?’” says Comstock. “We want to make sure the people who make the decisions regarding keeping high school athletes safe are using data rather than emotion to drive those discussions.”

No Classes, No Passes

STEVE CONNER PHOTOGRAPHY

At Boise State University, Head Coach Chris Petersen has found an effective way to keep his players on the ball academically: If they skip class, their friends and family pay the price. Petersen takes away the complimentary game admissions of any player who misses three classes in a semester.

“We talk all the time about the importance of going to class, and this has added a pretty powerful incentive backing up the talk,” says Petersen, who first implemented the rule last season. “Probably the most important thing it does is bring parents into the equation, because they’re usually the ones who use the tickets. No player wants to explain to his parents why they suddenly can’t come to his games anymore.”

Boise State University players risk losing their complimentary game admissions if they miss more than two classes in a semester. “No player wants to explain to his parents why they suddenly can’t come to his games anymore,” says Head Coach Chris Petersen.

Players ordinarily receive four complimentary admissions to each home game and two for each away game. Once lost under the three-strikes rule, they’re gone for the rest of the season. Petersen had to invoke the rule twice last year, and he says the two players were predictably upset.

“It’s not easy to tell a kid, ‘That’s it, you’re done with your tickets,’” he says, “But everybody knew the rules, and we made it clear from the beginning of the season that we were serious, so they realized they had nobody to blame but themselves.”

The policy has created some extra legwork for athletic department employees, as academic tutors and administrative personnel have to visit classrooms all over campus

to check on athletes’ attendance. But Petersen believes it’s worth the effort if it makes the difference between a tired athlete getting himself to an early class or taking the morning off. “If it were up to me, we’d never have to take anyone’s tickets away,” he says.

“Hopefully, every player realizes what his responsibilities are, so we won’t have to.”

Boise State isn’t the only school where athletes face sanctions for ignoring their academics. This January, University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans instituted a department-wide policy that benches players who miss too many classes.

“We believe that if athletes are going to class and study hall more often, they’ll earn passing grades and more of them

The Georgia policy has been a great success. The number of missed tutoring sessions dropped from 421 during the first three weeks of the fall 2006 semester to just 46 during the same period this past spring, and missed classes fell by about 80 percent. “The results are even better than we anticipated,” White says.

“Athletes are taking their studies more seriously, and that’s good for everyone.”

A Coaching Comeback Following his retirement in 1999 after coaching high school football for 29 years, Bob Desaulniers just couldn’t get away from the game he loves. When he took the job as principal at Lexington (Mass.) High School, the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame member found himself pitching in on game days by spotting for the offense and defense from the coaching booth. When he moved to a position as interim principal at Weston (Mass.) High School, he took another adjunct position with the coaching staff.

When a permanent principal was found at Weston last year, Desaulniers still wasn’t ready for full retirement. At the same time, the school had an opening for a head coach.

The timing was perfect for

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD Athletic Director Pete Foley.

“Pete asked if I could give the school a couple of years to bring the program back, so I agreed,” Desaulniers says.

The team found some success, winning five games and scoring 30 points or more in nearly half of its games. Though Desaulniers says his philosophy hasn’t changed since he began coaching in 1970, the strategies he’s employed have evolved a great deal.

“When I started coaching, I came from the Vince Lombardi school of doing three or four simple things repeatedly and doing them well,” Desaulniers says. “In the six years I was away, the game has changed and now it seems everyone spreads things out a great deal.

“Before I returned to coaching, my staff and I visited colleges to study spread offenses,” he continues. “We use a one-back set and a no-huddle

where the quarterback makes a lot of changes on the fly.”

According to Desaulniers, the pressures and expectations on student-athletes have also grown since he began coaching, but their motivations have stayed the same. “Kids still show up for a variety of reasons—they love to be part of a group, to be challenged, or because they like the physical or mental aspects of the game,” Desaulniers says.

“But nowadays, they do a lot more in off-season programs and have to learn a lot more crazy offensive and defensive schemes, so they have to study the playbook more rather than just going out to knock people over.

“I think more is demanded of athletes right now,” he continues. “I’ve heard some people say kids nowadays aren’t as tough, but I see them always giving their best, and I think they’re the same as when I started.”

As if his coaching duties weren’t enough, when Foley retired as Athletic Director before this school year, Desaulniers was asked to fill in for a year until a full-time replacement could be found. Though he was no stranger to working in administration, he admits juggling coaching and athletic director duties is a difficult task.

“When I was a principal, I had a host of people to support me, but as athletic director you’re usually all alone,” he says. “You have to know the operation from soup to nuts.

I’ve gained a new perspective and regard for the work athletic directors do.”

Desaulniers says the lessons he’s learned in administration and teaching have helped shape his coaching style.

“Everything I’ve done—being a parent, coach, principal, and teacher—has been helpful for my coaching,” he says. “From my administrative experience, I learned to delegate and be more organized. Through teaching and as an administrator who supervised teachers, I learned what it takes to be a great teacher.

“I’ve also learned how to give better feedback,” he continues. “I think I’m pretty good at giving honest feedback and not just yelling. It’s important to have people hear what you’re trying to say rather than how you say it.”

Bob Desaulniers is enjoying his second chance to be a high school coach. He coached for 29 years before stepping down when he became a principal in 1999. Now he’s back on the sidelines at Weston (Mass.) High School, where he is also the athletic director.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

He is also thankful for the roles he’s been able to play in the lives of students and athletes alike. “At this stage in my life, being a coach and athletic director gives me a sense of purpose and connects me with the community of students, teachers, and parents,” Desaulniers says.

“It’s so rewarding and satisfying that it’s hard to walk away from. I just hope I can have a successful year and pay people back for all I’ve gotten from being here.”

USC Is Ripping It on the Web This summer, the University of Southern California football team introduced a Web site that takes a unique approach to connect with fans. The site, USCRipsIt.com, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Trojans’ program and is managed by a former team member.

Instead of the typical Web fare of rosters, stats, game notes, and player profiles, USC Rips It offers a wide variety of offbeat video features, such as one that follows the squad on an outing to the beach and another that takes a look at the annual offensive vs. defensive coaches basketball game.

There are also articles providing the latest news within the program and a blog that is updated several times a day with short items of interest to Trojans fans and links to stories about the team from other media outlets. “[USC Head Coach] Pete Carroll really wanted to provide fans with an inside look at the program,” says Jose Eskenazi, Associate Athletic Director at USC. “Our main athletics site is certainly football intensive, but this new site gives a more in-depth look at the team.”

It helps that the site is managed by Ben Malcolmson, a 2007 USC graduate who was a walk-on player on the squad last season. “There’s no way I could have come in here and done this without being a member of the team and knowing everyone so well,” says Malcolmson, who earned a spot on the 2006 team after trying out as an assignment for the school paper. “There’s a trust level there you can’t get any other way.”

Although the goal of the site is to provide an inside look at the team, that doesn’t mean anything goes. “There are definitely some limitations,” says Mal-

colmson, who as Director of Online Media creates almost all the content for the site. “We can’t live completely in a fishbowl and rule number one is that we have to protect the team. For example, when a player transferred, I knew about it well before it was announced, but didn’t put the news on the site because it’s not in the team’s best interest.”

After the transfer was announced, however, the site did have a short Q&A with Carroll about why players sometimes decide to leave the program. Carroll is an integral part of USC Rips It, participating in many of the features and at one point, thanking fans for coming to the site and asking for their ideas on future features.

“It seems like 20 times a day Coach Carroll is throwing

ideas my way and saying, ‘What about this?’ or ‘How about that?’” Malcolmson says. “Everyone around the

football office has taken ownership of the site and contributes a lot of story ideas.”

Quarterbacks Graduate Assistant Coach Yogi Roth is the most involved. After four years as a receiver at the University of Pittsburgh, Roth spent a year as a sportscaster before joining the Trojans staff as a video assistant in 2005. In addition to editing Malcolmson’s written pieces, Roth has hosted some of the video features.

“There are a lot of things football coaches and players hold close to the chest in a typical program that really don’t need to be, and this site is proving that,” Malcolmson says. “I think the coaches love it because it allows them to get out there and relax and be themselves.”

The University of Southern California has taken a different approach to the Web, creating a new football site, USCRipsIt.com, that provides fans with a largely light and informal look into parts of the program that have typically been kept hidden.

The site is free of advertising and funded through the football team’s budget. Malcolmson works out of the football office and sits in on most team

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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD meetings, while also working closely with the staff from the school’s recently redesigned athletics site, usctrojans.com, which is operated by CSTV. The main athletic department Web site still contains a wide range of football content, including exclusive features such as game highlights and press conferences, and links to USC Rips It and Malcolmson’s blog.

Late-Night Lights Open Practice

Eskenazi says there has been little concern about competition between the two sites because many fans will go to both sites and they’re not competing for advertising dollars. In his mind, there’s plenty of room, and reason, for both.

The squad at North Bullitt High School in Shepherdsville, Ky., says, “Yes, it can.” The Eagles took a cue from basketball and have been holding their own midnight practices for more than 10 years. By Kentucky High School Athletic Association rules, football teams can begin full contact practice on Aug. 1, so the team invites the community to watch its first practice, a scrimmage beginning at 12:01 a.m. on that date.

“I think it’s extremely important to have different ways to reach your audience, because in collegiate athletics you have so many distinct constituencies,” Eskenazi says. “You have your student groups, your donors, your general season ticket holders, and in-market and out-of-market alumni. It’s vital to have different touchpoints that play to different demographics and focus on what they’re interested in.”

Imagine drawing hundreds of people to your first practice of the year. Thanks to Midnight Madness, NCAA Division I basketball teams have grown used to launching the season in front of a crowd of fans. But can it work for a high school football team?

“The team just loves it,” says Head Coach Brett Newton.

“The kids have been working together in conditioning sessions and practices without pads for two and a half weeks before Aug. 1, so they’re itch-

ing to get into their pads and start hitting. The midnight madness scrimmage is a fun break between the conditioning sessions and our regular practice schedule.”

Newton, the 2006 District Coach of the Year, has been Head Coach at North Bullitt for 10 years and was an assistant at the school before being promoted. The previous head coach started late night practice in Newton’s last year as an assistant, and the players made it very clear they wanted the tradition to continue.

“The amazing thing is that we have drawn so many people through word-of-mouth,” he says. “This is the first year anything about it ran in the local paper beforehand, and we had our best turnout yet.”

There have been a few offyears when the team wasn’t able to hold a public scrimmage because Aug. 1 fell on a Sunday night or the field wasn’t ready for use. Newton says the team was disappointed in those years and those preseasons didn’t have quite the same feel as the others.

The only downside to the midnight practice is that a few hundred people milling about the field can get fairly noisy, and some people living behind the stadium have been jolted awake by whistles and cheers. “It wasn’t too big of a deal though,” Newton says.

“In past years, they just didn’t know what was going on.”

Newton says situations like those are part of the reason to make sure the athletic department is on board. “If you’re thinking about doing an event like this, I would suggest talking to your athletic director first,” he says. “Chances are if they think it’s a good idea, you’re in the clear.”

Midnight is a late time to scrimmage, but Newton says the squad is too excited to be tired. And the excitement generated by the crowd is great preparation for the season opener.

“It works out some of the jitters,” Newton says. “Getting in their pads for the first time feels good for the kids, and not only are they excited and ready to go, but so are our fans.”

Eskenazi says there is some thought being given to developing a similar site for the men’s basketball team, but no firm plans at this time. Malcolmson, meanwhile, expects to see other schools follow USC’s lead in the near future.

“I would recommend it wholeheartedly,” he says. “The response and the feedback we’ve been getting has been phenomenal. It really creates a following you just can’t get through the normal athletics Web page.”

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When it comes time to start full contact practices, North Bullitt High School in Shepherdsville, Ky., doesn’t even wait for the sun to rise. The Eagles, in green, like to open their preseason camp with a midnight practice on the first day allowed under state association rules.

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Q&A

Dante Jones Edmondson-Westside High School

For many coaches, winning a state championship is the fulfillment of a career-long dream. For Dante Jones, it’s just the beginning.

At age 29, in only his second season as head coach, Jones led Edmondson-Westside High School in Baltimore to the 2006 Maryland Class 2A title. He’s proud of what his team accomplished that season, but for such a successful coach, winning is surprisingly low on his list of goals: “We’re using football to help get kids out of the city and into college—that’s why we’re here,” he says.

Following an outstanding football career at Baltimore’s Dunbar High School that included a state title in 1994, Jones went on to play linebacker at Delaware State University. After graduation, he returned to his hometown to become a physical education teacher at Edmondson-

CM: After winning Edmondson-Westside’s first state title, did your team have a target on its back?

Jones: I tell our kids, it’s easy to get to the top, but it’s hard to stay there. Of course, getting there wasn’t actually “easy,” but we knew we’d have to play even better once everyone was trying to knock us down. Our approach has stayed the same though—we didn’t change our practices, game strategy, philosophy, or goals. We have a system we all believe in, and the players and coaches are used to it.

Westside and quickly realized two things: First, helping young people improve their lives through athletics was his life’s mission. And second, he loved coaching football.

After six years as an assistant, Jones was tapped to replace Edmondson’s retiring head coach following the 2004 season. Two years later the team won its first state championship, defeating Jones’s alma mater, Dunbar, 37-9.

In this interview, Jones talks about how he forges athletes into school role models, why he puts education first, and his priorities as a coach.

Where did that system come from?

I took over this football program from a great coach and mentor, Pete Pompey.

He had the framework in place, and he groomed me while I was his assistant so I could step in without the program missing a beat. Coming out of college, I probably had the football knowledge to become a head coach, but I wasn’t ready for all the other parts of the job. Each year he let me take over a little more responsibility, so by the time I got this job, I was prepared to handle it all.

What are some of those “other things?”

