May 19, 2009
Dear Student Athletes, Parents and Coaches,
Summer is drawing near and coaches will have access to their student athletes again for the summer. I am sending this final note for the 2008-2009 seasons. We have had productive school year and we are finishing up our 2nd year in our new Athletic Facility. We have the best facilities in the MVC and we should be proud and thankful for that.
There has been an increase in the number of injuries this school year. Correspondingly, we have had a decrease in number of athletes performing in the strength and conditioning programs year round. I am a believer that these programs help to minimize the number of injury’s to athletes. Some of the Wahawk teams that worked out year round that had the fewest appearances in my office were Men’s and Women’s swimming, Women’s basketball, Men’s soccer.
Strength and conditioning is the first step to injury prevention and the key to staying on the practice field and competing for West High at the highest level. We have great strength and conditioning facilities and many hours available for athlete to work out and help become a better overall Athletic Program. The Athletic Trainer can only do so much to keep kids in the game. It is the athletes' responsibility to take ownership in their sports and in their bodies/injury prevention. Listed below are the hours of the strength and conditioning programs. I would hope to see 80% or better of West's athletes participating in the summer West High Program. Athletes participating in a summer program should be maintaining their participation, but reducing the weight and increasing the number of reps two times per week at the minimum, allowing adequate recovery.
I hope coaches and athletes challenge other teams at West to see What Team Can Have the Highest Percent of their athletes in the programs year round. Remember Stronger Musclses are better than Weaker Muscles.
There are multiple strength and conditioning programs during the school year to develop strength and conditioning:
- Zero Hour (6am – 7:15am),
- PE classes (1st & 2nd Period ),
- After school strength and conditioning (2:45-4:14pm)
Summer Conditioning
Times for summer lifting (starting June 15):
M-W-F, 8-9:30 am, 9-10:30 am, 4-5:40 pm
Coach MacKensie will be available in the morning and will be running the conditioning portion of your sessions. Any student wanting to use the weight room in the morning need to be at West either at the 8:00 am time or the 9:00 am time to do the whole session. Athletes SHOULD NOT just drop in to lift.
A session for middle school kids will be held from 10-11 am.
Thank you for your time and attention, Have a healthy and wonderful summer.
Sincerely,
Dave Fricke, MS ATC/LAT Jeff Frost
Head Athletic Trainer Athletic Director
Waterloo West High School West Waterloo High School
