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While filming the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau at Tomah football game last Friday night for our highlight section, I noticed an interesting item on the helmets of the Tomah football players.  Each player had a three digit number in rather large font on the back of their helmets.  I asked one of the chain-gang members what they stood for.  As I suspected, the number represented the players' combined number for three different weight room lifts.  I had not seen or heard of anything like this, so I decided to contact Tomah football coach Brad Plueger to find out more information.

In a spring meeting this year Coach Plueger told his team they would be doing testing in fall camp and the numbers they put up would be displayed on their helmets for all to see.  He was hoping this would motivate his players and reward those that worked hard.  He was also hoping to see an improvement in the off-season conditioning and strength programs.  Tomah has charted the number of lifts performed by their athletes during the summer months for several years, and after implementing this unique reward system they saw nearly a 20% improvement in the number of lifts performed.

Strength testing was done at the beginning of fall practice.  The athletes were tested in three core lifts:  bench press, squat, and power clean.  They were tested to a one rep max, and the totals from those three lifts were tabulated.  Three inch vinyl numbers were then affixed to the player's helmets for all to see.

Players have responded positively and have pushed each other to improve.  Of course there has been a little good-natured ribbing for those with lower numbers as well.  Offensive lineman Scott Kaul is the leader on the team with a combined lift of 960 pounds, while four other players top 900.  Last year before the stickers were implemented only one player on the team had a score over 900.  It is certainly hard to argue with the results.

Coach Plueger credits his former high school coach at Tomah, Dave Dixon who now coaches at Hayward High School, as coming up with the idea.  Coach Dixon claims to have gotten the idea from seeing a team in Minnesota and has continued the tradition to Hayward where they've done the helmet stickers for the past six years.

The community and parent reaction in both Tomah and Hayward has been positive.  And other coaches are beginning to catch on.  Coaching football is a copycat profession, and don't be surprised to see other teams around the state use this as a way to motivate and reward players.  Already this year, coaches from Green Bay Preble approached the Tomah coaching staff at a scrimmage for information, and are considering using it next year.