One doesn’t typically think about baseball players dominating in the weight room, but the Ravenswood (West Virginia) Red Devils are building stronger, more explosive athletes as a way to restore the team’s former glory.
Historically, baseball is a pretty big deal in Ravenswood, a small “company” town of 3,800 nestled on the banks of the Ohio River that was built around an aluminum plant. A union lockout at the plant that lasted two years in ‘91 nearly choked the very life out of the town.
That standoff reflects the grit of the townspeople…
On game days, it seems like the whole town comes out to root for the Red Devils, and it’s not unusual to have a couple hundred fans in the stands for a high school baseball game. The locals take a lot of pride in the team, but just a few years ago, the team dwindled to barely enough athletes to fill the batting card. Dissension spread amongst the teammates, and a polarizing rancor broke out on local message boards.
To avoid another divisive standoff in the Community, it was time for a change, and assistant coach Wes Swain took over as head varsity baseball coach.
Swain Sees Team Swoon
Communicating a more positive tone and clearer expectations for the team became a top priority for Swain. In 2013, his first season as head coach, nineteen players turned out, doubling the roster from the prior year. Now that he had some depth in the lineup, he knew he needed to figure out a way to keep them.
As an assistant, out-of-building coach, Swain had observed a devilish trend: Ravenswood seemed to start off competitively, but absent a robust roster of players to rotate into the lineup, they often faded in the last couple of innings, and by the end of the season, the team was totally gassed.
To put his athletes in a position to win, Coach Swain needed to find a way to help these athletes maintain their strength over the long season.
”I needed to rebuild Ravenswoods baseball and knew, in order to do that, our kids needed to be stronger. I also noticed how much strength they lost during the season. This isn’t about just physical strength, but mental strength too.”
Strength in Numbers
Ravenswood High has just 450 students (of which almost half are on lunch assistance), and resources are very limited. For instance, the weight room is very small with just six racks. Absent much in the way of budget, the coach tried several free lifting programs that he found on the internet, some of which were from very credentialed S&C coaches. But the kids got bored, lost interest, and started to blow off training.
Swain wanted a well-rounded program that developed explosiveness, power, strength, and endurance, but one that was flexible enough to modify since he lacked resources. He sought a program that would continuously shock the young athletes’ systems, kept them enthused, and yield results.
After trying different workout programs that the kids found monotonous and that didn’t deliver results, a work colleague told him about a new training program that he was using: TrainHeroic.
Swain checked out the website and signed up for a free trial.
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Working through the trial with the TrainHeroic Performance Team, he organized his athletes into lifting groups of four so that all parts of the weight room were efficiently used and such that no one was just standing around. Athletes are in and out in about an hour with warm-up included.
Swain says, “I used to work a physical labor job at a plant and this is the same feeling that I had after a really hard day…but you felt like you did something! The ‘finisher’ part of the workout is a real challenge and it’s what the kids love to hate. The first thing the kids ask is “what’s the finisher?”
Competition helps, too. The guys lifting at the rack across from another see each other’s progress and the next thing you know, it’s iron sharpening iron.
Commitment and Leadership Count
If this was so easy to do, everybody would be doing it. Coach Swain, along with assistant coach Jason Anglin, were willing to invest the time to be there with the kids, and with the new focus, intensity and pace, his athletes immediately responded. They were more engaged and challenged, as opposed to bored and uncommitted. Attendance grew over the course of the off-season, with athletes from other sports joining them in the weight room.
“Jason and I do this for the kids. Within 5 minutes, I can create a workout program for the day. I don’t have to worry about it at night. I can set this up during my planning period for the whole week. This has saved me a ton of time and I can’t tell you how well worth it has been!”
Rapid Return on Investment
For the amount of time that he has put in, Coach Swain reports that the gains have been unbelievable…and visible. The change in his athletes’ physical appearance in just 10 weeks, alone, is obvious.
He laughs, “When kids get into the weight room and they start taking their shirts off, you know you got ‘em! But that’s something that keeps them committed. They start seeing their gains! At this point, I don’t know if anyone can hit or throw, but I DO KNOW they will be the strongest kids on the field!!”
Beyond the physical changes, Coach Swain already sees a positive change in his athletes’ confidence, as well. The mental part of baseball is significant and he sees huge gains, pointing to the example of the Kansas City Royals, the recently crowned World Series champions.
Coach Swain suffers no delusions: His approach to strength and conditioning is a means to an end and that end is to restore the glory to the Ravenswood baseball program for the athletes, the school and the community.
He adds, “This can benefit a LOT of people. There are a lot of people watching what we’re doing right now. And I’m not bragging…but I am telling everybody that will listen.”
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