He taught me a lot about how to interact with parents and work with the administration to meet the program’s needs. But maybe the biggest thing he taught me is about dealing with today’s youth: How to motivate them, how to keep them on track, and how to help them understand the importance of setting the right priorities.

How do you make sure academics are your players’ top priority?

Probably the most important thing we do is have mandatory study hall before practice. We bring in an academic coach through the NFL’s Play It Smart program, and she helps our players with their homework. She also prepares grade reports so we can keep track of how they’re doing.

Our philosophy is that if the players get their homework out of the way right after school, we can work them as hard as we want to in practice, because when they get home all they have to do is take a shower, eat, and go to sleep. Today’s youth have so many things going on, and sometimes, they’re getting into trouble.

When they spend all their time and energy with us, they don’t have enough left to do something negative.

Edmondson-Westside High School in Baltimore (on defense above) won the 2006 Maryland Class 2A championship, but Head Coach Dante Jones says getting his players to go to college is far more important than winning games.

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Does that approach extend beyond academics?

It does. Once an athlete comes into our program, they live by our rules because we don’t want them getting into trouble that can damage their lives. For instance, our players don’t go out to the high school

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club scene or anything like that. But in return we also give them so much. We go to church together, bowling, skating, out to eat, and to football games. It’s important for players to feel like they belong to a family and to know that we care about them first as people, not football players.

I can. I also know that what I do and the way I carry myself has a direct impact on them—one of our most important jobs as coaches is being good role models.

When kids understand that you genuinely care about them and that you’re going to look out for them as much as possible, it makes them work harder for you. But it makes them work harder for themselves, too, because they understand everything isn’t about winning—it’s about trying to live a better life.

Do your age and background make it easier for you to relate to your players on a personal level?

I came from the same neighborhoods they do, and not too much time has passed since I grew up there. I understand the struggles and pressures they face outside of school, so they feel comfortable talking to me about most anything, and that’s very important to me.

I’ve benefited so much from older people serving as my mentors, and I want to do the same thing for my players whenever

Do you in turn talk to your athletes about serving as role models for the rest of the school?

Definitely. At a school like ours, the football players are some of the most visible people in the building. If they’re setting the right example, it sets a tone in the hallways and the classrooms that a lot of people will follow and it helps the entire school run more smoothly.

For example, we demand that our players sit up front in class, and it’s not just for their benefit. When they take a seat at the front of the room, it sends a message that they take the class seriously and they’ve come to learn. It’s all about creating the right image and being respectful, and good habits and behaviors will naturally follow from that.

What is the top goal for your program?

Getting our kids to go to college. It might sound strange, but winning football games is the bottom for us in terms of priorities.

Almost all 20 seniors who graduated last year went on to college, and that’s what we’re here for.

Most of our players only know the city, so I tell them that college is a great opportunity to get out of Baltimore and broaden their horizons. Even if they choose to stay nearby and go to Towson or Morgan State, the campus environment is completely different from the city environment, and they’ll benefit a lot from seeing a new world and meeting people from different backgrounds. It will help them no matter what they go on to do afterward.

For some of my players, football is a major factor determining whether college is within their reach—that’s part of the reason they and their parents take it so seriously. So when I talk to them about focusing not only on the game, but also on the academic side and making smart decisions off the field, they listen.

Two years ago, gun violence took the life of one of your former players, Darryl Smith, a couple of years after he graduated. How has that experience affected the team, and you as a coach?

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10/3/07 5:06:18 PM

Q&A His jersey still hangs in my office. The players and I see it daily, and it serves as a reminder of the importance of making the right choices in life. I want them to understand that if they make the wrong choices, consequences will follow. Choices and the company you keep are very important to your success in life.

In Darryl’s situation, if he had been prepared to go on to college after he finished at Edmondson, this never would have happened. As coaches, this makes us work that much harder to find all the different avenues for our players to get to the next level of education, whether football takes them there or not.

If you were approached about a similar project again, would you handle it differently?

I definitely would. I don’t think high school athletes have the maturity to handle so much attention all at once. Having a reporter come in and observe a couple of practices and do a couple of interviews is one thing, but all day for a whole week was a bit much for our kids.

That said, I loved the end product, and I think the articles gave people in the city a whole different look at our team and our

school. A lot of people told me it opened their eyes to what our football program is really about, and hearing that meant a lot.

To read the series of Baltimore Sun articles mentioned above, which followed Jones’s team in the week leading up to a big rivalry game, go to: www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ highschool/bal-edmondson-g3,0, 5029324.storygallery.

What are the greatest strengths of your coaching staff?

We each have a different coaching style.

Some of our coaches are the in-your-face type, and others, like myself, get our points across in a quieter way. That diversity is a major strength, because it means we can get through to more kids and give each player the type of attention he needs.

Another important thing is that our coaching staff is like a family. Most of us played high school or college football together, and we’ve known one another for so long that we have very thick skins around each other. Although we all share the same goals, we sometimes have very different ideas about how to achieve them, and we’re not shy about arguing at meetings. That’s a real asset, because it means we all scrutinize each other’s ideas until the best product emerges. Our offensive and defensive systems are both the products of many different people’s input. If everybody agreed with each other, I’m sure we’d miss out on a lot.

Your 2006 team was the subject of a series of in-depth articles in the Baltimore Sun chronicling the week leading up to a key regular season game. What was that experience like, and what did you learn from it?

One thing we learned is that our athletes weren’t ready to handle all the attention.

The reporters were with us for an entire week, and we didn’t have the focus we usually do. After so much build-up, we ended up losing the game and I think distraction was definitely a factor.

On the other hand, though, it might have been the best thing to happen at that point because the team learned the importance of staying focused, and how there’s a lot more to being ready than just believing you’re ready. After that loss, everyone was back to business. They were humble.

We really refocused ourselves, and we didn’t lose another game all season.

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COVER STORY

DECISION DAY DEBATE

Coaches and others discuss the pros and cons of establishing an early signing period and offer tips for helping players during the recruiting process.

W

HEN HE WAS A STANDOUT HIGH SCHOOL

BY NATE DOUGHERTY

quarterback in 1980, Todd Dodge didn’t face much of a recruiting crush. In fact, the busiest period was the last month before the February signing day, even though Dodge was one of the nation’s top prospects.

Now, a generation later, as Head Coach at the University of North Texas and father of a top high school quarterback, Dodge is witnessing an entirely different recruiting game. Like many highly sought after players, Riley Dodge made an early commitment shortly after his junior year at Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School. He later changed his mind and decided to follow his father to North Texas.

“A lot more players are committing at earlier ages, and players and parents are much more aware of the recruiting

process,” says Dodge, who was 98-11 as Head Coach at Southlake Carroll before taking the North Texas job in December 2006. “As long as Internet sites are putting out rankings for the projected class of 2010, you’ll have people talking about it and paying attention to those young players.”

A cottage industry has been built around college football recruiting.

Scores of Web sites track every change of thought in 16- and 17-year-olds’ minds.

Even mainstream media outlets have gotten into the act with many newspapers covering recruiting as if it were its own sport. With all this attention, athletes begin to think they’ll miss out if Nate Dougherty is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. He can be reached at: nd@MomentumMedia.com.

Will Hill of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J., verbally committed to the University of Florida in September, but his decision won’t be binding until a National Letter of Intent is signed in February. Photo by Eugene Parciasepe Jr.

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COVER STORY

they don’t commit early, and early commitments become as much about ego and prestige as actual future plans.

The underlying problem is that early commitments carry no real weight. Until a National Letter of Intent is signed, there is nothing binding a player to a school or vice-versa, other than the word of the athlete and coach. As such, it’s not uncommon for athletes to commit to several different schools, and sometimes (though less frequently) for coaches to pull back scholarship offers, leaving the athlete scrambling for a replacement.

To address this acceleration of the recruiting process and alleviate the pressures on both student-athletes and their future coaching staffs, many coaches and administrators believe football should institute an early signing day for National Letters of Intent. This would allow athletes to make a binding commitment before the current February

signing date and put the recruiting process behind them, possibly even before they begin their final season of high school football. But the idea is a contentious one, with strong beliefs held on both sides, and even supporters of an early signing period disagree on when one should be held.

“An early signing date is definitely a possibility, but even in our conference where most schools support it, we don’t have a consensus on when it should be,” Dodge says. “It seems pretty much split down the middle right now.”

An Early Solution The prospect of an early signing date has been floating around for more than two decades, but it appears to be gaining new traction as coaches and administrators search for ways to counter ever-escalating recruiting pressure. At their annual spring meeting, football coaches in the

Atlantic Coast Conference asked league leadership to develop a proposal for an early signing date, an idea that’s also supported by the Big 12 Conference. For a change to occur, it must be passed by the Collegiate Commissioners Association, the group which administers the National Letter of Intent. But the commissioners have shown no inclination to implement an early signing day on their own, leaving it to football coaches to push for one.

“Up until this point, the National Letter of Intent has not had to deal with the issue of an early signing date because it has not come before the steering committee,” says Mike Slive, Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and chair of the National Letter of Intent steering committee. “Coaches can make recommendations for date changes, as can others. This happens all the time and the NLI’s policies have evolved over the years because of those recommendations.”

PERCEPTION & REALITY

W

ith gigabytes of information about recruits available at the click of a mouse, some people

think this new hyper-awareness is fueling the trend toward players making commitments at a younger age. Others think the attention just creates the perception that early commitments are now much more common.

Mike Slive, Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and chair of the National Letter of Intent steering committee, says this level of recruiting attention has been the norm in some parts of the country for a while, but it’s now expanding into a nationwide trend. “There’s certainly more attention paid to recruiting through the various Internet sites devoted to following recruits and there are people who follow every report,” Slive says. “It has made the process much more visible in some parts of the country. In the southeast it’s nothing new, but other places are experiencing that intense focus for the first time.”

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Some who follow recruiting say the tendency toward younger players giving verbal commitments is merely an issue of awareness: Players aren’t being recruited or making commitments at a younger age, but there is a much bigger spotlight on those who are. “Players have been committing early for a long time, but now because of all the media coverage, we’re a lot more keyed into every move they make,” says Allen Wallace, National Recruiting Editor for Scout.com and founder of SuperPrep magazine. “I don’t necessarily think the changes are as drastic as others make them seem.”

But Grant Teaff, Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association, thinks the perception is the reality. “Both concepts come into play— more players are being recruited younger and there is more attention paid to it,” Teaff says. “There’s a trend toward that, and it becomes supply and demand. There has been a dramatic change over the last few years in that the major football programs are having 95 percent of their allotted scholarships for initial grants filled by Jan. 1.”

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COVER STORY

Jack Cosgrove, Head Coach at the University of Maine, says letting student-athletes sign with schools earlier than February of their senior year would help alleviate pressure they face from recruiters and allow them to focus on their high school studies and teams.

And with so many players making early verbal commitments anyway, he says giving these commitments official standing wouldn’t change much of anything.

“What we have now is essentially an early signing period, just not a binding one,” Cosgrove says. “But having an official early signing day would at least reduce the number of commitments that aren’t honored by one side or the other.

“They’re the ones who need someone to look out for them. That’s why an early signing period would be a great help, especially to the borderline kids who are unsure about whether they’ll get a lot more offers. It’s sad when they could’ve signed in the summer and been guaranteed a spot somewhere, but instead got some bad advice and waited for offers that didn’t come.”

Dodge says an initial signing date in late summer would be ideal. “The recruiting process seems like a lot of glitz and glamour, but some players—like my son—just want to get it done with,” he says. “And at mid-major schools where we might put a lot of time and effort into

“We have to focus on what’s best for the student-athletes, because that’s what it should all be about. They’re the ones who need someone to look out for them. That’s why an early signing period would be a great help, especially to the borderline kids who are unsure about whether they’ll get a lot more offers.”

“Now, if you’re a 16-year-old kid and a coach keeps calling and contacting you even though you’ve made a commitment, how do you say no?” Cosgrove continues. “An early signing period would allow an athlete to make a formal commitment and avoid the coaches who continue to pursue someone who’s made a verbal commitment somewhere, but hasn’t signed.”

As the National Recruiting Editor for Scout.com and founder of SuperPrep magazine, Allen Wallace follows the decisions made by countless recruits each season, and he’s seen the same situation play out each year. A good-butnot-great student-athlete generates buzz from mid-major programs early in the process, but decides to test the waters, hoping for offers from larger schools.

When they don’t come, his position with the mid-majors may be gone, leaving him empty-handed. Wallace believes an early signing date would allow these athletes to avoid the guessing game.

“We have to focus on what’s best for the student-athletes, because that’s what it should all be about,” Wallace says.

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recruiting a player, early signings would give us the last three or four months of the process to spend our time and money more wisely rather than trying to keep on a kid who may leave for a bigger school anyway.”

Wallace agrees that perhaps the biggest beneficiary would be smaller schools in danger of losing recruits to biggername schools late in the process. “Some schools, especially those with a reputation for being top-tier programs, want to be able to swoop in when they need a prospect and maybe turn a kid’s head,” Wallace says. “If an athlete is swept off his feet during an early signing period and signs with a good mid-major program, those big-name schools can no longer go in and change the player’s mind.”

Against Opposition If an early signing date were instituted, it would first have to overcome strong opposition from coaches who believe it would create more work for them while affording less time to evaluate potential recruits. This May, coaches in the SEC voted 9-3 against recommend-

ing an early signing day, and Pac-10 Conference coaches turned down the idea by a 9-1 vote.

Slive says there is concern that with less time to judge a student-athlete’s character and commitment in the classroom, an early signing day could lock in players who are not a good fit for their new school. “Our coaches in the SEC are not in favor of an early signing date because the majority feel they need that extra time,” Slive says. “The more an institution knows about a young man’s academic record and his character, the better a decision can be made by the coach, the institution, and the prospect. One thing delaying the decision process does is provide more academic records for the coach, as well as more time to evaluate whether he’ll fit in well at the institution.”

