Yelling and screaming is vibrating off the weight room walls, as kids run in and out of the gym.

Sweaty, smelly, hardworking athletes are dominating weights almost half their size.  The definition of an athlete is a person trained to compete in sports or exercises involving physical strength, speed, or endurance, and that is what these kids are doing.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday these groups of athletes, roughly about 30-40 kids come into the weight room with a vision of improvement ahead of them. All headed by the leader of the weight room himself, Mr. Mango.

Coach Fox plainly states “Ron Mango is hands down the leader in the weight room, by teaching us and working on our muscles as hard as we can.” The idea of platoons all started back in 2001 when the football room was too small to maintain the whole team, therefore they moved to the weight room.

If you are ever in the weight room on a Monday Wednesday or Thursday, the atmosphere in there is pretty intimidating. Players describe the atmosphere to be “pretty Intense”. 

But why would these kids bother spending their time in a room full of sweaty guys if there are no cuts in football anyways? Coach Fox, varsity coach genuinely and boldly states “It all starts off in the weight room during the off season.”

Alex Puente, a 15 year-old sophomore claims that the reason he goes is simply because “personally if you go, the team is going to get better.” Talking about how in football you really can’t think about “I” you have to think about “us” because you can’t play the game of football with one player.

That is the mentality of all these young athletes, that it’s all about the team. “It pays off a lot because the amount of work you put into it shows off during season” Jon sincerely says about platoons. The reason they go is to get a head start and to get overall better as an individual and as a team. Junior Teammate Thomas Woodrow says that he feels really motivate to get into the workout room and make it to the playoffs.

The reasoning behind his motivation is behind the magical moving and touching words of Coach Fox. “Coach pushes us and motivates us to go out the best way senior year without any regrets” says Thomas when speaking of his coach. Graduating senior Jon Schwartz laughs to himself reminiscing the memories of his football years and says

“He has some crazy talks and influential speeches.” That is the best way these young men could explain the motivation their coach gives them. I guess it’s one of those things you can’t really put into words.

Coach Fox speaks of his players as if they are his own kids. He bluntly states

“It’s just what I do” when speaking of why he coaches these kids. He says it’s nice to see kids learn hard work and determination. The relationship between the players is phenomenal, it’s a brotherhood.

Coach Fox’s expectations are simply to everyday get a little better. If you work hard in the gym it shows out on the field. There are definitely different levels of commitment in the weight room, but they differ by age not by size.

The older kids are more mature and more committed because they know how much work it takes to get on that starting line-up, coach says. The younger less experienced kids don’t really understand that concept and aren’t as committed.

The game of football is played for many aspects, for an individual win, a team win, and an overall win for your fans, school and coaches. The sport is a very close knit, brotherly sport and watching these athletes work together during the off season couldn’t portray that anymore. “Football is a sport that brings you together.”