‘Field of Pain’ leads
to gain for Spartans
Written: Oct 23, 2009
  By TODD KRISE
t_krise@ncnewsonline.com
Meet Bertha.
She’s a 2-year-old log looking for a companion.
Teenagers are preferred, but coaches will be considered.
She enjoys being carried, tossed around and taken on long walks.
Too bad for Bertha, though, no one on the Laurel High football team is looking for a date.
“It’s giant,” Laurel conditioning coach Tim Parish said. “They don’t want to carry that one.”
Bertha, a 50-pound silver maple stump of a tree, is the main attraction (or deterrent) to the Spartans’ conditioning program called the Field of Pain.
“You don’t really like it,” senior Bobby Hites said. “It’s just something you got to do.”
The Field of Pain — or F.O.P. for short — is new to the Laurel football program this season. It’s a collection of strongman events compiled by Parish to improve his players’ core strength.
The F.O.P. began in late-summer training camp and is performed two times a week during the regular season. It encompasses log carrying, sledgehammer swings, farmer carries, pushing sleds and field presses.
Players have an assortment of logs to choose from, varying in weight and length. They must carry a log back and forth across a 50-yard path.
Sledgehammer swings were the result of players not wanting to carry Bertha.
“They hit that log instead,” Parish explained.
Farmer carries and field presses require players to lift and lug heavy objects such as sand bags, stones and cinder blocks.
The pushing sled is a traditional football conditioning technique.
“It’s pretty tough,” senior Caleb Weisenstein said, “but since we’re from the country it’s nice to have logs and concrete blocks to carry. It’s unusual, but it’s better than just lifting weights.”
The results have been exceptional. Laurel is sitting in second place in the Big Seven Conference with a 4-1 record (6-1 overall). Tonight, the Spartans can clinch a WPIAL playoff berth with a win over Western Beaver at home.
Head coach Jerry Holzhauser tries to bring something different to his football program every season. This year’s idea came when he was on vacation in the Outer Banks.
Sitting on the beach, Holzhauser watched as seniors of a high school volleyball team push their younger teammates to the brink.
“They handled all their conditioning,” Holzhauser said of the seniors. “I thought what a great idea. When your peers push you and with all the pressure your peers give you, you can get more out of them. So right from the start, our seniors have led conditioning.”
From that, competition has grown. Each player strives to make the loudest noise in the sledgehammer station.
“They get mad if they miss the rotation of the sledgehammer,” Parish said. “Everybody can pick up a hammer and swing it, but it sounds different if you hit it hard.
“The kids know that and they respect one another.”
The Field of Pain is more than just drills. It’s become a language and attitude. During fourth quarters, the Spartans yell, “Who’s going to swing the hammer?”
“It’s endurance and fighting through the pain,” Weisenstein said. “It got us into the shape we are in now. I’m glad it’s around. I feel like it does work. It is dreadful sometimes but it’s all for the better.”
Added Holzhauser, “It is different. A Laurel kid has been carrying wood and splitting wood for a good many years, so they don’t have a problem doing it. I want their dads to see it because if they got some firewood to split, there should be no excuses.”
Parish promised his players a bonfire after the season in order to burn the logs — the same ones that have caused the Spartans weeks of anguish.
It’s the players’ way of letting Bertha down easy.
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