MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With high school sports seasons and offseason workouts shut down this spring, teams are finding creative ways to get work in. The Bridgeport football program has gone virtual, with daily workouts posted on Twitter.
“We’re just trying our best to keep our kids physically active and trying to help them out a little bit mentally to feel a little bit better about themselves during this crazy time,” said Bridgeport offensive coordinator Tyler Phares.
Phares and defensive coordinator Adam King provide most of the instruction.
“Adam King has a knack for being in front of the camera. He does a great job and we got some really good advice from an ex-player (Dom Rondinelli) who works for Barwis Methods with (former WVU strength coach) Mike Barwis. He sent Coach Cole a big list of workouts we can do.”
Coaches share the plans for the day but the social media engagement doesn’t stop there. Players share videos as well and teams within the team are formed.
“We split up into eight teams. So we have accountability teams. We have two to three seniors on each team and they went through and drafted all of our freshmen through juniors.
“It is kind of like what West Virginia did a little bit.”
After winning the school’s tenth state championship in December, head coach John Cole spoke at length about that team’s offseason commitment in the weight room. Obviously, nothing can replace the heavy lifting but these workouts can make up for some of that lost time.
“Especially for the brand of football that we play, the weight room is probably more important for us than it is a lot of teams. The program that we have, it is predicated along the line of lifting heavy weights. Not being able to do that has been tough, but this has given us a different avenue.”
In case you were wondering, Coach Cole did not exempt himself from feeling the burn.
“If I was going to sit here and say that he did that himself, I would be lying. He had to get his wife’s help to get on there to send the videos. He and technology are not the best of friends.”