MANY COACHES PREFER TO RUN THEIR OWN GYMS

While many athletes are opting to train on their own and use the unique training techniques offered by the Acceleration program of St. Francis Hospital, many coaches would rather their athletes work out with their teammates.

It's not so much because coaches doubt the effectiveness of other training methods and other personal trainers, but they simply believe that working together means winning together.

"We pretty much take care of our lifting and speedwork ourself," said Jackson football coach Carl Gross, whose team holds weightlifting sessions from 6 to 7:30 and 8 to 10:30 a.m. four days a week. "The biggest thing is that I want them to be able to look at someone in the eye from across the huddle in the fourth quarter and see someone who's been there at 6 in the morning just like they did. They know their teammate has got just as much invested in this thing as they do."

Jackson has developed a reputation for having a very effective weightlifting program. Assistant coach Brandon Norman is the main person behind the scene who Gross credits for the team's impressive turnout and progress in the weightroom.

"He really has a good plan," said Gross of Norman -- whose brother, Nathan, was signed earlier this year to an NFL free-agent contract with the Carolina Panthers. "He keeps up to what the new trends are in weightlifting and nutrition and studies it year around. We've got a lot of kids benching 300 and squatting 500. And that's a credit to coach Norman."

Likewise, Cape Central wrestling coach Josh Crowell likes to keep his team together during workouts.

"I'm totally into teams doing everything together," he said. "That's the word: Team. And you depend on one another. Primarily, I want them with me and our coaches so we can monitor them."

Cape Central has a system in which basically all the athletes -- whether they be tennis players or wrestlers -- do the same thing. Some adjustments will be made from sport to sport, but most of the lifts remain consistent.

"The old mentality was that the weight room was 'the football lifting program,'" Crowell said. "Hey, it's not just for football. There's girls and guys in there now and that's a major stride that we've taken in the last couple of years."

Cape Central uses the Bigger, Faster, Stronger program in which athletes use basic core lifts in an attempt to make athletes more massive and explosive -- not necessarily more defined.

"Of course a golfer won't go as crazy as a 200-pound lineman," Crowell said. "We do make some adjustments according to the sport an athlete plays."

Billy Underwood, an exercise therapist with the Acceleration Program, understands coaches wanting to keep teams together so they can keep tabs on them.

He also said, however, that complete teams are welcome.

"We encourage coaches to come in and see what we do," Underwood said. "This is what we do and this is all we do. We want to make them better."