The Shaping Of A High School Football Athlete: My Journey With Hunter Kavanaugh

I hadn’t coached any athletes in person since 2016. I was tossing in bed the night before the first training session with the Lake Oswego High School football team. My mind was racing. Would the kids respond to what I was saying? Would they progress? Could I keep them healthy? Imposter syndrome at the front of my thought process. I started my own training center in 2003 (PTC) and had worked with some gifted athletes up to 2016. Those memories were being washed away by the anxiety of starting all over from scratch. I knew what had worked during that time period would not transfer now. Back then I might have had 2-5 athletes during a training session. Now there would be 50-70 athletes per session, consisting of varying degrees of physical preparation. 

First, I needed to make sure the athletes understood that this was going to be an athlete centered program. Their health and well-being came first. Next, the sessions needed to have a sense of joy and fun. I needed to have them coming back the next day and the next. If the program was set up like an authoritarian structure, I would be doomed. I then needed to have a few physical tests which could be administered and serve as a benchmark for each athlete to gauge improvements. This could drive external and internal motivation. Lastly, I needed to communicate that this was a collaboration between myself and them.

My first day with the team was May 10th, 2021. Since Covid19, a lot of the athletes had not been able to perform very much physical training. The first football practice would be August 16th. A lot needed to happen within a short window of opportunity. I needed to begin the physical preparation for the upcoming season, and to make sure that the athletes enjoyed coming to train and wanted to, as it was not mandatory.

During the first day of training, I met a sophomore athlete named Hunter Kavanaugh. Hunter was very curious about how the training was going to unfold. From some of our early conversations, you could see he wanted to learn and understand the why and how. During the weight training sessions, his technical qualities on the squat were very good. You could tell he had spent time lifting and learning from someone who understood how to teach certain lifts. 

We had 3 months before the first official football practice on August 16, 2021. The goal was to slowly build up the general work capacity through sprints, body weight circuits, jumping, and tempo runs. I would also begin to teach the basic weight lifting skills. I was limited by the amount of time I had during the training sessions (1 hour). I would have 4 sessions per week. I had a very basic test battery. This consisted of broad jump, triple broad jump, vertical jump, 3 rep max bench press, and 20 yard sprint (laser time). During the initial testing, Hunter had a 8’0” foot broad jump, 25’6” triple broad jump, and a 27” vertical jump. 

The first month consisted of 2 full body strength circuits, 2 times a week sprint sessions (140-210 yards per session), jumping each week had 80-140 foot contacts, and finally 2 tempo sessions ranging from 1,200-1,800 yards + 200-400 medball throws. 

Example sprint/jump/bw circuit

Thursday May 20th, 2021

Schedule for Training Session

Introduction to players + explanation of training 5-10 minutes

Warm-up and preparation for sprint/jump session 15 minutes

5 minute jogging + 10 minute dynamic warm up

Sprints 4 x 10 + push up start + 1 min rest

Sprints 4 x 20 + tag and chase start + 2 min rest

Jumps

Ice skater jumps 3 x 10/10 + 1 min rest

Skips for height 4 x 20 yards

Pogo jumps 2 x 10

General Strength Circuit (8-12 exercises)

Push ups 3 sets x 12 reps + 1 min rest between sets

Burpees 3 sets x 15 reps + 1 min rest between sets

Front Plank 3 reps x 30 seconds + 1 min rest

Alternate leg lunge 3 sets x 12 reps per leg (30 reps total per) + 1 min rest

Body Weight squat 3 sets x 12 reps + 90 sec rest between sets

L/R Side Plank 2 sets x 30 sec plank per side + 60 second rest

Alternate leg side lunge 3 sets x 12 reps per side + 90 sec rest between sets

Good Mornings 3 sets x 12 reps + 60 second rest between sets

Clap Pushups 2 sets x 10 reps + 60 second rest between sets

Crunches 3 sets x 12 reps + 60 second rest between sets

Reverse Bridge 3 reps x 20 second + 60 second rest

Cool down and debrief.

During this time I was observing how Hunter’s body language looked during good sessions and when he also was not feeling 100%. I asked him questions daily on how he was feeling, did he like or dislike the training, and what his other interests outside of training were. It was early on that he said he was already thinking about becoming a doctor. 

Once the first 3 months of training was completed, we retested his jumping and strength exercises. His broad jump increased to 9’, his triple broad jump was 27’, and vertical jump 31”. 

Since we had such an abbreviated off-season, I thought it was very important that we apply an in-season strength program. The athletes would be training 2 times a week and here is an example of a training week. 

Monday Weights (Strength Specific):

1. Rear elevated split squat (2 warm up sets + 2 x 6 work sets) 2-3 min rest for working set

2. Trap bar deadlift (2 warm up sets + 2 x 6 work sets)

3. Barbell bench press (2 warm up sets + 2 x 6 work sets)

4. Chin ups/Pull ups/Lat pull downs/Seated row 2 x 4-8 reps 

5. Biceps/Triceps 2 x 12

Tuesday or Wednesday (Power Specific)

1. Medicine ball slams 3 x 3 reps (INTENT)

2. Medicine chest pass to partner 3 x 3 (INTENT)

3. 2 leg 2 fold jumps 3 sets 

4. Front Plank 2 x 30-45 seconds

5. Side Plank 2-3 x 20/30 seconds per side

As the season progressed, Hunter was playing very well on the JV team at inside linebacker and offense line. Unfortunately in the middle of the season he broke his hand. After speaking with Hunter, we decided to develop a training program which would allow him to keep up his strength and power while his hand healed. See example below

Full Body Strength Training - Monday

Iso-metric Lunge 2 x 30 seconds each leg + 60 sec rest

One arm db bench press 2 x 20 reps + 50 lbs + 2 min rest

Rear Elevated Split Squat (Use 20 lb db in one hand) 2 x 12 reps per leg. Rest 2 min

1 arm seated row 30-40 lbs 2 x 15 reps + 90 sec rest

Leg Extensions 2 x 15 reps + 90 sec rest

Bicep Curls 2 x 20 reps + 90 second rest

Tricep push downs 2 x 20 reps + 60 second rest

Band Leg Curls 2 x 20 reps + 90 sec rest

Side Plank 3 x 20 seconds per side + 60 second rest

During the first 6 months of the program with Hunter there was one thing that stood out to me. He was coming to the sessions based on his own values and meaning. This would help set the tone for the future and allow him to handle the physical challenges day to day. Then we could stack good training weeks and months. Then stack year after year. Being heroically consistent would become our mantra. 

In the next installment we will look at Hunter's first full off-season going into his Junior year and how we began to use different technologies to assist in the process and the implementation of more barbell exercises and more advanced jumping exercises.