Ed Orgeron, Head Coach at the University of Mississippi, says he loves the recruiting process and wants the chance to spend as much time as possible evaluating a recruit’s academic record and character. He worries that moving the signing date up from February would force coaches to take focus away from their own teams to make sure they sign players early.

“An early signing date would require a tremendous amount of manpower,” Orgeron says. “In-season official visits are limited and you’d have to get a lot of them done during the season, which would take away from game prep time.

If the date is in December, everyone will have to go all out to keep recruits while also possibly getting ready for a bowl game, and coaching staffs just don’t have the resources to do all that.”

There’s also debate about whether an early signing date would really change the recruiting process. “There’s concern that it would simply push everything forward,” says Grant Teaff, Executive Director of the American Football Coaches Association. “Coaches who have put a lot of thought into it say if we have an early signing date, that just becomes the new signing date, and a lot of them are queasy about pushing that up.”

Backing Off With such a wide range of opinions about the need for or benefit of an early signing date, it’s unlikely that a consensus will emerge quickly. “In all the time we’ve been dealing with the concept

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Circle No. 111

COVER STORY

of an early signing period, we’ve never been able to get a majority of coaches behind it,” Teaff says. “Last year, when the NCAA studied this issue, they found that even those in favor of an early signing date couldn’t agree on when it should be. It seems to me that we’re not going to have a consensus anytime in the foreseeable future.”

many coaches feel something else needs to be done to stem the tide of pressure on today’s student-athletes. Cosgrove believes as younger and younger players feel pressured to choose a school, it will inevitably lead to more problems unless coaches agree to back off.

“Some programs are taking a much more aggressive approach at an earlier

“There’s concern that it would simply push everything forward. Coaches who have put a lot of thought into it say if we have an early signing date, that just becomes the new signing date, and a lot of them are queasy about pushing that up.”

While some coaches and conferences would prefer an early signing period in the winter—the ACC proposal called for a December date—others prefer summer, before football season begins. With that and other hurdles yet to be passed,

point in young men’s lives,” Cosgrove says. “It would benefit everyone if all that wasn’t happening. Certain schools have their entire class signed by the time the contact period starts and then they’re out recruiting juniors.

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“As coaches, if we don’t institute an early signing day, we at least need to back off in how early we approach these players,” he continues. “Many of them simply are not ready to make a decision of that magnitude.”

Though Dodge says only the nation’s top prospects receive such heavy attention from the time they’re underclassmen, more players are coming to believe that level of attention is the norm.

“There’s a lot of anxiety for players and their parents when they don’t have an offer before their senior year,” Dodge says. “I feel like we all need to explain to these athletes and their families that the majority of recruiting is done the old-fashioned way. We should encourage those kids to keep working hard and have a good senior year.

“Some of these players may be on a team where four or five guys go on to play in Division I, and three of them have multiple offers before their senior year,” he continues. “Other players start to think that’s just how the process works, and we need to explain that

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COVER STORY

probably 70 percent of people who end up signing don’t commit early or receive an offer from the school they eventually choose until after their senior year starts.”

benefits them and be in a town they enjoy,” Dodge says. “As soon as they came to a decision along with their parents, I encouraged them to commit.

It took a lot off their plate senior year

“I would tell them to visit the campus and list the pros and cons ... As soon as they came to a decision along with their parents, I encouraged them to commit. It took a lot off their plate senior year and helped guarantee them a college education.”

When he coached at Southlake Carroll, Dodge encouraged his players to take their time in the recruiting process and use their college visits, but to commit as soon as they were sure they had found the right school. “I would tell them to visit the campus and list the pros and cons so if they were to blow out their knee the first day of practice, they’d still end up with a degree that

and helped guarantee them a college education, because most schools will honor a commitment even if the player gets injured.”

To help his players handle the attention of the recruiting process, Mark Crabtree, Head Coach at Dublin (Ohio) Coffman High School, makes sure they have others around who will help them make wise decisions. And he tries to

Circle No. 114

keep them out of the process entirely while they’re still underclassmen.

“When I have a player being recruited, I take a proactive approach and try to get the family involved, because I know they’ll be able to do a better job for that athlete than I can,” he says. “But I don’t like to even get a player involved until he’s a junior. When he’s done with his junior season, I’ll have him make his highlight film and mail it out. Regardless of what people say, after junior year is not too late to get things started.”

For their part, Orgeron says college coaches should try to focus on the positive side of recruiting rather than viewing it simply as an arms race. “Recruiting is a great part of college football, and one of the parts I enjoy most,” he says. “It keeps us connected to high school students and gives student-athletes a chance to visit college campuses. Recruiting today is so much different than when I grew up, but nearly all of it is still positive. We need to remember that the point is to give high school athletes an opportunity to get a good education.” ■

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YOUR CAREER

TOSSING THE WHISTLE Ever think about making the jump from coaching to athletic administration?

Here’s a look at the challenges you’ll face, and how to stick the landing.

BY DR. DAVID HOCH

RECENTLY,

ONE OF MY COACHES ASKED ME

FOR ADVICE ON HOW TO BECOME AN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR. My first response was, “Are you crazy? Why would you want to leave the exhilaration of competition and the thrill of watching young people develop to become an administrator?”

“I thought you liked your job,” was his response. The fact is, I do like my job and I don’t regret my decision to leave coaching for administration 14 years ago. But I’m not sure I really knew at the time what I was getting into.

In this article, I hope to provide the straight scoop on making the jump from coach to athletic director. It can be a fantastic career move for some, but it’s not right for everybody. You have to be ready to give up coaching—and ready to tackle a whole new set of challenges.

INGO FAST

The Good, Bad, & Ugly Every profession has its ups and downs, and athletic administration is no exception. For me, the best part of the job is that I can have an impact on a greater number of kids.

David Hoch, EdD, is the Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Baltimore, Md., and a former head men’s basketball coach.

He is past President of the Maryland State Athletic Directors’ Association and can be reached at: dhoch@bcps.org.

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YOUR CAREER

You are not in charge of just one team, but the entire athletic program. By hiring coaches, guiding the program’s philosophy, forming sportsmanship programs, making policies, and so on, you influence a lot of student-athletes.

I also absolutely love mentoring young coaches. In some ways, it’s just like coaching, except my charges are a little older. And if I do a good job, I can influence these young coaches’ philoso-

phies and help them get started on the right track. I definitely feel that I’m having a great impact in this area, which is very fulfilling.

Other athletic directors enjoy the job because they like working with upperlevel administrators at the school and being involved in education policy. It’s a great way to take your leadership skills to a whole new level in a very dynamic field.

What many of my colleagues and I find

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

difficult about the job, however, is that its workload is relentless. Many athletic directors put in 12-hour days, and these can easily stretch to 14 or 15 hours when you host a contest. And, unlike in coaching, there is no off-season. Fatigue is an athletic director’s constant companion.

The “ugly” part of the job is that you sometimes have to deal with very difficult situations. The buck stops with you: You are the person who has to deal with those overbearing parents, that high-maintenance coach, and the student fans who got out of control at last Saturday’s game.

You will be named if there is a lawsuit.

And you will be blamed for many things that you have to graciously accept as your fault even though they may not be.

What is the job like on a daily basis?

You definitely have to like organization. There is a never-ending mound of paperwork and scheduling, so you must enjoy reviewing forms and putting pieces of a puzzle together. Communication is also key. Knowing how and when to communicate with coaches, athletes, parents, teachers, administrators, league officials, and the community is a big part of the day-to-day work.

Probably most important, you have to enjoy and be great at hiring, evaluating, and mentoring. You will be a coach of coaches, and how well your coaches do will determine your success. You have to be able to take your coaching skills and apply them to an adult audience.

If the “good” sounds good to you, you’re not scared off by the “bad” or the “ugly,” and the daily tasks sound appealing … read on.

Getting Ready Many of the duties mentioned above may not seem that far removed from coaching, and they’re not! Being a head coach definitely provides you with some skills that transfer to the athletic administrator’s office.

For example, you have learned effective organizational skills as a coach. You have to plan practices, prepare game plans, and maintain equipment and uniform inventories. Also, budgeting your time and delegating tasks have always been part of your position.

By working with student-athletes and assistant coaches, you have also been managing personnel. You have probably already developed a leadership style that

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YOUR CAREER

fits your personality and a philosophy for motivating and mentoring.

And surely you’ve tackled at least a few difficult situations as a coach.

Whether it’s handling parents, an athlete who breaks a code of conduct, or a disagreement among your players,

on your resume that shows you are working on administrative skills.

In terms of professional preparation, the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) created Leadership Training Courses (LTCs) almost 10 years ago. These four-hour

Try thinking like an administrator. Honestly analyze what the athletic directors you’ve worked for do best. Do they come up with creative solutions?

Do they interact and work well with the various constituencies of the athletic program? you’ve developed some skill in resolving conflict and communicating well with everyone involved.

The next step is to get more concrete experience in administration and to start learning the areas you don’t have experience in. There are two reasons for this— to help you decide whether you would really like the job, and to have something

courses are excellent professional development opportunities and cover a wide range of topics. I would suggest starting with the courses titled “Philosophies, Leadership, Organizations and Professional Programs” (LTC 501) and “Principles, Strategies and Methods” (LTC 502).

These courses are required for the first level of national certification, the Regis-

tered Athletic Administrator (RAA). You can also go on to earn Certified Athletic Administrator (CAA) or Certified Master Athletic Administrator (CMAA) credentials once you start working in the field.

More and more schools across the country are looking at national certification as a factor in their hiring.

You can also attend your state athletic directors association’s annual conference. These usually offer excellent workshop sessions dealing with current issues and how athletic directors handle them.

Going to these meetings also allows you to start networking with athletic administrators in your area.

In addition to courses and conferences, there are college degree programs in sports management. Is it necessary to earn one of these degrees to become a high school athletic director? No, not at all. But it would represent a seriousness and sense of direction, and you would also learn a great deal which could ultimately be used in your career.

In the meantime, whenever possible, accept ancillary leadership roles. For

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example, in Maryland, each sport has a Regional Sport Chairperson, who is usually a coach. These positions involve leadership and organizational responsibilities associated with the planning and coordination of each state tournament.

Similarly, if you have an opportunity to serve as an officer in your state coaches’ association, take it. Many of the duties will involve skills similar to those needed in athletic administration.

Another good option is to serve as an intern with the athletic director at your school or at a neighboring school. This is a great way to get into the trenches and learn by doing. If a formal internship is not possible, start a dialogue with your athletic director about why and how he or she is tackling a problem or ask about a system he or she has created.

Better yet, volunteer to help him or her with administrative tasks!

At the very least, try thinking like an administrator. Honestly analyze what the athletic directors you’ve worked for do best. Do they come up with creative solutions? Do they interact and work well with

the various constituencies of the athletic program? Thirty years later, I still think back to one of my first athletic directors and try to emulate his professionalism, enthusiasm, compassion, and motivational skills. Find some role models and take the best that they have to offer.

How To Apply In most areas of the country, the position of athletic director pays well and there are several applicants for every open job. How do you make your resume stand out, even if the other candidates have administrative experience?

First of all, try to find out who will make the hiring decision. It varies by district, but in most cases there is an interview committee, with a principal or superintendent making the final choice. Also try to learn more about the culture and philosophy of the school, as well as why the last athletic director left. Are there big problems at the school that are still unresolved? By knowing who is involved in the process and what they’re looking for, you can tailor your approach.

In your cover letter, go into detail about experiences that demonstrate your readiness to become an athletic director.

Highlight the ancillary leadership roles you’ve taken on and related skills you’ve developed. And do mention any little things you’ve done, such as taking LTC courses, attaining the RAA certification, or serving as an officer in a coaching association.

If you get an interview, be prepared for some specific and pointed questions.

With the pressure schools currently face from assessment tests, graduation requirements, SAT scores, No Child Left Behind, and all of the latest parental concerns, a principal wants an athletic director who can keep a lid on athletic problems. Because athletics is the most visible aspect of education (and everyone has an opinion on coaching tactics), upper-level administrators need a leader who can handle the heat.

Here are some typical questions you’ll be asked in an interview: ■ Why do you want to move into athletic administration? Your answer needs

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Every first-year athletic director encounters some unexpected challenges. Here are the three things I remember struggling with the most.

On my second day as a high school athletic director, I encountered my first high-maintenance coach. This coach approached me with a demand for new equipment—and I didn’t even know which key opened the storage room yet! He was also a yeller who was not teaching his athletes the right lessons. I quickly found out that every athletic department has entrenched coaches and (in most cases) you can’t simply fire them immediately.

I had to learn to work with this individual and continue to evaluate him over a three-year period before I could let him go. I had to attempt to give him positive feedback and very, very carefully document the problems he was creating. I had to try to get him to change, even though that was ultimately impossible.

Second, it took me a few years to really understand the difference between managerial responsibilities and leadership. Even if you can manage the paperwork and scheduling just fine, if you aren’t seen as a leader with great communication skills, you won’t be effective in making the big decisions.

Last, my journey included learning the importance of listening better. As a coach, I was used to making the decision as to who would start, who would play, and how we would conduct practice. However, as an athletic director, I had to learn to persuade others and build consensus. It can’t be “my way or the highway,” because this doesn’t work well with adults and professionals.

These were my hurdles, and I’m sure other new athletic directors have had different ones. I’m happy to report that all three were interesting challenges and solving them took my skills to a new level.

LEARNING CURVE

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to involve more than, “I’m ready for a new challenge.” You need to talk about how your ideas and strategies can improve an athletic department.

■ What will you bring to the position?

Here’s where you can expand upon your leadership skills and ancillary experiences. This is also where it pays to have done your homework so you can offer possible solutions to one or two of their concerns or problems.

