By By Matthew Nascone
Working hard and being successful are two things Northview High School head football coach Cody Keene believes are intertwined. Keene and the Chiefs have been working for four weeks, since school let out for the summer, in the weight room.
"We knew we needed to do more in the weight room over the summer," Keene said. "Because our schedule is much tougher next year and we need to continue to move forward as a program."
Keene said the attendance so far has been good and each Chief has a mandatory requirement of 28 workouts.
"We have had a lot of guys make every workout so far and that is the type of commitment we need from these guys," Keene said. "And with our schedule as tough as it is, we need to be as strong as possible."
The Chiefs work out twice a day, three days a week at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The workouts consist of a core lifting regimen of cleans, squats and bench press. Also thrown into the mix is the leg press machine, the glut ham machine and the under the chin exercise.
When the team is done with the approximately one-hour workout, they all go outside and do some agility work before ending the workout with a 100-meter dash.
"We try to squeeze in as much as possible to help these guys progress into the season," Keene said. "If you work hard and prepare yourself, you have every chance in the world to win every time."
And winning is what Keene said he expects to continue doing. But to do that, he needs the commitment to continue as well.
"We need our kids to keep coming," he said. "We have some good kids and we have been trying to stress that we have a lot tougher schedule this year and we need to be even more prepared than we were last year."
Next year will be the first year NHS has played a 10-game regular schedule under Keene's direction.
"They are working hard, but we need to give just that little bit more and work harder when we are tired," Keene said. "We need to get tougher mentally."