Madison Memorial football team connects with community
posted by Dennis Semrau at 8/11/2009
Dennis Semrau
Wissports.net
As the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Madison Memorial High School football program, coach Chad Gunnelson was looking for a way to assess the fitness of the Spartans entering the 2009 season.
So second-year head coach Rick Saenz and Gunnelson came up with the concept of the first Spartan ‘Night of Champions,’ which made its debut Monday night at Mansfield Stadium.
But not only did the plan assess the team's fitness and strength, it provided another avenue for the Spartans to connect with the Madison community as well.
The Spartans’ ‘Night of Champions’ included testing of the varsity players in four movement skill drills -- the 40, L-Drill, Vertical Jump and Broad Jump -- and three strength drills -- Squat, Power Clean and Bench) inside Mansfield Stadium under the lights.
“It worked better than we expected,” Said Gunnelson, who is in his second year as an assistant football coach at Memorial and will serve as the Spartans offensive coordinator and defensive backs coach this season. “It came together nicely. It was a fun event.”
Gunnelson said the primary purpose of the event was to test the athletes to show improvements they made from their summer strength and conditioning program and to set new goals for the upcoming off season.
“We invited all of our parents, younger players (as this event was for Varsity athletes only), youth, and friends of the program to join us and support their Spartan football players as they performed,” he said.
But the concept had a unique twist.
“They needed to bring something with them for admission to the event and it wasn't a ticket, or money,” Gunnelson said. “We asked for each person to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Lussier Community Center.”
How successful was it?
“We collected two truckloads of food to donate for those in need,” Gunnelson said
In addition to the testing that was done, the pom-poms squad also performed.
Hopefully, next year we’ll get even more people involved,” Gunnelson said.
Following is a list of the top performances.
In particular, Lechein Neblett, an all-Big Eight Conference receiver from last year and one of the states top track and field athletes, and Brett Wise, an all conference hockey player as a sophomore and a three-sport athlete (including baseball), were able to showcase their unique skills.
Top performers:
40 Yard Dash (Speed)
Lechein Neblett - 4.45 seconds
Ron Covington - 4.48 seconds
Jordan Fredrick - 4.59 seconds
L Drill or 3 Cone (Agility)
Lechein Neblett (WR/DB - Senior) - 6.76 seconds
Luke Galle (WR/OLB - Senior) - 7.49 seconds
Kevin Meier (WR/DB - Senior) - 7.49 seconds
Standing Long Jump or Broad Jump (Horizontal Power)
Lechein Neblett – 10 feet, 5 incyhes
Keith Larson (RB/LB - Junior) – 10 feet, 1 inch
Ron Covington (RB/DB - Senior) – 9 feet, 11 inches
Vertical Jump (Vertical Power)
Brett Wise – 35 inches
Ron Covington – 33 inches
Keith Larson -- 30.5 inches
Squat (Lower body strength)
Jon Jung (RB/LB - Junior) -- Max 428 pounds
Brett Wise (RB/DB - Junior) -- Max 407 pounds
Patrick Mather (OL/DL - Junior) - Max 405 pounds
Power Clean (Power Test)
Brad Dombrowski (OL/DL - Senior) -- 251 pounds
Jon Jung -- 244 pounds
Luke Galle -- 222 pounds
-WSN-
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