■ What is your managerial style? The committee is looking to see if you are a control freak (dictatorial), inclusive (democratic), and so on. This could be important if the school’s coaching staff is experienced and the new athletic director is coming in from the outside. The committee basically wants to figure out if it will all work.

By the time you begin interviewing for an athletic director position, you will also need to have changed your perspective. As a coach, it’s natural to have a very narrow view, because you are focused totally on your team or sport. As an athletic director, you will need to see the big picture. This means understanding and seeing that all sports are treated fairly with respect to facilities, financing, equipment, and public support.

All sports are vital and integral to an athletic program and school, and none should be considered more important than any other. It’s critical that you communicate to the interview committee that you understand this perspective.

One more thing to keep in mind: If the competition for athletic director jobs in your area is tough, your first position may have to be with a downtrodden program. But this can sometimes be a great place to start. The expectations are often lower and there are a lot of opportunities to demonstrate your leadership. Like in coaching, if you take a downtrodden program and make some improvements, they become your accomplishments.

These efforts will help put you in a better position to secure your next administrative opportunity.

They Won’t Call You “Coach” Today, many schools do not allow their athletic administrators to coach.

The position, responsibilities, and expectations have grown so large that it would not be possible to do both effectively. So before you accept any position, do take time to answer the big question: Are you

ready to hang up your whistle and make a commitment to athletic management?

Try this analogy: Imagine the prospect of stepping into an athletic administrative position as a blank canvas. The more details and images you can put on this surface, the better the picture will look in the end. Can you paint this picture?

Do you have ideas on how to work with coaches, communicate with parents, deal with budget cuts, lead a meeting, create an innovative sportsmanship program?

You will no longer hoist a trophy, give a pregame talk, or teach athletic skills.

And the kids won’t call you Coach. But you will have an opportunity to affect more student-athletes, mentor new coaches, and take your leadership skills to another level. ■ This article has appeared in previous editions of Coaching Management. For more insight into issues faced by athletic directors, go to: www.AthleticManagement.com.

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BALANCE OF POWER Getting players to work past their natural tendency to favor their left or right side can improve their ability to move in any direction and develop them into more complete athletes.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

D

BY VERN GAMBETTA O YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST

time you tried to do something athletic with your nondominant hand? For me, it was shooting a layup left-handed as a kid. It was a disaster.

That was my introduction to lateral dominance, and I’m still intrigued by the concept today. Technically, lateral dominance is the preference for one extremity or a half of the body over the other.

It is a fancy term for saying someone is right- or left-handed—but it means a lot more than simply identifying which hand a person writes or throws with.

Unless they are ambidextrous, every athlete is more proficient with one side

of their body than the other. But overcoming the preference to favor one side can lead to performance enhancement for most any player.

Why Is It Important?

There are several reasons why lateral dominance is important in training your athletes. The most obvious is that an underdeveloped limb or side of the body can limit performance. No matter which arm your quarterback throws with, if he can move both arms and both legs with equal proficiency, he gains an advantage over the athlete who cannot.

Any defender will benefit from having superb coordination on both sides of his

body, allowing him to move well to the right and the left.

Another clear reason for addressing lateral dominance in training is that if an athlete progresses through his career only using the dominant limb or the dominant side, he runs the risk of overuse. Through repetitive stress, a structural or functional imbalance can occur and lead to injury or impaired performance.

Vern Gambetta is the President of Gambetta Sports Training Systems in Sarasota, Fla., and a frequent contributor to Coaching Management. His daily thoughts on training athletes can be viewed on his blog at: www.functionalpathtraining.blogspot.com.

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

But there are also some less obvious reasons why you should pay attention to this concept. In particular, it is often the nondominant side that performs the function of deceleration. Think about a running back or receiver making a sharp cut. If his body is off balance as he makes his change of direction, his nondominant leg will play a huge role in decelerating and stabilizing his body. If that nondominant leg needs to shift at the last second to avoid a tackler, it needs to be strong enough to do so safely and effectively.

Otherwise, performance will suffer and injury may result.

There is also the idea that training the nondominant limb may improve performance with the dominant limb. This concept is called bilateral transfer. For example, an athlete who has one leg in a cast can do strength-training exercises using the non-injured leg to help keep

having worked the nondominant side.

Janis Lusis, former world record holder and multiple Olympic medalist in the javelin throw, is right-handed, but he used to end each throwing workout with 10 to 20 easy-effort left-handed throws.

He said the exercise helped hone his balance and coordination. Obviously this needs to be studied further, but I am convinced there is merit to the idea.

Development Of Dominance To understand the larger concept of lateral dominance, it’s helpful to examine it as it relates to growth and development. In this field, laterality refers to the conscious awareness that there are two sides of the body. Through movement experience during growth, children become increasingly aware of their right versus their left side and develop patterns of dominance. Between the ages

Having used bilateral transfer exercises for several sports, I’ve observed heightened awareness and improved coordination on the dominant side after having worked the nondominant side. the injured leg strong. The technique has been used in rehab for years and the positive implications are obvious.

The question is, can it also work for performance enhancement? We are talking about the same body and the same nervous system, so logic tells us that it should work when training a healthy athlete. Unfortunately, no research has been conducted on the concept. But anecdotally, I have found it can be effective.

When I was the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago White Sox from 1987 to 1996, we experimented with having our pitchers play catch using their nondominant arm the day after they pitched in a game. Their dominant arm was usually pretty sore from pitching the day before, so we wanted to work their opposite arm and take advantage of bilateral transfer. The results were hard to measure, but those pitchers who committed to the exercise liked it and felt it helped their dominant arm.

Having used bilateral transfer exercises for several sports, I’ve observed heightened awareness and improved coordination on the dominant side after 38

COACHING MANAGEMENT

of five and seven, these patterns really begin to reveal themselves, although research has shown that a preference for use of the right or the left hand is not permanently established until age nine or 10. Foot preference, however, seems to be established by age five.

Therefore, the ideal period for children to develop bilateral movement is during the so-called “skill hungry years” of six to nine. This does not mean that we should train young athletes to be ambidextrous—not at all. Rather, we are simply attempting to develop nondominant limb skills with the goal of enhancing the efficiency of the entire body.

How does this concept work neurologically? In motor learning, as in all learning, the brain needs to receive information in order to develop. The body provides that information to the brain, which processes the data and turns it into signals that trigger the appropriate movements. The brain has two hemispheres: the logical left brain, and the right brain—what I call the perceptual side. Optimal learning occurs when there is rapid communication

between both sides. The term for this is cross-lateral control.

One book on the subject that really opened my eyes is The Dominance Factor, by Carla Hannaford. This book approaches the concept of lateral dominance from the viewpoint of a learning disabilities specialist, but the implications for sports performance enhancement are intriguing.

Hannaford goes beyond just identifying dominant arm—she identifies dominant eye, ear, and foot. She also talks about how these dominance patterns interact to provide information to the brain.

An obvious way these ideas cross over to athletics is examining how a dominant eye affects the way an athlete tracks a ball.

A more subtle concept, however, is how dominance patterns affect the manner in which an athlete learns. It can be very helpful to know if an athlete processes information better using auditory cues or by receiving visual cues, or if processing complicated feedback will be difficult.

The book also made me think about how important it is for all areas of the brain to be in sync when processing information. According to Hannaford, “The optimal learning state is one of whole-brain integration. In this state, both hemispheres are equally active all the time, thus accessing all sensory information and effectively communicating, moving, and acting on information.”

As coaches, we know that our most effective practice sessions occur when an athlete is totally focused, with every muscle of their body eager to respond to stimuli. The more we understand how the brain works, the better we can train our athletes to achieve this focus. If therapists can teach students to overcome disabilities rooted in certain brain dominances, we can teach athletes to overcome lateral dominance and enhance performance.

Training Both Sides I am not saying we should train a right-handed quarterback to throw lefthanded, or devote half our training to developing the nondominant side—that would be a waste of time. Ultimately, most players must perform optimally with their dominant limbs, so everything we do in training should focus on enhancing skills in those limbs. However, I feel that spending a small amount of time training the nondominant side of the body will help achieve this overall performance goal.

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Practicing synchronization of movement will heighten body awareness and improve coordination of the nondominant side. Here are some examples of these simple exercises: ■

Perform circles with one arm and punches with the other. Quickly switch arm movements after about 10 reps.

■

Jump forward and backward with both arms overhead moving side to side.

■

Stand in place and rotate the hips clockwise and the head counterclockwise.

The obvious question, then, is when and how much should the nondominant side be trained? The answer depends on the athlete and his training and performance goals.

The first step is to assess whether the athlete has major problems caused by lateral dominance. You can do this through observation and testing. Tests should be agility-based and force the athlete to move both right and left.

■

Dribble a basketball with each hand using equal effort.

■

Dribble two balls with unequal effort—hard with one hand and soft with the other.

■

Dribble two balls of different dimensions. For example, bounce a volleyball in one hand and a basketball in the other.

■

Catch and throw with the nondominant arm.

■

Kick with the nondominant leg.

COORDINATION DRILLS

If deficiencies due to lateral dominance are affecting the athlete’s play, find out why they are better at going in one direction than the other. Is it a strength imbalance? Does a prior injury limit their ability to move to one side? Is it a problem with motor perception? To remedy this situation, it is necessary to find the cause and systematically address it. This requires a specially designed program for each individual athlete.

If lateral dominance is not causing major problems but you’d still like to improve an athlete’s nondominant limb proficiency, I suggest adding small doses of nondominant training to their workouts. Most of this training can be classified as remedial work and can be implemented as part of warmup or cooldown. I have also found these types of exercises are good “homework” for athletes to do between practices and can

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

be as simple as throwing and catching with the nondominant hand.

I wrote earlier about getting both sides of the brain to work together. A great way to achieve this is through cross-lateral physical movements—where limbs coordinate with their counterpart on the other side. The simplest form of cross-lateral movement is crawling, done using both arms and both legs. I include crawling as part of every warmup and add a specific crawling module to my coretraining workouts. Examples include bear crawls and Spiderman crawls.

For coordination training, I incorporate work that involves the nondominant side in novel tasks, not just the sport skill exercises. I am not seeking a direct transfer with these everyday exercises, but practicing synchronization of movement that heightens body awareness and awareness of the nondominant side.

These unrelated movements will open neural pathways and wake up the nervous system (See “Coordination Drills” on page 40).

A good place for your players to work toward bilateral transfer is in the weightroom. Obviously this kind of exercise is not feasible for every workout, but I use it where it fits. The idea does, however, require a whole paradigm shift on the role of strength training toward enhancing coordination and the efficiency of movement patterns. This type of work does not improve heavy lifting, but it is more functional because it develops more useable strength.

For example, have athletes do an alternate dumbbell press instead of a two-arm press with a bar. Lunges and single-leg squats can be used for the lower body. This will facilitate lateral transfer while also achieving standard strength gains.

In core strength and stability training, it is very important to work both sides of the body in a balanced way. This does not take any extra effort—it just means setting up your drills to focus on both sides equally.

It’s also a good idea to examine some everyday things athletes do that affect their lateral dominance. For example, players doing warmup or training runs on a track will typically go in a counterclockwise direction. To help them achieve greater balance, simply have them perform some of these runs in a clockwise direction.

Lastly, remember that lateral dominance is not just about training left and right body movements, but also about other nondominant patterns of movement. Therefore, work the following movement combinations into workouts where appropriate: ■ Right/Left ■ Forward/Back ■ Up/Down ■ Over/Under ■ Clockwise/Counterclockwise ■ Side-to-side and Diagonal.

Training both sides of the body will ultimately enhance total movement skills. Doing so doesn’t mean you have to revamp your practices or workouts, it just requires thinking about going to “the other side” in your program design. It will open new movement territory, enhance body awareness, and help your athletes explore the body’s potential. ■ A version of this article was previously published in other editions of Coaching Management, and Training & Conditioning, a sister publication.

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HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS

BOILING POINT Head Coach Andy Lowry helped Columbine High School produce the final degree of heat it needed to win an unlikely state title.

BY ABIGAIL FUNK 42

COACHING MANAGEMENT

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONS Etched into the Columbine High School football team’s state championship rings are several numbers. The meaning behind most is straightforward: There’s the year 2006, the team’s 13-1 record, and the number 70 in remembrance of Matthew Kechter, who was killed in the 1999 shootings at the school.

DJ BECKER

Then there’s a curious number—212.

What is the significance of 212? Two hundred twelve degrees Fahrenheit is the boiling point of water, and also the title of a book Head Coach Andy Lowry and his team read heading into the state playoffs last fall.

“It’s a short motivational book that talks about how at 211 degrees, water is very hot, but it takes an extra degree to boil at 212,” Lowry says. “It doesn’t matter how long you’re at 211—if you can’t get that one more degree, the water won’t boil. The book talks about giving that extra effort and playing to that extra degree, and our kids bought into the idea hook, line, and sinker.”

In 2006, the Rebels needed every degree of effort to reach the top.

Starting out the season with a young team and the smallest senior class he’d had in years, the team battled through what Lowry calls “chemistry problems.” Entering the Class 5A state championship tournament as the sixth seed, Columbine was a long shot to come out on top.

“The beginning of our season was miserable,” Lowry says. “I remember every bit of it. We fought through some dissension and had one kid who became really selfish. Our teams had traditionally been successful because our kids really buy in and are selfless, but that wasn’t the case early last season.

“It hurt an awful lot as a coach,” Lowry continues, “but that’s just one of those things you have to battle through as a coach and a player, and both he and I did. Each week we improved a little bit. We got our players in the right positions, and a few of our seniors stepped into the right leadership roles.

When the playoffs rolled around, we were still improving. Everything came together at just the right time.”

