Marble Falls athletes are committing themselves to summer workouts

Championships are won in the offseason.

That was said by Pat Summit, the legendary University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach, right after the Lady Vols won one of their eight national titles.

She commended her players for staying in Knoxville during the summer to work toward their championship. In many ways, that’s what’s happening with athletes at Marble Falls Independent School District.

Strength and conditioning coordinator Richard Scales said he’s been pleased with the attendance, noting 75 high school and 45 middle school students are attending from 7-9 a.m. Monday-Thursday. Scales designed the program and is overseeing the strength portion, while track and field head coach Austin Silva is overseeing the speed program.

The goals are simple. Coaches want athletes to be more flexible, more mobile, have more velocity and be more explosive.

In the past, the object was to pump as much weight as possible to overpower the opponent. Scales and Silva have a little different approach.

“There are very little changes in the lifts,” Scales said. “We’re increasing intensity by increasing speed of the workout. It’s not about how much weight you lift. It’s about how fast you can move the weight with proper form. It’s not always about loading the weight and completing the workout. We’re trying to develop more form.”

Scales spent months creating the summer strength and conditioning program. He attended numerous clinics, did research and had conversations about what to implement in order to help the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs be prepared for their upcoming seasons. And this program isn’t for only one sport, he added.

“We want to generate more force than the person in front of us or guarding us,” he said. “The higher we can jump, (so we can) try to get our kids to develop more force and be more powerful. It’s not sport specific.”

Athletes who are participating are in grades 7-12 and are at Marble Falls High School. The middle school athlete — boys and girls — are outside from 7-8 a.m., while the high school players are indoors. At 8 a.m., the two groups swap facilities.

“During summer workouts, I have a mix of athletes,” the coordinator said. “I’m just training athletes. If I can make any player a better athlete, they can better at their sport.”

The best part? Scales said more athletes are choosing to participate and have various reasons why. The biggest are the District 24-4A titles captured by the boys cross country team, boys and girls basketball teams, boys soccer and baseball. Marble Falls also finished as the district runners-up in girls soccer and boys golf.

“Success breeds passion,” he said. “When you have success, more people want to be apart of it. For the football players, it’s hunger. They want it. They want to be better. They don’t want to have a repeat (of a 2-8 record) of last year.”

He added that attendance by the middle school athletes also is on the rise.

“I’m going to be able to teach them more and how to be safe with proper lifts and technique,” Scales said. “It has grown in popularity (in all grades). As a coach, we push our kids more and more every week. There’s always something that can make us better. We want them to push themselves to the limit and push themselves every week. I’m excited for what we have coming through.”

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