[wingnut]

Cougar football in 2012:

We started lifting weights ten days following our loss to Lawrence in the playoffs. We started with 57 kids in the weightroom. A few of them figuured out it was a lot of work and weeded themselves out. A few others went on to baseball workouts with our assistant football and HEAD BASEBALL Coach, Mark Easterling. So, we know they are in good hands. We are, right now, averaging about 34 in the weightroom consistently. That is up from 3 to 4 last year.

As this thread began, on a very positive note: we are excited to return most of our offensive stat leaders and a good chunk of our defensive players. We will have holes to fill on the offensive line, at ILB, and at corner. However, everybody usually graduates some kids that can play. We are thrilled that AUSTIN ARNETT and ELI HANEY are eligible and working very hard in the weightroom. Eli is a very solid lineman and kicker. Austin is a good runner and was named the defensive MVP of the KYMSFA all-star game. He started as a FR and will be back next year for the Cougars.

Coach Fugate has had a surgery and needed some time away to heal. Coach Easterling is busy with baseball. So, I run the weightroom along with help from Will Noble and Nick May, (a college student who volunteers with our program).

Things are going well and we are very pleased with the work our kids are putting in right now in the Cougar Den. We are looking forward to the weight meet at Raceland. We took 8 kids last year, and this year we may be able to enter two (20 player) teams.

We play in a tough region and our kids are starting to "get it" that if we want to even compete with the elites of 3-A football, we must train in the off-season.