By head coach Kyle Ralph
As the spring and summer months rolled on the 2014 version of the New Palestine football team was hard at work in the weight room and outside on the field conditioning making their final push to get themselves prepared. Coming off an impressive victory over four other teams in the first ever Ironman Challenge in the spring, the Dragons carried lots of momentum into the summer workout program. The improvement was dramatic.
The players were broken up into lifting teams of three for the summer off-season program again to push each other individually and compete against the other teams. The champions of the spring team contest were Alex Neligh, Nick Derheimer, and Matt Moeller with a 98 percent attendance rate and over 200+ lbs. improved among the three of them combined. The competition was fierce this summer as many teams wanted to take the title, however one team came out on top. The combination of Garrett Kuhn, Nick Brickens, and Adam Kincaid recorded a 99.2 percent attendance rate and added 210 lbs. onto their spring totals. An incredible effort by that group!
Individually the Dragons will field their strongest team yet as the commitment to the weight room and conditioning program has driven the intensity to new heights. Listed below are the top lifters for this season in the respective lifts/measured outcomes:
| Bench | Squat | Clean | Total | Power Quotient |
| Estes – 385 | Curran – 550 | Estes – 315 | Estes – 1245 | Curran – 6.315 |
| Grable – 365 | Estes – 545 | Grable – 300 | Grable – 1200 | Estes – 5.711 |
| Curran – 365 | Grable – 535 | Curran – 285 | Curran – 1200 | Grable – 5.405 |
| Yazel – 340 | Yazel – 535 | Young – 275 | Yazel – 1125 | Wilcher – 5.335 |
| Barnes – 335 | Judy – 515 | Izbicki – 265 | Judy – 1050 | Brickens – 5.112 |
| Mahaney – 315 | Muse – 470 | Brickens – 255 | Barnes – 985 | Kuhn – 5.027 |
| Judy – 300 | 6 Tied @ 425 lbs. | Yazel – 250 | Young – 980 | Hill – 5.001 |
Overall, the players that tested in multiple sessions increased our team strength by over 5,200 pounds from when they began in the winter. That is an incredible feat! The program set new highs as well in having 13 players be members of at least the 900lb. Club! Even more impressive, two Dragons stood out from the rest for recording a perfect lifting attendance, making 137/137 lifts. Those players were James Young and Gavin Hopkins.
As the program always talks about, these numbers don’t win games alone but they put us in a position to win. With continued dedication, effort, and intensity hopefully the 2014 Dragon Football team can turn these weight room numbers into numbers in the win column.
Come support our Dragons as we open the season at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 22 against Danville on Shepler Field!
