Getting an early start to beat the heat of summer days, Pea Ridge Blackhawk junior high and varsity football athletes practice four days a week beginning just before 7 a.m.
They work out for two hours rotating between time in the multi-purpose facility, weight room and on the field, stretching and strengthening muscles and practicing various skills under the direction of the team of coaches headed by Brey Cook.
At this time, there are 74 athletes on the varsity team this year, Cook said.
Cook said practices involve two days a week on the field for offense and two days a week for defense. He said in the weight room, all athletes are together with the first hour spent in strength and conditioning.
"The biggest thing I see in these guys when they go through our strength and conditioning program is confidence," Cook said. "There are so many things going on outside of football ... they can come in here and lock into what we're doing physically. And, too, what we're doing as a family.
"When they leave this after an eight-week cycle, there's so much more confidence. They can see, not only in the mirror, but on their record sheets -- how much they can bench, how fast they can get," he said. "Their abilities change over the 17 weeks."
Cook said the off-season is designed on an eight-week cycle and the winter off-season cycle was on strength.
"It's changing these kids, their bodies, mostly what they can do in the weight room."
The second eight-week cycle is end of spring into summer.
"They're getting a whole other cycle as far as weight programming, but now their bodies have changed," Cook said, "Now it's to adapt to it on the football field. It's more about functional strength."
During the third eight-week cycle, which the team is currently in, "it's about conditioning on football field."
"We're able to do stuff offensively and defensively for an hour on the field," Cook said. "They've gotten used to their new bodies, now it's about translating that to football assignments."
He said it's very important that coaches stay alert to the players and their abilities as they work.
"We split our guys into three main groups. We have our power group which is our offensive and defensive linemen. We have our big skills -- our linebackers, some of our skinnier defensive ends, fullbacks, quarterbacks, running backs those bigger guys who are a little faster than our lineman. Then we have our skill groups, which includes receivers -- faster taller, lankier kids.
"Each one of those groups have specific needs to be safe on the football field and then to be productive and keep them on the field. Most of our workouts are split into those three groups. We'll have three main stations. For example, on leg day, we'll have our squat station, prowler station and an auxiliary lower body, leg lift station."
Cook said strengthening is correlated to keeping the athletes healthy.
"Those things are very correlated. If you're not taking care of your kids from a safety standpoint, and you're trying to bulk them up and get them big and strong and their joints aren't catching up ... then they're going to go out there and get hurt. If your kids are getting hurt, you're not going to have a successful program," he explained.
"For us, the base of our strength program is about functional safety," he said.
Practicing in the heat is essential to help the students to get acclimated to competing in the heat. Water is always available.
"We're in a good spot right now," Cook said. "Our staff has done an incredible job."
After morning workouts, athletes are provided breakfast from the school.
"The school has done an incredible job providing breakfast for them!"
"It's important they get the fuel in their body because they're working out here for two hours straight at a high level. They finish at 9:15 a.m.," Cook said. "That way they fuel their bodies immediately after they work out.
Speaking to the athletes after a workout, Cook said: "Everything we do in this program is connected. If I have a bad day, some of our coaches might have a bad day; if our coaches are having a bad day, some of y'all are going to have a bad day. You miss an assignment, it hurts you. you miss a block, it hurts him.
"Everything here we do ... in here and out of here ... is connected," Cook said.