In the semifinal game, Columbine met Lakewood High School, which in the season opener had handed the Rebels their only loss. Lakewood also happens to be Lowry’s alma mater, and he had coached there before heading to Columbine. The outcome was the opposite of that August game, as the Rebels dominated with their running game and routed Lakewood, 50-6.

The story could have ended there, since the team had exacted its revenge on Lakewood, and its title game opponent, Mullen High School, was nationally ranked, undefeated, and perceived by most as unbeatable. “We had one player go to a Division I school from last year’s team, while Mullen had

by the time it was over, which is exactly what I wanted.”

Mullen averaged more than 45 points per game over the course of the season, yet Columbine’s defense shut out the Mustangs in the first half. The offense scored on its 16-play opening drive, which ate up almost eight minutes.

“Ball control is a big part of our philosophy,” he says. “I played quarterback in school, and all I did was throw the ball. But when I went back to Lakewood to coach, I was defensive coordinator for Head Coach George Squires, who ran the double-tight full house offense.

I brought his philosophy with me to Columbine, and we haven’t strayed far.”

Mullen scored its only touchdown in the third quarter on a two-yard run to tie the game at seven, and went up 10-7 in the fourth. But facing fourth-andtwo with less than two minutes to play, Columbine quarterback Jeff Cicchinelli raced 40 yards downfield. Two plays later, he ran into the end zone from two yards out. Columbine missed the extra point, keeping the lead at three points.

“Probably the toughest decision of the game was whether to kick it deep

School: Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo.

Head Coach: Andy Lowry 2006 Season: 13-1, Colorado Class 5A State Champions State Championships: 2006, 2002, 2000, 1999

Notes: In the 2006 title game, Columbine scored a 13-10 win over previously undefeated Mullen High School, a team that had averaged over 45 points per game … The Rebels converted five of seven fourth-down attempts, and Mullen was denied on its only fourth-down attempt … In the semifinal game, Columbine beat Lakewood High School 506, avenging a season-opening 18-3 loss … Now in his 15th season at Columbine, Lowry earned Class 5A Coach of the Year honors in 2006.

about 10,” Lowry says. “But our kids really became a team that day. They beat a great football team.”

Columbine and Mullen squared off on Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium, an experience in itself. Lowry kept game day rituals the same as usual, however, in an attempt to keep the players focused.

“I didn’t want our kids to be any more distracted than they were already going to be,” Lowry says. “Luckily, about 25 of our kids, including most of starters, went to a press conference at the field the Monday prior to the game. They were in awe of it when they got there and bored

or squib it and give them a short field,” Lowry says. “Mullen’s returner was the state’s offensive player of the year. He was scary. But we kicked it deep and a little freshman ended up making the tackle at about the 20-yard line. They ran a couple of plays before we picked off a pass, and that was it.

“It couldn’t have been better,” he continues. “These kids put in every effort, and that one extra degree paid off in the end.”

Abigail Funk is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. She can be reached at: afunk@MomentumMedia.com.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP SOLUTIONS

Virginia High School Coaches Association 2007 All-Star Game

Gering High School, NE 2004 and 2005 Western Conference Champions

LaSalle High School, OR Men’s Football - 3rd, State of Oregon 4A Division

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Rockford High School, MI 2005 Division Champions Jenks High School, OK 11-Time State Champions Need: Jenks High School needed highquality, heavy-duty strength training equipment for its new weight training facility.

Solution: Power Lift worked with Head Coach Allan Trimble to determine the appropriate equipment and the ideal room layout for the new facility. Power Lift installed seven 8’ Combo Power Racks, six 9’ Half Racks, 20 custom “Lever Action” benches, 14 Olympic lifting platforms with custom logos, six rotating Glute Ham benches, six custom dumbbell benches, and 4,600 pounds of bumper plates.

Power Lift 800-872-1543 Fax: 515-386-3220 www.power-lift.com Circle No. 503

Timpview High School, UT 2006 4A State Champions Need: Coach Louis Wong needed a winning surface for his football team.

Need: Head Football Coach Ralph Munger needed a safe and efficient way to train championship-caliber blockers and tacklers.

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“The material used looks closer to real grass than any other synthetic field I’ve seen. The suppleness and durability of the field also makes it feel like real grass.

Now that the field has been in place and thousands of people have used it, the results are commendable.”

Solution: Munger’s players train with a seven-man Mod Sled, a 20’ Trap Chute with boards, a one-man Pop Up Tackle Sled, Scout Pop-Up Dummies, an Open Field Tackle machine, and lots of Agiles and Standup Dummies, all from Rogers Athletic. “Rogers Athletic products reinforce proper technique in areas like footwork and placement of the head and shoulders,” Munger says. “The quality is outstanding, and the design is wellresearched and very user-friendly. Also, the service from Rogers is phenomenal— if you have any problem whatsoever, the company takes care of it immediately.”

Pro Look Sports 800-PRO-LOOK Fax: 801-377-4427 www.prolook.com Circle No. 504

Rogers Athletic Co. 800-248-0270 Fax: 888-549-9659 www.rogersathletic.com Circle No. 505

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HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIP SOLUTIONS

Cedar Hill High School, TX 2006 5A Division II State Champions, Undefeated Season Need: Assistant Coach Richard Leonard wanted to totally revamp the school’s weight training facility. This overhaul needed to include as many multi-purpose weight training stations as possible.

Solution: Coach Leonard and Samson Equipment worked together and designed a weightroom to accommodate 16 Power Stations. Samson Equipment produced each station to include the school’s logo as well as custom paint and upholstery colors. A representative from Samson met with Coach Leonard and the team to install the equipment. The finished product left Cedar Hill with a weightroom that its championship football program will put to good use for years to come.

Samson Equipment 800-472-6766 Fax: 505-523-2100 www.samsonequipment.com Circle No. 506

St. Joseph Christian Academy, MO 2006 State Champions Need: Coach Mark Juhl needed an offseason weightroom machine that would give his undersized linemen an advantage over their bigger opponents by accelerating the learning process for the fundamentals of line play.

Solution: The MAXX football machine offers strength training while reinforcing perfect football technique, encouraging players to “get off the ball” and “hit on the rise.” “MAXX stresses the importance of leverage, speed, power, and finishing blocks,” says Coach Juhl. “The team’s state championship proved that MAXX met our needs—and that our players could hit.”

MAXX Football by Shoot-A-Way 800-294-4654 Fax: 419-294-4029 www.maxxfootball.com Circle No. 507

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Solution: “The kicking net from Wizard Sports Equipment is top-of-the-line,” says Coach Bohn. “It’s easy to set up and transport, and the carrying case is convenient for taking it along on road trips. The advantage of Wizard products is that you always get quality athletic equipment at good prices, and the service is great.”

Wizard Sports Equipment 888-964-5425 Fax: 714-974-1852 www.wizardsports.com Circle No. 508

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Team Equipment Adams USA 800-251-6857 www.adamsusa.com The A4 Elite II helmet shell with the A3 fit system produces one of the lightest, most comfortable helmets available anywhere.

It’s made for high school, college, and pro teams.

There’s no replacing or adjusting an air liner, and the helmet features a “once fit, always fit” design. Check out Adams USA’s new helmets at your local sporting goods dealer.

Circle No. 509 Athletic facilities, equipment, apparel, towels, and playing surfaces are excellent host environments for odor-causing bacteria, fungi, mold, and mildew.

Bac-Shield™ from Adams USA “fills the gap” and makes your hygiene program more effective by inhibiting the repro-

duction of harmful microbes between cleanings and disinfections. The active ingredient in BacShield, chitosan, has a long history of safe, effective applications. Use it for laundry, locker rooms, surfaces, mats, and practically anywhere else bacteria is present. Convenient pint, gallon, and five-gallon sizes are available.

Circle No. 510 Antibody, Inc. 877-546-2639 www.antibodywear.com The BodyGuard compression shorts by Antibody prevent and accommodate lowerbody injuries to the groin, hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, and hip pointers.

Because of their inner

surface and custom design, they attach to the wearer and transfer their stored elastic energy to the muscles, creating torque and assisting with muscle flexion and extension. The shorts also provide constant compression, strain distribution, impact absorption, heat circulation, and absorption of fatigue-inducing muscle vibrations caused by repetitive use.

Circle No. 511 The BodyGuard shoulder brace from Antibody is designed to accommodate shoulder injuries, including dislocations, subluxations, and slight separations.

Because of its inner surface and custom design, the BodyGuard actually attaches to the wearer and works with the entire muscle group, providing strain distribution over the entire garment and significant compression to the injured area. The BodyGuard is effective for a wide array of sports in which shoulder injuries occur, including

The Key – Making your body think the weight overload is part of your body.

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Team Equipment track, baseball, football, basketball, wrestling, hockey, and volleyball.

Circle No. 512 Cutters Gloves 800-821-0231 www.cuttersgloves.com The 197 Triple Playmaker Wrist Coach is made with C-FLEX™, Cutters Gloves’ exclusive “fits like a glove” technology, for optimal comfort and fit. It includes three windows for easy reference, allowing you to store up to 300 plays at once.

It’s available in 11 team colors. Visit the Downloads section of the Cutters Gloves Web site for free blank play card templates.

Circle No. 513 Cutters GreatCatch teaches players how to properly catch a football by putting all the focus on their fingertips.

The palms and heels of the hands cause bobbles and drops—with Cutters GreatCatch, the fingertips do all the work for proper catching technique. As a result, players develop soft, reliable hands, fingertip control, and fewer bobbles and drops.

Circle No. 514 Gear 2000, Ltd. 785-625-6060 www.gear2000.com Z-Cool shoulder pads are 35-percent lighter. They feature antibacterial foam padding that eliminates odor buildup by not absorbing moisture from perspiration.

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ing design features of Z-Cool shoulder pads contribute to enhanced performance on the field. Z-Cool shoulder pads are used by all-pro players, top-50 NCAA Division I college programs, and high school state champions.

Circle No. 515 Z-Cool compression girdles from Gear 2000 have moisture-wicking hip and tail pads sewn into them.

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Scientific studies indicate that compression garments enhance muscle stability and increase athletic performance by as much as 12 percent. The fabric in Z-Cool compression girdles is moisture-wicking 75-percent nylon/25-percent lycra or spandex for cooler performance.

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Team Equipment Maxsport 866-246-8881 www.maxsportusa.com There are champions at every level and high school players demand the best.

Maxsport apparel allows play-

ers to be in a position of strength.

Maxsport’s technology includes a fourchannel fiber woven into the garment.

This innovative construction rapidly transports moisture from the skin to the outer layer, where it dries four times faster than cotton. This is important—wearing a Maxsport garment allows athletes to use less energy, stay better hydrated, and keep cooler while maintaining a competitive edge.

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Pro Look Sports 800-776-5665 www.prolooksports.com Pro Look’s 2008 Form Fit football uniforms offer the newest in stretch materials and high-tech designs, including stretch mesh that will make your players virtually unstoppable.

Pro Look now brings you stretch tackle twill that conforms to the body along with the jersey. Self material stretch belts are standard on all football uniforms. Take advantage of the company’s One Price Promise today by calling or visiting the Pro Look Web site.

Circle No. 518 QB-Tee 330-750-0086 www.QB-Tee.com QB-Tee can help your quarterback improve his three-, five-, and sevenstep drop and develop better timing during the off-season. Athletes can work on objective goals without the coach present, and perform more reps with greater intensity. QB-Tee is also great for passing drills and seven-on-seven.

The player removes the ball from the cradle, triggering the timer. If the buzzer sounds before the ball is released, the play is dead.

The timer can be programmed to tenths of seconds.

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Team Equipment Russell Athletic 678-742-8722 www.russellathleticteamsports.com

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The XC Jersey—Xtreme Compression— is an ultra snug-fitting jersey that’s nearly impossible to grab. Russell’s design team created a superior garment by combining compression, moisture management, and thermoregulation characteristics in one jersey. To keep players cool and dry, ventilator technology accelerates body cooling. Dri-Power technology helps wick moisture away from the body, and the built-in antimicrobial technology eliminates odor, making this the latest advancement in football jerseys.

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Wizard Sports Equipment 888-964-5425 www.wizardsports.com Wizard Sports offers durable, custom team bags that are made in the U.S.A. The bags come in many sizes and can be made in your team colors with your logo and a player number. Wizard custom bags are made with sturdy, waterproof

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NXT Compression from Russell Athletic is a full-body compression shirt made from ultralightweight Dri-Power fabric that has Ventilator technology and sheer mesh panels that add breathability. The tight fit, cut for maximum comfort, feels like a second layer of skin.

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Stromgren Supports 800-527-1988 www.stromgren.com A new concept in protective lightweight football padding allows perspiration and body heat to move through the pads. The Moisture-Lite pad system, which can be worn with a compression girdle, game pants, or practice pants, allows players to experience maximum moisturewicking benefits. Call Stromgren

Using Stored Elastic Energy Transfer (SEET), BodyGuards are a new generation of performance apparel that work with your body to alleviate muscle strains and pulls, delay fatigue and keep muscles warm while enhancing your performance.

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Football Facilities Aer-Flo, Inc. 800-823-7356 www.aerflo.com Cleats cannot penetrate the Bench Zone™ sideline turf protector, but rain, sports drinks, and body fluids drain through— they’re not absorbed like with geotextile mats that can triple in weight and develop odors.

Vipol Matrix material lets air and sunlight penetrate and does not compact grass. Simply hose it off to clean it.

The Bench Zone is digitally imprintable in multiple colors, and is available in several sizes: 15’ deep x 50’, 75’, 100’, 125’, or 150’ long. Custom colors and sizes are available. This product is used by major college and NFL teams, and it ships quickly.

Circle No. 524 The Bench Zone™ Track Protector is for tracks around football fields. Its polypropylene fabric resists and cushions

against cleats, yet rain drains through.

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Gold or white edging is available.

