Bigger Faster Stronger

TROJANS BRING HOME THIRD TITLE OF THE 90'S

Homedale High School turned things around in 1997 going 12-0 and becoming the A-3 State Football Champions with a 30-21 victory over 10-1 Firth High School in the title game.

By Rich Hoyt, Homedale High School
Published: Spring 1998

Homedale capped the perfect season with a balanced attack and featured the Player of the Year and three other first team All-Staters.

1996 was a different story. Homedale went 2-6 and only briefly threatened to even make the playoffs. In addition to a years’ experience, one of the biggest reasons the Trojans made such a remarkable turnaround was the introduction of the Bigger Faster Stronger Set Rep System in the weight room. Homedale had been putting a major emphasis on power lifting the year before, and on the bench press prior to that. With the blessing of Head Coach Dave Carson, we implemented the “Bigger Faster Stronger” system. Coach Carson said, “the previous two years were not as good as they could have been because we were getting overpowered physically. We were working hard in the weight room, but weren’t seeing the results on the field. It wasn’t until Rich brought in the “Bigger Faster Stronger” System that we got the results we were after.”

Coach Hoyt experienced the same turn around success in Arizona at Winslow High School (featured in a 1995 BFS Journal article). Winslow put on a 3-Day Clinic and followed up a year later with a One Day Clinic and went from 3-7 in Football to 11-2 and state runner-up. The similarities at the two schools are numerous, with BFS as the catalyst. The coaches at Homedale are extremely supportive of the weight program.

Our toughest game this year was Parma H.S. They were featured in a BFS Article in 1997 as the Idaho State Champions and credited some of their success to the BFS Program. This was a big motivator to our kids to lift because they knew kids 10 miles away were doing the same things and winning. We had a wonderful game and barely edged an undefeated Parma team 41-40 in overtime after being behind 20-0.

Our High School floors are all checkerboard tile with our school colors of red and white. We take roll in the hall areas for weight classes and do the Dot Drill to warm up every day on these alternate colored tiles, we call the Drill “Squares”.

The Head Basketball Coach Randy Potter, who is also the Defensive Coordinator for Football, strongly believes in the BFS Program. In Coach Potter’s words, “the turn around in our overall strength and conditioning has been the most positive asset to the athletic program at Homedale High School. As the Head Boys Basketball Coach, the improvements have been seen in two major areas. We are a much more physical team and we have the upper body strength to hold our position under the basket. We feel we are always the stronger team in the fourth quarter at crunch time. Also, we have not had those nagging injuries to the back, legs or shoulders that start to hit this time of the season. We are still fresh and the kids feel very confident in themselves.”
After back-to-back 2-6 seasons, head coach Stan Hoaglun took over the reins as head coach during the 1996 season and immediately gave his full support to implementing the BFS Program to help the football team. Coach Hoaglun states, “A lot of things go into the making of an undefeated championship year. We had tremendous attitude and desire from a group of young men. If I had to single out one item to point to our success, it would be the improvement in our weight program. Rich Hoyt has managed to get the kids excited about lifting and getting stronger. They have seen the results of being stronger on the field and also the decrease in injuries. We compete against teams who are a league higher and against bigger athletes, yet by the fourth quarter, we are still going strong. We are convinced that the BFS Program must be a part of our total athletic program.”

We also have two girl’s lifting classes at Homedale using the BFS system. Our girls were District Champs in 1997. At this writing the ‘98 edition of the girls’ basketball team is battling for the Division Championship again.

The picture for 1998 looks very good and Homedale H.S. will continue lifting, plyometrics, stretching, and speed work as outlined in the Bigger Faster Stronger System throughout this Spring and on into the Summer.

The Homedale Trojans

Head Coach Stan Hoaglun with Scott Neil (l) and Addam Hamilton (r)

#53 Gavin Parker and #36 Zeb Parker along with many other Homedale defensive players swarming over a Grangerville back in the Quarterfinals. Homedale won hands down 45 to 10.

Homedale All-State Lineman Nic Miller #70, leading Zeb Ross #36 off tackle for a big gain versus Kimberly during the state playoffs.

During the first round of the playoffs Kicker Gavin Parker gets set to attempt an extra point with #14 Daren Uranga holding.