By Michael Minnich
Tribune Sports Editor
mminnich@newstribune.info

KEYSER—For Keyser football coach Sean Biser, the merits and the goals of a strength and conditioning program are simple.
“We want the kids to get bigger, faster, and stronger, as well as prevent injuries,” Biser said while guiding his charges through Friday’s morning’s workout at KHS. “Anyone that thinks kids shouldn’t be lifting is living in the Dark Ages.”
Flexibility and strength can deter injuries: “you can’t stop them, but you can make it less likely to happen.”
Sessions are split between the outdoors and the weight room, with groups rotating between the two.
Adding the new turf field to the burgeoning sports complex has allowed teams to get out of the gym and each other’s way and outside for speed drills.
Since the team installed a more dynamic workout plan a few years ago, “we haven’t had a single hamstring pull”, Biser said.
As far as in-season lifting, Biser says that teams should want to be at their fastest and strongest when they’re playing games, and cited the example of West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl-winning team.
“They peaked the week before the game, and went down to Atlanta and kicked some butt.”
Biser says that his usual morning turnout is about 40 athletes, with ten or so showing up in the evening.
“Many of them are multi-sport athletes,” he said, and, with all the speed workouts, “we work on track stuff, for example, year-round.”
Because there is such a diverse base of athletes, Biser says that he can’t do much in the way of position- or sport-specific drills.
“I wish the athletes from other sports would work out more...football, basketball, and wrestling really push it. There is no offseason.”
In fact, the cheerleading squad began a training regimen Friday.
And Biser says that the other girls’ sports plan to also pick up their training in the coming weeks.
Usually, the girls lift after the boys finish up in the morning, Biser says.

First, Biser says, the objectives are just doing the workouts correctly.
“We’re not doing a full workout at this point, because we’re spending time making sure we get it right,” he said. “We do lots of talking this week.”
Gone, too, are the days of stretching in place.
“We do a dynamic warmup...plyometrics, agility drills, things like that.”
Biser, a former WVU lineman, has benefitted from his relationships with the strength program there, as well as from former area players, such as Parker Whiteman and Bryan Wright, who have moved on to other programs as strength coaches.
Wright, who was a freshman when Biser took the job at Hampshire, especially was a standout.
“Bryan squatted 620 pounds in high school. That’s what I was squatting at WVU, and I was one of the stronger lineman.”
One thing that surprises observers is that Biser doesn’t have his athletes wear belts.
“Those guys cinch the belt and feel strong, stronger than they really are.”
Biser would much rather see better techniques with less weight that someone straining themselves with the belt or otherwise.
Another thing Biser isn’t a fan of are workout machines; he prefers free weights.
“With the machines, you sit there, you aren’t developing strength in multiple areas.”
Providing an example that the system works are athletes like Taige Redman and Jeremy Green, who both received Division I scholarships for the fall.
“These guys grow up together, so they know what it takes. But those guys are prime examples that if you bust it, you’ll be rewarded.”
Some of the equipment dates to KHS’ first weight room, installed in 1984, Biser’s freshman year.
“We lived in there,” Biser remembers. “We would make keys to it and sneak in.”
That devotion carries over to this day; Biser still works out, both alongside his players and on his own time.
“We have a first-class weight program. The kids who buy into it are ultimately successful; a kid in here’s going to end up winning.”