From Shield Sports
Eve Sherbin
Staff Writer

With three and a half months to go, the football team is taking on a new approach.
“This year is different. Our group of guys has always worked hard, but now instead of a conditioning focused work out, it’s more about the mechanics and technique,” explains James Dewald, head football coach as to why, at the beginning of second semester, the sixth hour football conditioning class began a new program, 2SP.

According to Joe Neal, originator of 2SP, this program was created as a baseball workout, then adopted in order to benefit all athletes. Neal works at Andover every sixth hour teaching the football team exercises that focus on breaking down the 40 yard dash.
The program, while focusing on the 40 yard dash, includes a range of exercises, according to Dewald, who says, “One Day we may be doing ladders and the next we will be in the long jump pit. The workout changes every day, only the basic warm up stays the same, The change keeps it fresh, it’s good for the kids.”

According to Varsity Quarterback, Junior Winston Urwiller, more than just the workout has changed.
“Last year the workout was more about basic conditioning like running, while now it is more about agility and plyometric. But is no just that, I think that the team not only works harder but the group of kids we have now, wants tit more than last year.”

Former quarterback Alec Mares explains that the recent changes have not made anything easier.
“This year the class is much harder and even though there is more pressure, I think we work harder because we want to,” says Mares. “Plus Joe Neal demands a lot and that pushes you.”

“Joe Neal is a really good guy, he expects a lot from us,” adds Urwiller. “He really knows what he is doing, and we know that if we slack off, he will get on our case. But the guys respect him, at this point he is almost like a coach.”
Joe Neal says. “So far the experience has been great because it’s a really hard working group of guys,. They don’t have the numbers a lot of other teams have and I know there is a lot of pressure on the team to perform well and I thing they have worked hard enough with [2SP] that they will be more competitive.”

About the recent changes, Urwiller adds, “ No transition is easy, but I think its been a good change. My favorite part of 2SP is watching the whole team come together and work hard, I think that that’s really exciting,” says Urwiller.
‘It wasn’t very hard to learn the way the program works, but we learn and do different exercises every class so it keeps us on our toes,” says linebacker and running backer Nick Rabah. “[2SP] is usually meant for baseball players so and but we got use to the way it worked, we were okay with it.”
While each team member values a different part of the new training program, a mutual leas favorite seems to be the weights. However, Urwiller remains positive, hoping that the teams hard work will pay off.
“I hope all of ths [hard work] translates to wins,” he says. “We have been working so hard; I really believe it will. I wouldn’t say that if we weren’t; working hard.”

Dewald agrees, saying, “I think that even if the guys don’t notice it, there is a difference. There has been great improvement, even with form. You don’t realize how important form is, we teach even the little things, like what part of the foot should hit the group when you run. I think its things like this that have helped, I see improvement even with the guys who run track.”

In terms of next year Neal says, “I hope to be here next year, I am for sure continuing through summer. And I think that Coach Dewald has worked really hard to provide for his team and I think whatever ends up happening will be positive decision.”

So why the change in workout? “I think that is was time to try something new,” says Dewald. “The Andover coaches know what they are talking [about] in terms of football, so we tried to find something that we could work on, which ended up being running. I mean football has changed so much. And with the game today, every team is looking for an edge.”