How weight training has become more important in high school football

SOUTH BEND — South Bend Saint Joseph High School never had a strength coach until Mike Simon was hired part time last year to work with all of the school's athletic teams.

Before he got to South Bend from working on the East Coast, Simon described Saint Joe's weight-training state as "Helter Skelter."

"The school really needed guidance," Simon said. "The physical education teachers needed guidance and the coaches needed guidance on how they should be programming and utilizing the weight room the right way."

Simon's first steps were to throw out old equipment and reorganize Saint Joe's weight room. In the past year, Simon said there is more of a "skeleton" idea of how the school wants to organize the weight room and strength training to make it an actual program.

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Simon has been working in strength and conditioning for 17 years after receiving his masters in kinesiology and exercise. He knows the importance weight training plays in a program's success and sees South Bend-area schools are starting to catch up.

"More and more high schools are starting to realize and understand," he explained, "that the only way they can compete is to hire a strength coach and get some more expertise in that area."

Some have taken that approach, including South Bend Riley, which hired Kyle Edwards, founder of "Speed is Key Performance" as its strength and conditioning and sprint coach. South Bend Adams hired Tony Chelminiak around the same time as new football coach Frank Karczewski to oversee the school's weight room and programs.

Riley also made a recent $200,000 investment to upgrade its weight room and grew its weight-lifting class from 40-plus student-athletes to 275 because new head football coach Darrick Lee understands the importance.

"It teaches a discipline, be committed to something and its not about instant success," Lee said. "It takes time to get stronger, for things to change. Having a commitment to the weight room makes a huge change, changes you as an individual and makes you a better individual in my opinion, to have that patience."

The South Bend Community School Corp. couldn't confirm when its other three high schools — Washington, Clay and Adams — last renovated weight rooms in time for publication.

When Lee was a player at South Bend Washington, former head coach Antwon Jones and his coaching staff were ahead of their time in pushing the importance of the weight room. Lee said Jones, now an assistant coach at Penn, took the old wrestling room and pushed to make sure the football program had all of the equipment it needed.

Jones changed the program's thinking from a classic "bigger, faster, stronger" approach, to percentages, and moving more weight at a faster pace to generate more speed, power and control.

“At that time, a lot of schools weren't doing that," Lee said. "It was just about getting big and bulky, and he was trying to implement a program that would make us fast and strong and explosive athletes. That’s what a lot of people now are looking at."

Karczewski, a former Adams quarterback, learned that first hand after coaching at perennial state powerhouse Indianapolis Cathedral over the last several years.

"Over the last decade or so, teams that wanted to be good put a huge emphasis on it," Karczewski said of weight training. "In the early 2000s, the weight room mattered but teams weren't doing it every single day. Now pretty much statewide, probably nationwide too, any legit program has their kids in the weight room lifting every single day of the school year.

"It took us a little while to catch up, but we did add that here at Adams and have a lot of our football kids in the weight room before school."

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During his playing days, Karczewski said players had to take lifting sessions upon themselves and work that time into practice schedules before the team went out to the field, leaving less time for practice. Now, with Karczewski pushing for team lifting sessions before school or during the kid's schedules through weight-lifting class, the Eagles can have more practice time.

As Karczewski and Lee continue to shape their programs, continuing to advance their weight lifting programs is the expectation. Where that begins is growing participation amongst the student-athletes, and pushing the importance of the weight room to make a full-time part of the program.

"Good teams, good players, it is an expectation you are in the weight room during your school day," Karczewski said. "You want to be a good player, good team, it has to be part of what you are doing."

High school football schedule

INDIANA

Sept. 9

South Bend Adams at South Bend Saint Joseph, 7 p.m.

South Bend Clay at South Bend Riley, 7 p.m.

Elkhart at South Bend Washington, 7 p.m.

Jimtown at John Glenn, 7 p.m.

Penn at Cincinnati St. Xavier, 7 p.m.

Triton at Bremen, 7 p.m.

Mishawaka at Goshen, 7 p.m.

NorthWood at Northridge, 7 p.m.

Warsaw at Concord, 7 p.m.

Wawasee at Plymouth, 7 p.m.

Southport at Fairfield, 7 p.m.

New Prairie at Mishawaka Marian, 7:30 p.m.

LaVille at Winamac, 7:30 p.m.

Chesterton at LaPorte, 8 p.m.

Valparaiso at Michigan City, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 10

Phalen Leadership Academy at Osceola Grace, 3 p.m.

MICHIGAN

Friday, Sept. 9

Brandywine at Saugatuck, 7 p.m.

Buchanan at Dowagiac, 7 p.m.

Cassopolis at Comstock, 7 p.m.

Niles at Edwardsburg, 7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend high schools upgrading weight training for football