Standard sizes are 15’ wide x 75’, 100’, 125’, or 150’ long, and custom sizes and imprinting are available. A smaller version, the CrossOver Zone Protector, is ideal for high-traffic areas. This product is also great for protecting cheerleader, band, and concessions areas, and it ships quickly.

Circle No. 525 Earth & Turf Products, LLC 888-693-2638 www.earthandturf.com The one-pass design of the Earth & Turf Linear Aerator completely changes the way aeration is done. Soil and thatch restriction are permanently modified.

Maximum modification of the turf on athletic fields, golf courses, and polo grounds is assured. After the area has been topdressed with calcined clay,

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Humane Mfg. Co., LLC 800-369-6263 www.humanemfg.com Rubber mats and flooring provide excellent protection for your equipment as well as the floor beneath it. Humane Loktuff mats are totally nonabsorbent and provide a vibration/noise

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compost, or sand, the Linear Aerator conditions a 58-inch swath by cutting grooves in the turf that are three inches deep, approximately half an inch wide, and 3.5 inches apart. Linear aeration can reduce sports injuries by softening turf on athletic fields. Linear aeration also improves water infiltration and retention, turf and root growth, nutrient absorption, and organic decomposition.

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Football Facilities barrier as well as dust reduction. With a tensile strength of up to 1,000 psi and a durometer rating of 63, Humane mats are stronger and softer than many traditional mats—so let the company be the “foundation of your success.”

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are available. For more information, call today or visit the company online.

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OakWood Sports, Inc. 517-321-6852 www.oakwoodsports.com

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MondoTurf systems are engineered for performance and safety. Mondo’s completely innovative artificial turf system reproduces all the characteristics of a well-maintained natural grass playing field. A new generation of fibers provides durability, performance, and playing characteristics similar to natural grass. Mondo’s patented infill, Ecofill, offers maximum safety and superior dynamic performance without the problems caused by natural turf fields. MondoTurf withstands many times the level of wear and tear endured by traditional surfaces. Outstanding durability reduces maintenance costs.

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OakWood Sports is a premiere custom wood locker builder, with experience in design, construction, delivery, and installation.

For new builds or renovations, the company takes care of your locker needs from start to finish and beyond. With more than 200 locker rooms completed since 1998, OakWood’s experience and knowledge ensures that your locker system will be visually stunning and highly durable.

OakWood understands the construction requirements of athletic lockers, and prides itself on applying that expertise to the specific needs of each customer.

Go online to view the company’s photo gallery.

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M.A.S.A. carries a large selection of economical sideline turf protectors that come in two grades of durability to meet any budget. All the company’s protectors are constructed using a durable, breathable polypropylene that will stand up to cleat traffic and protect your turf. All tarps are light gray in color and feature brass grommets every three feet along the edges.

They’re now available with optional lettering and logos to make your field stand out. Custom sizes and shapes

Ever wonder where the pro teams get those GIANT rubber bands they use for stretching?

Look no further!

Jump Stretch has been supplying the large continuous-loop FlexBands® to high school, college, and pro teams since 1980.

We have a total of seven sizes, but most teams use either the Light or Average bands for stretching. For more information, visit our website at www.jumpstretch.com or call 1-800-344-3539.

Jump Stretch, Inc. 1230 N. Meridian Rd. Youngstown, OH 44509 www.jumpstretch.com 1-800-344-3539 Fax: 1-330-793-8719 Circle No. 143 jumpstretch62v0v3.indd 1

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Football Facilities OakWood Sports, Inc. 517-321-6852 www.oakwoodsports.com

Professional Turf Products 866-726-3326 www.proturfproducts.com

In almost a decade, OakWood Spor ts has helped more than 200 schools and spor ts organizations design and install wood lockers for their athletic facilities.

Ever y locker is constructed from special cuts of highquality veneer and solid wood to ensure a vibrant grain pattern and beautiful color. The lockers are assembled by hand as an individual unit prior to installation. OakWood’s specially formulated finish resists moisture, citric acid, and up to a 25-percent solution of sulfuric acid.

Finally, all hardware (including hooks, hinges, and clothes rods) is either solid brass or stainless steel.

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Turf Armor™ bench tarps are engineered to prevent or greatly reduce damage to your natural or synthetic turf surfaces.

All tarps are available in black and light gray.

Call tollfree to find out more, or view all products and specifications and locate a dealer near you by visiting Pro Turf Products’ easyto-use Web site.

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ProGrass, LLC 866-270-6003 www.prograssturf.com ProGrass is a proven leader in artificial turf design, installation, project management, and product development.

High school and college football teams across the country play on ProGrass AR, an innovative all-rubber infill system consisting of polyethylene fibers tufted into a woven primary backing with a secondary backing of polyurethane.

This combination results in a safe, comfortable surface that meets all ASTM shock-absorption standards. Visit the company’s Web site today to learn more.

Circle No. 533 Seating Services Inc. 800-552-9470 www.seatingservices.com

www.fitnessrubber.com SUPER FALL CLEARANCE! Save an additional 25% OFF our regular web pricing now through November 2007!

Use the fitness code “fitness7” when you check out. Offer expires 11/30/07.

Call 888-894-0204 Today!

Circle No. 144

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

When Huron High School in Ohio wanted to convert bleachers into grandstands with selfrising stadium chairs, they chose Seating Services’ Tread Mount and Floor Mount Series 3000 Cardinal Model.

There was only 24 inches of space per row, but with some slight alterations to the planking, the seats were a perfect

fit. The gravity-tipped, blow-molded chairs meet safety codes while providing excellent comfort. This project was completed on aluminum, but the chairs are also ideal for wood, steel, or concrete. Seat widths can vary from 18 to 22 inches. Use them to create VIP seating for a great fundraiser.

Circle No. 534 Spectrum Corp.

800-392-5050 www.spectrumscoreboards.com Captivate your audience with a model 11236 football scoreboard featuring a full-color message center. Spectrum’s high-resolution message center will display video clips, animations, game stats, and advertisements.

Other special features include lighted sponsorship signs and a dynamic identification sign with color mascots. Team name, customized color combinations, and border striping are always included at no additional charge. Always expect more with Spectrum Scoreboards.

Circle No. 535 Evergreen Synthetic Turf, LLC 800-544-0439 www.turfmill.com Evergreen Synthetic Turf has 30 years of manufacturing experience and reigns as the oldest owner-operated synthetic turf manufacturer in the world. The turf industry has seen many changes since its beginnings in 1967, but Evergreen provides the stability and experience you demand. Along with experience, the Evergreen team offers state-of-the-art technology with its two CMC 2005 tufting machines, which cut production time by more than half. The CMC 2005 models and the company’s 10 other tufting machines are guaranteed to provide customized products to meet exact certified sport builders’ specifications.

Circle No. 536

Power Racks Nautilus, Inc. 877-657-7762 www.nautilusxpload.com Built by strength trainers, for strength trainers, the Nautilus® XPLOAD™ Power Rack is available in eightand nine-foot heights. You can also choose a half rack or combo rack.

Special Features: Standard features include seven-gauge steel uprights, an integrated ergo chin bar, and weight plate and vertical bar storage. Optional accessories include swivel spotter platforms, stainless steel upright covers, and oak platform inserts.

Warranty: 12-year frame, 3-year parts, 1-year labor, 6-month upholstery.

Circle No. 537 Nebula/NK Sports Group 800-763-2852 www.nebula-fitness.com The Double 1/2 Rack unit can be built into many configurations.

The rack is available with one or two platforms and one or two benches.

Special Features: Available options include swivel adjustable chin bars and telescoping lock-in benches.

Warranty: Yes. Circle No. 538 Power Lift 800-872-1543 www.power-lift.com The Power Lift 9’ Power Rack with “Lever Action” bench and Olympic lifting platform (optional) includes a dual-grip

chin-up handle, bar storage, weight storage, and a custom logo.

Special Features: Patented “Rhino Hook” bar catches, a “Lever Action” bench, and a tongue-and-groove oak platform with your school’s logo.

Warranty: Lifetime conditional warranty on frame components, 1 year on bearings, 90 days on upholstery and items not specified.

Circle No. 539 Power Systems 800-321-6975 www.power-systems.com The Power Systems 7-Station Gym by Muscle Maxx maximizes training space while allowing multiple athletes to simultaneously perform lat pulldowns, seated rows, curls, extensions, chin-ups, and more.

Special Features: The unit includes two lat pull-downs, two high/low pulleys, a low row, tricep extension, and a chinning station. Three 220-pound and three 170-pound cast iron weight stacks come fully assembled with additional assembly required for the remainder of the unit. The seats bolt on. The unit is fully welded for durability and stability.

There are six color choices for the frame and four for the upholstery, all at no extra charge.

Warranty: Lifetime steel frame, 4-year moving parts, 90-day cables, upholstery, hand grips, and weight stacks.

Circle No. 540

Rogers Athletic Co. 800-457-5337 www.rogersathletic.com The Brute Rack System™ is one of the most innovative multi-purpose power racks on the market. With this system, your athletes will experience highquality closed-chain freeweight training.

Special Features: The Brute Rack System, combined with the revolutionary Monster Arms™ attachments, allows an unrestricted range of motion to help athletes develop specific muscle groups utilized in athletics.

Warranty: Lifetime.

Circle No. 541 Samson Equipment 800-4-SAMSON www.samsonequipment.com The Triple Power Station features an adjustable bench, a unique triple-rack design, and a hickory or rubber platform with or without a custom logo.

It accommodates three simultaneous lifters performing upper-body, lower-body, and Olympic movements. Samson Equipment custom builds to your individual needs.

Special Features: Solid .188 wall steel frame throughout, platform with basketball finish, adjustable bench from 0 to 90 degrees.

Warranty: Lifetime on steel frame.

Circle No. 542

Power Racks Specifications Company

Rack

Height x Width x Depth

Tubing Size

Warranty

Chin-Up Bar

Plate Storage

Adjustable Bench

Nautilus, Inc.

XPLOAD™ Power Rack

95”-107” x 69” x 90”

7 ga.

✔

✔

✔

✔

Nebula/NK Sports Group

Double 1/2 Rack

96” x 96” x 216” (with 2 platforms)

3” x 3”, 11 ga. & 1/4” steel uprights

✔

✔

✔

✔

Power Lift

9’ Power Rack

108” x 86” x 72”

4” x 3”, 7 ga.

✔

✔

✔

✔

Power Systems

Muscle Maxx 7-Station Gym

92” x 124” x 156”

3” x 2”, 11 ga.

✔

✔

n/a

✔

Rogers Athletics Co. Brute Rack System™

113.5” x 98” x 83.5”

3/16” thick, 11 ga.

✔

✔

✔

✔

Samson Equipment

105” x 44” x 96”

3” x 3”, 7 ga.

✔

✔

✔

✔

Triple Power Station

✽ Denotes accessories sold separately, or as available options. Please contact the company for more information.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY

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Adams USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Aer-Flo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Antibody (The BodyGuard) . . . . . . . . . 51 BallQube. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Cardinal Publishers Group . . . . . . . 30 Cho-Pat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Cutters Gloves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC CyberSports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Earth & Turf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 eFundraisingStore.com . . . . . . . . . 24 Evergreen Synthetic Turf/Turf Savers. . 46 FieldTurf Tarkett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Fitnessrubber.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 GameWear Team Sports . . . . . . . . . 17 Gear 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 HighSchoolSports.net . . . . . . . . . . . 23 HQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Humane Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . 52 Jump Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 M.A.S.A. Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Maxsport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 MAXX Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Mondo USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Nautilus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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509 . .

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514 . . .

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536 . .

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500 . .

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515 . . .

527. . .

546 . .

528. . .

517 . . .

507 . .

552. . .

529 . .

502 . .

537. . .

538 . .

548 . .

547. . .

530 . .

Adams USA (A4 Elite II helmet shell) . . . 48 Adams USA (Bac-Shield) . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Aer-Flo (Bench Zone Track Protector) . . . 52 Aer-Flo (sideline turf protector) . . . . . . . 52 Antibody (compression shorts) . . . . . . . 48 Antibody (shoulder brace) . . . . . . . . . . 48 BallQube. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Cardinal Publishers Group (Wish Publishing) 63 Cho-Pat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Cutters Gloves (Wrist Coach) . . . . . . . 49 Cutters (GreatCatch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Earth & Turf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Evergreen Synthetic Turf . . . . . . . . . 54 Fitnessrubber.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 GameWear Team Sports . . . . . . . . . 44 Gear 2000 (Z-Cool compression girdles) . . 49 Gear 2000 (Z-Cool shoulder pads) . . . . . . 49 Humane Mfg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Jump Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 M.A.S.A. Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Maxsport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 MAXX Football (championship solution) . 46 MAXX Football (strength) . . . . . . . . . . 59 Mondo USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Nautilus (championship solution) . . . . . . 44 Nautilus (XPLOAD Power Rack) . . . . . . . 55 Nebula/NK Sports Group . . . . . . . . 55 NSCA (Complete Conditioning for Football) 58 NSCA (Training for Football) . . . . . . . . . . 58 OakWood Sports (custom wood locker) . 53

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108 . .

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100 . .

134. . .

121 . . .

105. . .

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128. . .

136. . .

135. . .

132 . . .

Nebula/NK Sports Group . . . . . . . . 30 NSCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 OakWood Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 ONS (Optimal Nutrition Systems) . . . . . . 49 Power Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Powernetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC Pro Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-3 Professional Turf Products . . . . . . . 44 ProGrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 QB-Tee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Riddell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Rogers Athletic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Russell Athletic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Samson Weight Equipment . . . . . . . 41 Scoutware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC Seating Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Spectrum Scoreboards . . . . . . . . . . 32 Stromgren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Tug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 VertiMax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Wizard Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Xvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Zoombang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

PRODUCTS DIRECTORY

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534 . .

