When Bear Woods stepped foot on Wetumpka’s campus he sought to accomplish many things. And now, he’s checked one of those boxes — investing in the weight room.
After three years and countless donations from the Wetumpka community, that dream is now a reality. But what makes this weight room different, excluding the money invested, is the personalization that went into each rack.
Each is branded with a laser-cut emblem of Wetumpka, the team’s logo placed on all the benches, personalized Wetumpka weight plates, all the way down to the ‘W’ at the end of each bar — all while rocking the Indians’ black and gold.
What makes the weight room even more special is that it's not just for the Wetumpka football team; it’s for every sport, down to the middle school level.
“I'm very proud of this room,” Woods said. “It's three years running, in terms of raising the funds, to be able to have this weight room done. I'm also the head football coach here, as well as the athletic director, and I'm proud to know that football invested in all of our sporting programs in this way because everyone uses this weight room. I'm proud as the head football coach to help make this a reality three years in, and the kids love it.”
Of course, the racks themselves were a bulk of the upgrades made, but Woods and Strength and Conditioning coach Ben Singleton invested in software called TeamBuildr. This allows the coaching staff to not only monitor how much weight each athlete is lifting but will even track calories burned alongside what the student-athlete needs to intake for muscle growth.
The use of TeamBuildr helps every sport in regards to muscle growth and Woods praised its ability to promote healthy competition amongst all the sports.
“They're in there competing with each other,” Woods said. “Talking a little smack, there'll be messages on the whiteboard when I come in here, and everyone is competing with each other.”
Eventually, Woods plans to have each rack equipped with an iPad to track in real-time who’s lifting the most and catalog their workout. That's not the only use of technology either, Wetumpka is using laser timing to track student-athletes in the 40-yard dash alongside a 10-yard shuttle while broadcasting the results in the weight room for all to see. An aspect of athletics that Woods did not even have the luxury of having during his professional football career both in the NFL and CFL.
“We actually got the big screen up on the wall, the projector up there that it can mirror who's lifted the most weight that day, and it just keeps it competitive,” Woods said. “But the next thing is actually having an iPad on each rack. When I played man, even professionally, if you look back to four years ago, the new movement of testing with the lasers and the technology right has increased so fast that it wasn't even within my professional career four years ago.”
The use of technology has many benefits, especially with targeting workouts catered to the different sports at Wetumpka. However, this also provides parents a way to see their child’s progress in the weight room and how they can monitor what is needed from them.
“(TeamBuildr) is also another resource for the parents to get involved,” Woods said. “Because when the kid comes home, I know they're excited about what they have accomplished in this room. They can see themselves getting bigger and stronger. They can see themselves getting faster and the parents have total access. So when a parent walks in and says, ‘Well, how can my son gain more weight?’ or ‘What plan can my daughter get on, to get faster?’ Well, have you looked at your daughter's profile on her TeamBuildr? Here it is, this is what you can do. You can help her out with this and track this. This is just an endless amount of resources for every kid to utilize.”
