Basically all the
returning scholarship football players and many of the
walk-ons are participating in Barwis’s workouts this summer,
as are 19 newcomers, including the likes of J.R. House, Jason Gwaltney, Ryan Dawson and Zac Cooper. Technically
summer workouts are voluntary in Division I-A college
football, but then again, technically breathing is also
voluntary. But if you want to survive in this world, breathing
is a good idea, and to survive in the world of big-time
college football, strength and conditioning workouts had
better be a daily ritual.
After describing the
afternoon’s various conditioning
and speed drills (most of have
already completed the day’s
strength work), Barwis gives the
players a heads up about the
next day’s activity.
“Tomorrow there will be a
bus out front of the building (the
Puskar Center). I want everyone
on it by three. Don’t wear cleats,”
says Barwis in his heavy
Philadelphia accent.
“What are we going to do?”
asks one timid soul, wondering
what lies ahead, as so far all the
workouts have taken place at
Mountaineer Field.
Barwis chuckles, a little too
sinister for comfort, “You’ll find
out tomorrow. But I can promise
you one thing, we’re not going to
#$@%& Kennywood (the
Pittsburgh area amusement
park).”
Such is the life of a Mountaineer football player in the
summer. Sweating, straining, running, lifting. Every football
player realizes that strength and conditioning workouts are
a necessity to thrive in today’s highly competitive athletic
world. But that doesn’t make the drills any easier, even for
the sadists in the group who actually claim to enjoy working
out. Rare is the Mountaineer player who doesn’t lose his
lunch during some of Barwis’s hyperintensive workouts at
the beginning of the summer.
This year’s Mountaineers claim with pride that Barwis is
working them harder than ever before. Of course that
mantra seems to ring from the players each summer, but
this year’s group claims its true.
“I feel things are going very good. This is definitely the
hardest we’ve ever worked, whether we wanted to or not,”
stated senior safety Mike Lorello. “We’ve also had the best
attendance we’ve ever had. All the scholarship athletes
are here and then some. It’s been pretty good so far.
“This year there has been a lot of new stuff,” added
Lorello. “For the most part the lifting is still the same. We
have the same cycles. It changes every week, but we do
the same cycles we do every year. But the running and
agility, those things are more advanced this year. Mike is
definitely pushing us harder this summer than any of the
past ones.”
One of the new running drills, and the one that is the
most notorious so far, has been something Barwis calls “double fifths.” In past summers, the Mountaineers have
had to run a lap around the football field in a prescribed
length of time (faster for the skill players than the linemen).
Then after a short rest, the run is repeated. That one lap is
called a “fifth,” because it’s approximately a fifth of a mile.
Obviously, a double fifth is two laps, and two certainly is
tougher than one.
“Right now we’re running double fifths, which is two laps
around the football field,” explained junior safety Abraham Jones. “The first one, he gives us two minutes and 10
seconds for the speed guys, and then the second time
around we get two minutes. After that, we do single fifths,
and we have 65 seconds to make it on the first one. Then
he cuts five seconds off for the second one. It’s pretty
tough. Mike likes to switch things up. Just when you think
you’re doing the toughest drill possible, he turns it up a little
and makes it even tougher.”
The weather in northcentral West Virginia throughout
much of June and July has been nothing if not hot. The previous
couple of years, June was often rainy and relatively cool,
but this year the temperatures have been in the high ‘80s
and low ‘90s. That can make for a tough workout, but the
players accept the adversity.
“It has been a lot hotter this summer, and Mike is making
things 10 times harder than in the past, but that will all be
good for us in the long run,” noted Jones. “Being from the
South (Alabama), the heat doesn’t bother me as much as
some of the other guys, but it does seem to be effecting
some of the other guys. Mike is a good motivator, though,
and he keeps everyone going, no matter how hot it is.”
“I’ve noticed that it’s hotter so far this year than in the
past, but I haven’t noticed that that has made the workouts
any tougher,” added Lorello. “I always try to work out in the
afternoon in the heat of the day anyway. You have to get
used to the heat, because we’re going to play in it. You
might as well get used to it now.”
“It seems like every practice and every summer workout
has a new twist, but you just have to push through it,”
explained sophomore defensive lineman Keilen Dykes.
“Summer is the toughest. It’s hot outside. You just want to
lay up in the house. It’s hard enough just rolling out of bed,
say nothing of working out. It’s hard, and Mike Barwis
pushes us to the limit, but we have to get through it,
because in the end, it makes us better players.”
Dykes is a young defensive lineman of nearly limitless
ability. At 6-4, his frame is a chiseled 295 pounds. He’s the first to admit that the workouts are making him a better
football player, but he’s also happy to point out the added
bonus that comes with pumping up.
“The hardest part is the first two weeks,” said Dykes, a
native of Youngstown, Ohio. “After you make it through
that, you feel like you can make it through anything. I know
it helps me become a better player, and there’s an added
benefit – it also makes me look better for the girls. I want
to look good for the ladies. At the end of the day, my body
is tired and sore, but I know I look good for the ladies, and
let’s face it, you want to look good for the ladies, especially
in the summer time.”
Junior offensive lineman Dan Mozes was standing near
Dykes when Keilen was talking about “looking good for the
ladies.”
“Defensively linemen may think of that stuff, but offensive
linemen, we don’t worry about looking good for the ladies.
We’re big, ugly guys, and we know it,” laughed Mozes, a
first-team all-Big East selection last fall. “Workouts aren’t
going to make us any prettier,
no matter what we do.
“Maybe I’m different, but I
actually enjoy the workouts,”
added Mozes. “You see yourself
getting bigger, and you see
yourself getting better. After I
had surgery (on his shoulder,
which forced him to sit out spring
drills), I wasn’t able to work out
much, and I got down to 260.
Now that I’m working out again,
I’m getting back up to the bulky
guy I used to be. I enjoy that
look.”
As Barwis puts his charges
through new and interesting
forms of torture, he’s holding
the ultimate drill until the end,
using it as a carrot (or a whip,
depending on your perspective)
to insure complete dedication
this summer.
“Right now they’re using the
Law School Hill for motivation,”
explained Jones. “They say if
we come to every workout and do every workout, we won’t
have to do the Law School Hill. Everyone wants to avoid
the Law School Hill. It’s not really an endurance thing when
you try to run the Law School Hill; it’s more of a mental
thing. That’s by far the toughest thing we do.”
Obviously the proof of West Virginia’s summer workout
effort will be told in August, when head coach Rich
Rodriguez and his staff open fall camp. Rodriguez and his
assistants are extremely limited as to what they can do with
the players in the offseason. Barwis and his strength and
conditioning team are the ones who are hands on at this
point in time, but Coach Rod is certainly aware of what’s
happening in the workouts. He knows the product he puts
on the field this fall is being molded and shaped in the heat
of the summer.
“According to our strength coaches, they’ve been really
pleased,” explained Rodriguez, who is getting ready for his
fifth season of WVU’s head coach. “They’ve had great
attendance, and the attitude has been really super. It also
looks like some leaders are starting to emerge. What we
hope, as coaches, is that when we start practice in August,
everybody is healthy, in shape and ready to go.”
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