535 . .

569. . .

522 . .

543 . .

545 . .

501. . .

508 . .

523 . .

554 . .

553 . .

OakWood Sports (wood lockers) . . . . .

ONS (Optimal Nutrition Systems) . . . . . .

Power Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Power Lift (championship solution) . . . .

Power Systems (7-Station Gym) . . . . . .

Power Systems (VersaFit Log) . . . . . . .

Powernetics (Bulldog/Attacker) . . . . . .

Powernetics (Power Trainer). . . . . . . . .

Pro Look Sports (championship solution) . .

Pro Look Sports (football uniforms) . . . . .

Professional Turf Products . . . . . . .

ProGrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

QB-Tee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rogers Athletic (Brute Rack System) . . . .

Rogers Athletic (championship solution) .

Russell Athletic (NXT Compression) . . .

Russell Athletic (XC Jersey) . . . . . . . .

Samson (championship solution) . . . . . .

Samson (Triple Power Station) . . . . . . . .

Seating Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spectrum Scoreboards . . . . . . . . . .

Stromgren (catalog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stromgren (Moisture-Lite pad system) . .

The Tug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VertiMax (PLUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VertiMax (championship solution) . . . . .

Wizard Sports (championship solution) .

Wizard Sports Equipment . . . . . . . .

Xvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Xvest (TurboBells) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

54 63 55 45 55 58 59 59 45 50 54 54 50 55 45 51 51 46 55 54 54 63 51 58 58 44 46 51 59 59

www.AthleticBid.com

Simplify & Speed your Product Research on the Internet Use links and tools on AthleticBid.com AthleticBid.com is a free service designed to help you research products and contact companies in an easy-to-use format.

Looking for a specific product?

You can use the Buyer’s Guide to search “By Product” and locate prospective suppliers. Each of the suppliers has a listing that can be reviewed. Some listings include basic contact data, but others have additional information to help you learn about the products or services and their company.

Another option available on AthleticBid.com is to place an RFP. When you already know your specs and are looking for price quotes from a variety of vendors, this is a great tool. Input your information and within three days you will receive e-mailed responses from all interested suppliers.

Finally, if you’re just interested in reviewing some of the new products that have been introduced on the market—check out the “Product Connection” section with brief descriptions and photos of products and contact information for the companies that sell them.

Learning More About Suppliers and their Products As mentioned earlier, a number of the company’s have enhanced listings that include additional resources to help you better evaluate them and their products.

Once you locate an individual company’s listing, you are able to: ●

●

View complete product lines, seeing all of the products offered by the company View catalog pages or spec sheets with detailed product

●

●

●

information. The information is stored as PDF files so you can view them on-line or print them out for easy reference Read a profile or description of the company or a company representative.

Request to be contacted by the company using an e-mail link direct to the company.

Ask for a catalog and sales literature from the company—again using an e-mail link direct to the company.

Take advantage of the wealth of information and resources available on AthleticBid.com to increase the information you gather, while also saving valuable time.

It used to take hours to contact dozens of companies to research products and plan purchases. But by using AthleticBid.com, it now only takes minutes.

www.AthleticBid.com

www.AthleticBid.com

Strength Training The Tug 405-474-7777 www.thetug.net The Tug is the ultimate competitive tool—it tests the heart. The Tug also fosters toughness. It’s a variable-weight strength and conditioning apparatus made of a rubber-like resin with the capacity to hold up to twenty gallons of water.

The Tug’s shape and flexibility have significantly reduced injuries associated with stick wrestling, towel wrestling, and tire tugging competitions. The construction of the Tug allows for separation between combatants and introduces an element of weight to the equation by simply adding water. You can tug it, flip it, drag it, hoist it, curl it, or row it. It’s versatile and has a variable weight, so use your imagination.

Circle No. 543 Fitnessrubber.com 888-894-0204 www.fitnessrubber.com Fitness Rubber is a new Web fitness resource that offers “manufacturer direct pricing” for all your fitness rubber equipment needs. The company’s products include Kraiburg Solid Rubber Weight Plates, Kraiburg-Sportec Rolled Rubber Flooring, KraiburgSportec Interlocking Fitness Tiles, and FLEXGARD Rubber Coated Cast Iron Weight Plates, to name just a few.

Make it a point to visit Fitnessrubber. com and receive immediate savings of up to 45 percent. Act now and receive a $20 discount on your initial Web site order over $100.

Circle No. 544 Genetic Potential 800-699-5867 www.vertimax.com A new low-load, velocity-specific training program is now available for the ultimate in force development. The VertiMax PLUS series is a revolutionary advancement in functional, sport-

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

specific, total-body training. It’s unique because it is capable of applying multiple loads at multiple body locations, including the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and arms, while the athlete is performing explosive lowerand/or upperbody training.

The VertiMax PLUS series is strongly endorsed by many NFL, NBA, and NCAA Division I head coaches. Visit VertiMax’s Web site for more details and customer testimonials.

Circle No. 545 Jump Stretch, Inc. 800-344-3539 www.jumpstretch.com Athletes are always looking for an edge—some way to vary their training routine and ramp up their workouts.

The conditioning specialists who worked with the actors in the movie “300” came up with a creative exercise: run out against the resistance of FlexBands, pick up a kettlebell, and run back. Now you can use this same technique with the Spartan Fireout Station. It consists of four bands—three long bands, with the fourth looped through to serve as a harness over the shoulders.

Circle No. 546 NSCA 800-815-6826 www.nsca-lift.org The NSCA’s Training for Football video presents a detailed sequence of exercises and drills for teaching the clean, jerk, and snatch exercises. The video features stepwise progressions that offer coaches the capacity to train athletes of various ability

levels. Key points for ensuring proper execution of the exercises are demonstrated, allowing coaches to confidently incorporate these explosive exercises into their training programs.

Circle No. 547 During the past three decades, the University of Nebraska football program has set the pace for successful conditioning. Now, two members of the Cornhuskers’ strength and conditioning staff present the program used by Nebraska to power its way to national championships. Complete Conditioning for Football, available from the NSCA, includes 98 proven position-specific exercises that help players at all levels improve speed, agility, power, and endurance. The guide covers the basic training principles of adaptation, specificity, overload, and periodization. It also lists which drills are beneficial for some players but not for others, and includes guidelines for proper rest and balanced nutrition.

Circle No. 548 Power Systems 800-321-6975 www.power-systems.com The VersaFit Log is a new and challenging alternative to traditional strength training. Sporting multiple handles and Velcro™ straps, this cylindrical tool facilitates a variety of grip, strength, and functional exercises.

Available in weights from 10 to 50 pounds (in 10pound increments) and measuring 23” x 8” in diameter, this durable, soft-sided log allows you to train balance, plyometrics, rotational movements, Olympic lifts, chops, and throws. Also available is the “shell only” option for customizing the weight to meet individual training needs. Use the VersaFit Log indoors or out.

Circle No. 549

Strength Training Powernetics 800-829-2928 www.powernetics.com Powernetics offers many products for the strength-training needs of your players, including the Bulldog and the Attacker. The Bulldog isolates the hamstrings and glutes without putting stress on the knees and back. It also offers an explosive hack jump exercise that develops power in the hamstrings, glutes, and quads-all from one exercise. The Attacker allows the athlete to fire and roll his hips while moving up and out into a full hand separation. Because of the intense movement, power is developed from the feet through the hands.

Circle No. 550 Powernetics offers the Power Trainer, which for more than 10 years has made the power clean a safe exercise for athletes from junior high to the collegiate level.

The Power Trainer enables an athlete to not only do cleans safely, but also to reverse the clean. The unit can be used to perform seven different exercises: the clean, reverse clean, deadlift, lift jump, high row, bench press, and shoulder press. The Power Trainer has proven over the years to be among the safest and most effective tools used to perform the power clean.

Circle No. 551 MAXX by Shoot-A-Way 800-294-4654 www.maxxfootball.com This off-season, while your opponents are simply lifting, you can be putting the intensity of football into your workouts. MAXX is a rubber man with a lifelike feel, a durable weight machine, and a state of-the-ar t computer all in one. The LED board gives players instant feedback on their

speed off the ball and the power of their punch while they work to increase strength and per fect football technique.

Circle No. 552 Xvest 800-697-5658 www.thexvest.com Adjustable Xvest TurboBells are a new product from the maker of Xvest. They replace a room full of dumbbells and are engineered so the weights can be adjusted from five pounds to 60 pounds in just seconds, giving athletes complete control of their workout.

The economical Xvest TurboBells have large easy-grip rubberized handles and come with a specially designed stand. The manufacturer is offering them at an introductory price of $349, plus free shipping—saving you more than $270.

Circle No. 553 The Xvest is currently used by and has redefined training and fitness protocols for most, if not all, MLB teams, as well as teams in the NFL and NBA and at many colleges and universities. The Xvest also has a reputation for being one of the most used training products by U.S. Olympic programs. The Xvest can be utilized with most training protocols and activities.

It will not move, migrate, or bounce, enabling you to take your training to the extreme.

Circle No. 554

Check out

www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Testimonial

Strength Equipment to Meet the Highest Standards “When you walk in the room, your jaw drops and you say ‘Wow.’” Rohrk Cutchlow Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Performance Illinois State University “This will allow us to serve a lot more athletes at one time and make better use of our facility space. Plus, this is quality equipment that’s more durable than what we had. It’s by far the best equipment on the market.”

Jake Anderson Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Central College “We feel confident that our choice of Power Lift racks and platforms provides the Netherlands Olympic Committee with the highest-quality equipment and support in the industry.”

Jim McCarthy Director of Strength & Conditioning Netherlands Olympic Committee Other satisfied Power Lift customers include: University of Florida Florida State University University of Southern California Arizona State University Michigan State University University of Michigan Warren Mott High School, MI Texas High School, TX Allen High School, TX Belton High School, TX Texas Tech University University of Oklahoma Jenks High School, OK Valley High School, IA Atlantic High School, IA Millard South High School, NE Archbishop Moeller High School, OH Oklahoma State University University of Iowa Fossil Ridge High School, TX

Power Lift P.O. Box 348 Jefferson, IA 50129 800-872-1543 Fax: 515-386-3220 www.power-lift.com COACHING MANAGEMENT

59

StraightTalk

Today’s Technology: Broadening Coaches’ Horizons High-tech products allow team leaders to be better informed and more connected.

Every coach knows that a daunting amount of information flows through high school and college football programs. And there was a time when managing it all was truly a Herculean task.

For colleges, the program’s recruiting “database” often consisted of scattered notebooks, folders, and wherever else the coaches kept their notes on prospects. Communicating with recruits involved a complicated patchwork of incoming and outgoing phone messages to the athletes, their parents, and their coaches. At the high school level, there were practice and game schedules to print and disseminate, stats to compile and distribute to colleges and the local media, and all types of program information to share with athletes, parents, and boosters.

Fortunately, today’s football coaches have more resources at their disposal than ever before to help them master communication and information management. As a result, they’re more organized, efficient, and effective in running all aspects of their programs.

A Technology Pioneer With 16 years of experience in the industry, CyberSports was one of the first businesses to utilize computers to streamline the operations of sports teams. Even before the rise of the Internet, the company was offering desktop-based services to help coaches manage their player and team information. As technology progressed, CyberSports added new features that could interface with PDAs and other handheld devices, and expanded to a new level with Web-based applications that coaches could access from anywhere.

“Our company takes full advantage of the available technology to develop services that tie together various components of a sport program’s opera-

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

tions,” says Todd Hobin, President of CyberSports. “We take processes that are usually disconnected from one another and make them seamless.”

The result is increased efficiency, as coaches can quickly and effortlessly link all of the parties involved in the recruiting process. “Communication between coaches, the athletic department, and university administrators used to be a nightmare,” says Candice Hobin, CyberSports’ Vice President. “It was incredibly time-consuming to keep everyone up to date and on the same page. With today’s technology, the flow of information is immediate and extremely simple—it requires only the touch of a few buttons.”

CyberSports’ Web-based applications have also made it easier to keep track of current student-athletes and alumni, as well as PSAs. “Our systems link all the data about prospective student-athletes in a way that makes the entire flow of data after signing more efficient,” explains Candice Hobin.

“The information is easy to update, transfer, and share, so it’s useful not only to coaches but also to those in charge of compliance, admissions, and other departments.

“We’ve even streamlined the Letter of Intent process so that sports programs can generate their letters to prospective athletes with the touch of a button,” continues Hobin. “And as they do it, a copy is sent to all the relevant parties at the university.”

CyberSports is even helping sports programs develop their own customized recruiting Web sites. Members of the coaching staff can update the site with new information for athletes and community members alike. These sites give coaches an extra measure of control over the way their program is represented throughout the entire recruiting cycle.

Another recent innovation is a CyberSports tool that coaching staffs and other athletic department officials can use to fill open dates on their schedules. Like all the company’s products, this tool reflects the philosophy that when information is easier to access and act upon, programs have more time to do what they do best— prepare for success on the field.

Getting Your Message Through In August, when the NCAA banned Division I coaches from contacting recruits through text messaging, many football coaches saw it as a step backward. But in seeking out ways to adapt to this new regulation, coaches found a silver lining: E-mail, now the preferred means of communicating with recruits, is more effective and versatile than ever.

A major reason for e-mail’s emergence as a top recruiting tool is the way new software lets coaches tailor their messages. At the forefront of that effort is Scoutware, which has built an innovative system to help coaches put their program’s best foot forward.

“Today, kids are being recruited at younger and younger ages, and e-mail is the ideal way to reach them because it’s simple, non-intrusive, easy to share with parents and friends, and most importantly, e-mail is visual and can be made to look exactly how a coach wants,” explains Jeff Murphy, President of Scoutware. “In more than six years working with college programs, we’ve become very knowledgeable about how to reach recruits in a way that gets their attention.”

