[Panther1]

Fact is alot of schools don't have a great offseason training program.

If you re-read my post, you'll see that I had a caveat in there about this.

If you are a lineman or oversized to run competetively you can still benefit from track if you have the right coach.

Ahhhh, but my post was about how track isn't AUTOMATICALLY going to help a kid doing it JUST to get better at football. Part of MY point is that many kids go to schools that DON'T HAVE THE "RIGHT" COACH in track and field.

At Russell we had the advantage of our track coach(one of the winningest coaches in the state) also being our Freshman football coach, Jim Epling. So he knew what to have us do to improve our footspeed and flexibility as football players. And he hated the baseball program.

AHHHH, I agree...IF you're fortunate enough to have a "football-friendly" track coach, then track COULD help you get better for football. Again, NOT my original point.

Big guys had the "Beefer Relay". and they practiced for this with sprints and 800-400 meters. This also improves stamina, endurance and conditioning.

All three of those things are worked on EXTENSIVELY in the pre-season of football. There's a month and a half between the end of track and the beginning of football pre-season practice. What good does it do to do something to get in "GREAT ENDURANCE SHAPE" and then have a layoff period to get out of shape, then have to get back IN shape?

Russell doesn't have a mandatory weight program and only a few lift every day.

Wow. If that's accurate I'm REALLY impressed with the Russell football program. But I'd bet their success then has more to do with the coaching expertise of the football staff and their ability to get their players to EXECUTE correctly on the field than the shotputting ability of their linemen or the 400meter prowess of their defensive backs.

Can you argue with the success of Russells football or Track programs?

I think not.

Only in this way: perhaps if their kids lifted more than "only a few lift(ing) every day" they'd have even MORE success than they've had in football? I guess you'd argue that the college programs that have year-round lifting and DON'T have their players run track instead (that would be ALL of them) are wrong and they'd be better off if they did things "the Russell way?"

Also, is there a chance that maybe a little more weight room strength MIGHT have made the difference on one or two big plays in the state championship game this year? Maybe those plays would've made a difference?

So keep thinking what your thinking and maybe we'll hope to see you in November to see who knows more about strength and conditioning.

Wow. Kind of antagonistic and defensive for someone that's so sure they're way is the right way.

Best of luck to your team.