Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano strength and conditioning coach Brian Rill encourages Nathaniel Neumann while doing pushups as part of a three-day-a-week summer course at Shawano Community High School. About 30 high school students attend the class regularly.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano strength and conditioning coach Brian Rill applauds Shawano soon-to-be sophomore Gracyn Habeck after clearing a plyometric jump during a session last week.
As strength and conditioning coach Brian Rill completes his first complete calendar year at Shawano Community High School, changes are occurring.
Rill took over after former football coach Bill Hass stepped down as the weight room supervisor last season. Hass received a yearly stipend for holding the position since his retirement from the football head coaching position prior to the 2013 season.
“The biggest thing I’m trying to change isn’t the physical part. We’ve got a lot of really good athletes here,” Rill said. “It’s the mental part. It’s the idea of competing in everything we do.”
Rill teaches five different classes over the course of the school year, including three sport weight training classes and two other weightlifting classes.
This summer, he is holding two classes, which meet for about 90 minutes three times per week. He has 30 participants regularly for the 8 a.m. session with incoming freshmen and sophomores. The junior and senior numbers vary daily for the 9:30 time slot.
The program previously asked the students to come to the school five days a week for the duration of the summer. Many athletes couldn’t commit to that schedule.
“If we can get them in three days a week, that will maintain what they need in order to compete next year,” Shawano Activities Director Charmaine Schreiber said.
One of Rill’s biggest challenges is getting the athletes to buy into working out on a regular basis. He says the youngsters who have been in his classes are starting to see positive changes.
“Everybody wants to play right now,” Rill said. “But we need time for our kids to train to be able to change their bodies and change how they view that stuff, so that is probably the biggest aspect that we are trying to incorporate in the big picture and how important it is for them to get stronger, to get faster, to be more agile and to do those things.”
Although Hass, in his role as the weight room supervisor, did many of the same things, Rill’s full-time status has helped the school expand its offerings in the weight room in addition to giving students more time to work out before and after school.
Rill has worked with coaches on building interest in and creating the programs, along with athletic trainer Sally Egan.
“We’ve always had a weight program available, but he’s taking initiative,” Schreiber said. “He’s planning programs, pre-game and post-game, just working hand-in-hand in tandem with Sally on injury prevention and strength and all that.”
Rill makes sure not to specialize in any specific sport, as around 60 percent of Shawano’s athletes participate in multiple sports.
“The coaches have been amazing in terms of what we’re trying to do, understanding that it’s a collaborative effort with our scheduling and how we do things,” Rill said. “Overall, the athletes, the kids here want to do well. They want to get better.”