Of course, before you can get a recruit’s attention, he has to be able to see your message. Many football programs that have attempted to send out e-mails with impressive graphics, embedded action photos, and other high-tech extras have

StraightTalk run into problems with files that are too large, elements that don’t display properly, and spam filters that mistake the messages for junk mail. Scoutware solves all these problems.

“Getting an e-mail delivered is the hardest part of the process for many coaches,” Murphy says. “More than three-quarters of all e-mail is spam, and ISPs [Internet service providers], especially those that serve K-12 school districts, are under tremendous pressure to block inappropriate e-mails. As a result, being immediately recognized by ISPs as a legitimate e-mail sender gives our coaches a major advantage.

“In recruiting, undelivered e-mails equate to missed oppor tunities,” Murphy continues. “Therefore, our attitude is that ever y e-mail counts.”

the process of sending e-mails through Scoutware, they’re often surprised when they find out just how straightforward and effective it can be.”

Promoting Your Program At the high school level, coaches don’t have to comb the country looking for their next great recruit, but they still have serious information management and communication needs. With a new Web site called HighSchoolSports.net, coaches can use the power of the Internet to promote their program and make it more accessible than ever before to fans, boosters, college scouts, and the media.

“We’re seeing that coaches want to consolidate the way they communicate with everyone involved in their football program—the parents, the athletic department, the boosters, and the media,” says Adolph Santorine, President of Schedule Star, LLC, the company that runs HighSchoolSports.net. “It’s now possible to post all of a team’s information, including the schedule, game

newspaper individually and spend a great deal of time reading off the game stats to someone on the phone,” Santorine explains. “Through HighSchoolSports.net, a coach can put all his game stats into a Web-based form right after the game, and the stats appear instantly on the team’s Web site. Newspapers, other media outlets, and fans can pull the stats directly from the site. Coaches can even set it up so that game stats are automatically e-mailed to the local newspaper as soon as they are entered.”

Each school can develop its own site, with individual team pages maintained by coaches or other team officials containing action photos, roster information, and even an online store for team merchandise. In football, for instance, the varsity and j.v. teams can each have their own unique page. And because HighSchoolSports.net is linked to the popular Schedule Star scheduling software, the pages can also be used to post scheduling notices, team updates, and other notes. The administrative tool for entering information is

Scoutware works with coaches at all levels, from all three NCAA divisions, to prepare e-mail messages that get results. For example, you can send news alerts whenever your team does something special, complete with photos and exciting graphics that practically jump off the screen. Try including your own picture as well, and you’ll earn points Not all new technology that benefits football programs involves computers. Riddell recently tackled the with recruits by serious issue of MRSA infection risk by creating a high-tech sanitizing and reconditioning system called putting a face with Sports-O-Zone™. This patented system kills more than 99.9 percent of staph and MRSA bacteria. a name—they’ll MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant type of staph infection, has been in the news recently as athletic departalready recognize ments across the country have faced serious, sometimes life-threatening outbreaks. Football players are you when they meet at particular risk because of the sport’s frequent body-to-body contact and the high number of cuts, abrayou in person. sions, and other skin wounds suffered during play. Often, athletes put themselves in even greater danger by sharing towels, not covering their wounds, or failing to clean and dry their equipment properly.

E-mail can also help you determine which Riddell introduced Staph Fighter™ and Sports-O-Zone to help keep athletes safe from MRSA. Sportsrecruits are interestO-Zone, an equipment-sanitizing unit that can be purchased for your locker room, uses Ozone—one of ed in your program. the strongest oxidants and disinfectants available—to kill bacteria, viruses, and mold. It’s better than Scoutware includes hydrogen peroxide, bleach, and iodine for killing harmful pathogens, and it can be a key component of tracking capability any MRSA-prevention program. The company also offers a complete line of products that can be used that tells you whethto clean locker rooms, shower areas, and other high-risk spaces. er your e-mails were read—and what areas got your recruits’ attention—so stats, and team-generated photos and password-protected for security, and it’s you can stay on top of the communicavideo, on one site where all the different both fast and easy to use. tion process and better gauge each groups can access it. Our company has recruit’s specific level of interest. Best “We’ll soon be announcing a new tool created a single-source solution for comof all, the e-mails won’t lose their formaton HighSchoolSports.net where coachmunicating with all the supporters of a ting when athletes and coaches forward es can break down video from a game program through this new Web site.” them to teammates, parents, and others and post it on the site for fans and involved in the process, thus helping To understand how HighSchoolSports. supporters to view,” says Santorine. your message to spread even further. net can make life easier for coaches, “The coach can decide how much of “I have yet to meet a coach who has consider the way game results are prothe game video to put online—he can time to spare, much less waste,” says vided to the public and the media. “It post the whole game, or a package of Murphy. “When we walk coaches through used to be that coaches would call each selected highlights.”

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Company Q&A

Unique Athletic Apparel Designed for Comfort and Performance Chris Gallo is Reebok’s Director of Licensed Performance Apparel.

What are the unique features of Reebok’s team apparel line for colleges and high schools in terms of fabric, construction, and comfort, and what makes this apparel so innovative?

We incorporate products identical to those worn on NFL practice and game fields, and on NHL hockey rinks. The

some of the best fabrications and sewing constructions in the industry.

How do these garments compare to others on the market in terms of durability, and what makes them so durable?

We build our products based on the athletes’ needs. Not only does the product have to perform for the athlete, it also has to perform in the locker room. We like to study the products of our competitors, but it is more important to deliver products that have been field- and locker room-tested. We ship thousands of products to professional teams every year, and we have a defective rate of less than one percent.

How is Reebok able to offer college and high school programs the same garments that are worn by NFL athletes?

We will not sacrifice the integrity of our products. The products we ship to colleges, high schools, and retail outlets are the same as the ones we ship to professional teams and athletes.

Are there other special features or innovations in Reebok’s team apparel line to benefit high school and college football programs?

Reebok 1895 J.W. Foster Blvd.

Canton, MA 02021 888-898-9028 Fax: 781-401-4052 www.reebok.com

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products are constructed for specific climates and built based on feedback from professional athletes and equipment managers. They are tested for eight months—on the field and in the lab—before being released to the players. The innovations are based on

We offer specific products that are constructed for specific climates. We offer products that incorporate unique footwear technology, such as lightweight DMX padding, which offers outstanding support. We also offer seamlessly constructed products that feature engineered mesh for increased breathability. Our line even includes antimicrobial performance products in both loose and compression fits. In addition, we offer cold-weather wool compression products that help keep athletes warm under any conditions.

More Products BallQube, Inc. 800-543-1470 www.ballqube.com When you have a collectible sports item, you want to preserve its appearance, keep any autographs intact, and display it for all to see.

BallQube has an entire line of sports display cases just for you. Whether you want to put your item on a shelf or hang it on a wall, you’ll find the right UV-protected sports memorabilia case for the job. BallQube cases will look great in your home, office, or athletic department display area. Visit the company’s Web site today to learn more.

Circle No. 565 Cho-Pat 800-221-1601 www.cho-pat.com Cho-Pat’s newest product, the Bicep/ Triceps Cuff, affords protection from overuse injuries for individuals performing repetitive lifting in activities such as weight training. The patentpending device applies dynamic circumference pressure to the upper and lower portions of the bicep and triceps muscles, particularly at the tendon attachments.

This action spreads out the stress and direct pull on the muscle attachments, which helps reduce the likelihood of developing bicipital and tricipital tendonitis or tendonosis.

Circle No. 566 eFundraising.com 866-235-9660 www.efundraising.com Jack Link’s beef snacks and jerky are perfect for your wild side of fundraising.

These tasty, savory snacks are top sellers at games, practices, and events. Earn up to 50-percent fundraising profit with Jack Link’s beef snacks and jerky from eFundraising.

Circle No. 567 Optimal Nutrition Systems 800-817-9808 www.onsperformance.com ONS Performance’s Critical Reload™ is a great-tasting, quick-dissolving,

collegiate-compliant recovery shake designed to meet the nutritional needs of athletes.

Fortified with complex carbohydrates and whey proteins, Critical Reload is a clear and effective choice for facilitating muscle protein synthesis (growth and recovery) while optimizing and replenishing glycogen (energy) stores.

Contact ONS Performance today for discount team pricing and to learn more about the company’s entire line of collegiate-compliant products.

Circle No. 568 Stromgren Supports 800-527-1988 www.stromgren.com For the latest in protective performance apparel, sports medicine supplies, and athletic equipment, check out Stromgren’s full-color 20page catalog.

It gives details on each product, telling you everything from available sizes to stock and custom color options. The catalog truly contains something for every athlete. Call today or go online to request your free copy.

Circle No. 569 Cardinal Publishers Group 800-296-0481 www.SportsWorkout.com The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Sports series, published by the conditioning specialists at SportsWorkout. com, is among the most comprehensive and up-to-date sport-specific training series in the world today. Each book contains descriptions and photographs of more than 80 of the most effective weight training, flexibility, and abdominal exercises used by athletes worldwide. The books are well designed, easy to use, and committed to weight training.

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Testimonial

Make Strength Training and Flexibility Work More Effective with Bands “I have used Jump Stretch’s Flex Bands in each of my six years as Head Baseball Coach at Youngstown State University, and I have been very pleased with how they’ve aided our strength training, flexibility, and injury recovery.

We use the Flex Bands every day, and I tell our players that their bands are their most important piece of equipment.

“We have had a number of pitchers make significant increases in their velocity, and I attribute much of it to the use of Flex Bands. We’ve had several pitchers drafted (including one current major leaguer), and that was not a regular occurrence before we started using the bands. Flex Bands have helped tremendously by increasing our players’ flexibility and arm strength.

“Decreased rehab time is probably the most significant effect of the bands.

Sprained ankles that normally take three to four weeks to recover from now take only three to four days, thanks to Flex Bands and tractioning. And pulled muscles are pretty much a thing of the past.

“I feel Flex Bands are a must for any organization looking to maximize player performance.”

Mike Florak Head Baseball Coach Youngstown State University

Jump Stretch, Inc. 1230 N. Meridian Rd. Youngstown, OH 44509 800-344-3539 Fax: 330-793-8719 www.jumpstretch.com COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Calling Cards Here is what these companies are most known for:

Manufacturer of athletic field sideline/concert covers and drainage material. www.colbond-usa.com

Fair-Play designs and manufactures quality scoreboards, message centers, and accessories. www.fair-play.com

Building equipment for football champions for 35 years. www.rogersathletic.com

Affordable, time-saving coaching tools since 1995. www.digitalscout.com

Low-impact, pneumatic resistance equipment for the elite athlete. www.keiser.com

An excellent strength-enhancing, power-producing conditioning tool. www.thexvest.com

Dedicated to manufacturing grandstands and bleachers for more than 40 years. www.edstands.com

Elite performance training equipment since 1970. www.nautilus.com

Custom weight training equipment built for strength since 1976. www.samsonequipment.com

Web News Sample Leading Sports and Fitness Materials Before You Buy Human Kinetics’ Web site has useful, authoritative sports and fitness books and DVDs that help improve the performance, health, understanding, and enjoyment of all those who use them—athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, and fitness enthusiasts. This site is loaded with new and best-selling titles in every sport, and there are excerpts to read and DVD clips to view so you know exactly what you are purchasing. You’ll also find information on other Human Kinetics divisions, including the American Sport Education Program division and the HK Online Education Center. Visit the site to register for free e-mail newsletters and product promotions to stay on top of what’s new in your sport or area of expertise.

www.humankinetics.com

years. Use the Contact Us link in the upper right-hand corner to request additional information from Daktronics.

www.daktronics.com Nevco Lets You Design Your Next Scoreboard Online A “Build Your Own” feature and an expanded selection of specifications are among the highlights of Nevco’s Web site.

The “Build Your Own” area lets customers design their own scoring and display system. Select a scoreboard model and signs, change colors, and add a message center or video display to your system. Product specifications list the features of each Nevco model. For architects, specifications in CSI format are also available. Installation prints can be downloaded for each model, including both wired and wireless applications.

www.nevco.com Daktronics Scores Big on the Web The Daktronics Web site offers a wealth of product information.

Full-color images and technical specifications are available for electronic scoreboards, message centers, and video displays in the Products section. The Customer Solutions section has additional information on how Daktronics customers use their systems, along with more pictures. One of the most popular areas of the site is the Photo Gallery, which contains thousands of photos of installed scoreboards and displays. Visitors can search by product type or geographical location. The Latest News section offers news about projects going back several

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Need Quality Equipment? Check Out the Rogers Athletic Site Go online to see why winning teams turn to Rogers Athletic.

The company’s user-friendly Web site directs you to all types of training equipment—for offense, defense, youth players, and even strength training. Also, for a limited time, see how you can get a Lev Sled in a custom color. You can also request a free training DVD and a Rogers Athletic catalog at the site.

www.rogersathletic.com

T H E F I E L D O F P L AY For the past 20 years The Bear has become an established part of many professional, university and high school training programs throughout the U.S. It has proven to be the most effective tool ever designed for developing maximum power in the vertical jump for explosive performance in the athlete.

The BEAR

Patented

The Dominator develops all the major muscles in the upper and lower torsos including the connectors and stabilizers in the hip area. The Dominator Radiates Power from your feet up through your hands in one continuous line. In this explosive torque and turn exercise your athletes will dominate on the field of play.

Dominator

Patented

Over 200째 rotation in the torque & turn exercise

"I love the Bear machine. For it has played a very essential role in our strength program. It enables us to do things which would not have been possible with conventional methods. I see the Bear as the King of the lower body exercise and the finest tool for achieving explosive development on the market today Mike Woicik, Strength Coach New England Patriots

Box 329 Riverside, TX 77367 1 (800) 829-2928 www.powernetics.com Circle No. 147

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