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AFM Magazine


Top of the Line

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Bishop Gorman High School built one of the country’s top strength and conditioning facilities – with the help of Samson Equipment.

When Tony Sanchez assumed head coaching responsibilities at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas in 2009, he produced immediate results – a 15-0 record that included a state championship and a national ranking in his first season. The only thing missing at Bishop Gorman was a strength and conditioning program that would allow the Gaels to maintain their position as one of the nation’s premier high school programs.

That changed in 2010 with the hiring of Sean Manuel as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and the decision to completely revamp their outdated strength training facility. Sanchez and Manuel had worked together since 2004 and both understood how important having a top-flight strength program and weight room would be to the future of Bishop Gorman’s football program.

They also knew that, in order to get the best facility planning advice and the best equipment available anywhere, they needed to call Samson Equipment. They had worked together with Samson at their previous school and were familiar with the first-rate quality of their equipment and their focus on providing individual service to their customers.

While the process took months, the partnership of Bishop Gorman and Samson Equipment produced a strength and conditioning facility that rivals any high school in America and even exceeds those found at many colleges.

AFM recently asked Coach Manuel about the Bishop Gorman strength and conditioning program and his experience with Samson Equipment.

AFM: When you and Coach Sanchez moved to Bishop Gorman, what were some of the challenges you faced?

Manuel: The biggest challenge we faced was changing the culture of the football program from training to compete on a state level to training to compete on a national level. Coach Sanchez initiated the process in 2009 by installing a very strong comprehensive high school program. He clearly laid out new expectations, provided intense accountability and brought a high level of inspiration that helped create buy-in with the kids and radically changed the Gorman culture.

During this time he also implemented the first on-campus, off-season weight program. In 2010, our tremendous benefactors Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta decided they wanted to continue to build on the quality of the program, so they provided Coach Sanchez the ability to hire a full time strength coach. It was at this point that Coach Sanchez and I began to work together to change the culture from a state/local focus to a national one.

Specifically, we encouraged players to embrace the suffering necessary to maximize their potential, individually and as a whole. I did this in the weight room by fostering an environment of excellence through intensity, focus and attention to detail. I implemented a faster lifting tempo and a larger work load, corrected lifting form and scheduled more maximum-lift testing days which helped the kids develop the mental discipline and physical strength to compete on a national level.

From a facilities standpoint, the primary obstacles we faced in the weight room were constricted time and space. We had 115 kids to facilitate at one time but we only had 10 full racks without platforms and 5 stand-alone platforms, which means we had 7 to 8 kids per rack. Olympic lifting was difficult due to the congestion and the cluttered equipment layout. Additionally, we were limited to an hour and fifteen minutes in order to accommodate other athletic programs.

What are your keys to a successful strength and conditioning program?

•  Assessment - Being able to clearly identify the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the athlete or team.

•  Development and Implementation of a systematic plan to address those needs. Being able to design and carry out a program that increases athletic performance over a given period of time.

•  Injury Prevention through proper lifting techniques and corrective exercise training.

•  Program Evaluation - Consistently re-evaluating the program to build on what works and determine where we can improve. Also, staying up to date with the ever growing scientific research surrounding strength and conditioning.

•  Creating a Healthier Lifestyle for the athletes by helping kids develop a lifelong fitness lifestyle through nutrition and exercise. 

You and Coach Sanchez had worked with Samson Equipment at your previous schools. What about your experience led to your decision to go with them again for your new facility at Bishop Gorman?

Samson has equipped three different facilities I have worked at, and each time their racks have proven to be of the highest quality and durability on the market. I also appreciate Samson’s customer service. They are constantly available for maintenance and replacement issues with the equipment. At Samson, the guy who sells you the equipment also installs it, so if anything is amiss it can be quickly addressed and fixed on the spot.  

You worked closely with Samson on the product selection and layout of your new strength training facility. How did Samson help you develop a completely customized facility?

Samson was tremendous in providing us a platform to customize our facility. A lot of companies only have standardized racks and attachments available. But with Samson, the best part of what they provided was their flexibility in designing our work stations. I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted the work stations racks to do and how I wanted them built.

Because of the amount of details, it was better to go to their facility and work on it face to face. So we met with Samson at their facility in New Mexico for about six hours, presenting our ideas and listening to Samson create viable solutions to bring these ideas to life. They used custom design software to digitally build each aspect of the work station to the size, shape and location I wanted it. Once they created a possible solution, they sent us the images via email to review. They worked with us for 2-3 months, making sure that our work stations where exactly what we wanted. The end result was phenomenal.

What have you and your athletes’ experiences been so far with your new equipment?

Unbelievable! We can do myofascial release and stretching as a team on the track for pre-practice. We can rotate 3-6 position groups through different workouts on different machines in different locations and get through workouts that use to take us an hour and a half in 45 minutes. We can go a week without one position group doing the same workout. We have countless ways to change up the workouts on the kids and introduce them to new movements and new exercises. The beauty of the new equipment is that four kids can be working out in or around a rack at the same time. The racks are designed to be multifunctional and to accommodate multiple users, so the kids can do multiple exercises at a rack with very little transition time. We can do bench press in the racks, with dips on the side of the racks with TRX pulls on the other side of the rack with curls in the front of the rack, all at the same time. The best part is that the kids love the equipment and are excited about using it, which makes it easier for us when pushing them through the intensity of the program.

Does having such great equipment from Samson make your job easier and help make your athletes more successful?

Samson is in the business of creating sport performance tools for athletes to increase athletic performance and they do a great job. The size of the facility makes my job easier due to greater efficiency when facilitating the number of kids we have. The design of the racks adds to this efficiency and, as a result, we are more productive during our time in the weight room. Our tremendous supporters Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta provided us with the ability to purchase these tools and that makes my job easier because they allowed us to build this phenomenal facility and they didn’t spare any expense.   p






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