Magazine lauds Lions' weight-training program
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Augusta Christian's weight room is crowded with athletes getting ready for their various sports. The school's sports program was featured in a magazine.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
The Augusta Christian Schools athletic program was profiled in the spring issue of Bigger Faster Stronger (BFS) magazine, where author Steve Green details Columbia County's own version of the Charles Atlas story.
No one at Augusta Christian had sand kicked in their face, but like Atlas, the Lions and Lady Lions have used weight training to overpower opponents.
The article, titled From Mediocre to Memorable, is about how Augusta Christian coaches and athletes employed the BFS system and turned around a traditionally weak program.
"Steve Green used the initiative to interweave the successes we've had in many different areas and come up with a good story," said Bruce Lane, AC's athletic director, football coach and boys track coach. "He really did a tremendous job writing this. You couldn't buy the favorable publicity we've had from this."
Lane asked Green to submit an article to the magazine, and the AC graduate and current assistant coach at the school took the ball and ran with it.
BFS magazine devoted a four-page spread to Green's story, which is accompanied by 11 photos.
"Had the success been in one area or one sport, I'm not sure if BFS would have taken notice," Lane said.
The Augusta Christian Schools sports program was featured in an article in Bigger Faster Stronger magazine. The school began using the weight-training system in 1994.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
It's hard to overlook the rags-to-riches tale at Baston Road.
"The proud Lions' athletic program was once a laughing matter ..." Green writes.
The story goes on to explain how former football coach Steve Price and conditioning coach Keith Walton introduced the Bigger Faster Stronger program to the school in 1994.
Price and Walton first experienced BFS during a clinic at John Milledge Academy, where Lane was serving as football coach.
From that point on, Augusta Christian has won multiple individual and team state titles in the Georgia Independent School Association, and AC squads have regularly contended for region and state crowns in almost every sport, Green writes.
BFS isn't a mainstream magazine - it's mostly found in the hands of coaches who use the system to give their athletes an edge.
Anyone interested in the Augusta Christian article can order a copy of the spring issue by accessing the BFS Web site at www.biggerfasterstronger.com.
Lane says he already has received a lot of feedback about the story.
"I just think it's a great testimonial to the hard work that has gone on here to get the program where it's at today," Lane said. "The coaches that have been here endorsed the program, implemented it, and the kids have bought into it."
Chad Cooper is a perfect example. The AC senior started BFS in the sixth grade, and finished his prep football career as one of the Lions' strongest men and a team co-captain.
"I think it (BFS) has really changed my life in a lot of different ways. It's helped me to realize that everything needs to be achieved through hard work," Cooper said in Green's piece. "It's helped me to know that if you put forth the effort, you will come out on top."