By Brian Argabright
Despite UIL activities being halted at Del Rio High School, one coach is already using the time away from his sport to prep for next season.
Coaches from the Del Rio Rams football team teamed up with Michael Jimenez, automotive technology instructor, to repair several broken weightlifting bars for use by members of the team while they are away from school.
According to head football coach Rod Taylor, the idea was to give the leaders on his team an opportunity to prep for football away from school should the district face another case of shutdown due to COVID-19 precautions.
“This stuff is so bad right now,” Taylor said. “We’re rooting for everyone, but it’s rough when every time you look up there’s another case.”
The bars were damaged from everyday wear and tear. Once they become unusable, they were circulated out of rotation so as not to be used again and result in an injury to anyone using them. After last year’s suspension of the summer strength and conditioning program due to COVID precautions, Taylor said he and coach Martin Sandate looked at what could be done differently to help the kids at home with the resources available at the school.
“We’re going to do some of the same workouts we did last year including using sandbags but we’re also adding more weight training and that’s where the bars come in,” Taylor said. “We don’t have the same resources as other, bigger schools, so we have to make due with what we can. We are also trying to get sandbags from the base that won’t bust open as the kids toss them around.”
Taylor said he didn’t have an exact number as to how many bars would be repaired and distributed, but said they were going to be distributed to the top athletes in the program.
Taylor added that the hope is everything will be ready to go for the team to begin spring football later this year, but if it isn’t he doesn’t want he and his coaching staff to be caught flat-footed.
“If spring football doesn’t happen, we’ll be ready. We won’t just be sitting around without a plan,” Taylor said.
