ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 6, 1996 TAG: 9612060022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
THE SPARTANS are in Saturday's Group AA Division 4 final against Sherando of Stephens City on the strength of their weight program.
Throughout this past summer, there was talk in high school football circles about the strength of Salem's 1996 team.
Word was the Spartans were working hard in the weight room and this would be the strongest team in school history.
It turns out all that summer talk wasn't just a lot of smoke. This Salem team might not have a corps of speedy receivers or racehorse backs, but no ordinary team will push around the Spartans. Salem's defenders are doing quite an imitation of the fabled strong man Atlas.
Grundy got a muddy field Saturday, the kind of conditions that had not been conducive to Salem victories in past football playoffs. Still, the Spartans' defense overpowered the Golden Wave all afternoon and Salem survived 7-0 in overtime to move into Saturday's Group AA Division 4 championship game against Sherando of Stephens City at Victory Stadium.
The foundation for the Spartans' success in the 1996 playoffs was laid a couple of years ago when the Salem coaches adopted a new weight program. It has produced strong linemen such as Travis Miles, Pierce Weikle and others. Linebackers such as Jeff Akers and Matt Anderson also are fortified with enough muscle to take on any blockers.
No one is likely to push around 273-pound Miles or 247-pound Weikle. They are two of the biggest Spartans linemen, and they are as strong as they are large.
``We intensified our weight training after 1993,'' said coach Willis White, who decided the Spartans needed more muscle to play nose-to-nose football with Southwest powers such as Richlands and Lee-Jonesville, as well as Spotsylvania out of Central Virginia. All three teams had muscled their way past the Spartans during the playoffs.
When Salem lost to Spotsylvania in a 1991 state championship game, strength may have been the deciding factor.
``We didn't match up well with them,'' White said. ''We had an explosive team that could score a lot of points. We just couldn't stop a good team. Spotsylvania had a super offensive line and a big, quick running back, surrounded by speed. Defensively, we couldn't match up. We scored 27 points and lost.''
Three years later, White knew he had to have a stronger team.
``We had a real lazy bunch of guys before the 1994 season, so I challenged them,'' the coach said. ``Weikle and Miles were in on the start.
``This program puts more emphasis on lifting heavier weights. You also don't do the same lift as many days in the week. You just do the lift one day a week. You do more of a variety of lifts. It's a nationwide program called `Bigger, Faster and Stronger.'''
Said Miles: ``In high school, more lifting is stressed to make you stronger. You have more endurance to make you safer on the field because you can stand being hit.''
In Salem's case, it has worked. The Spartans have had few major injuries and are in excellent shape for their showdown with Sherando. Lee beat Salem in the state playoffs a few years ago partly because Richard Goodpasture, the Spartans' star linebacker and running back, could only hobble around the field because of injuries.
Weikle noticed the change immediately. ``There wasn't much built into the old program,'' he said. ``In the new program, we added a bunch of lifts and that made it more fun.
``We'd go in and get it done without saying, `I don't want to do this or that.' It encouraged younger kids to start [lifting] earlier.''
Weikle started playing varsity football for Salem as a sophomore. ``The thing that helped me the most was to start lifting in eighth grade,'' he said. ``Now it's helping me more. By the end of my sophomore year, I just wanted to get the season over. Now I have as much energy as I did at the start of the season.''
Miles likes the fact that injuries have become rare. ``We're definitely healthier for the playoffs the past couple of years,'' he said. ``We're stronger physically and mentally than we were a year ago.''
There's another plus.
``The younger kids have come up and worked hard,'' Miles said. ``People like [Chris] Stuart and Anderson.''
Stuart and Anderson were stars on both sides of the ball against Grundy. Anderson was the freshest, running for a touchdown in overtime, then making a key tackle at the goal line to prevent a potential touchdown.
``That was great,'' Miles said of the victory over Grundy. `` It was one that I'll tell my kids about.''
Weikle compared it to a 36-29 overtime loss to eventual state champion Amherst County in 1995: ``It was one of the toughest mentally. It was right up there with Amherst County. When we went to overtime with Grundy, Amherst was the first thing I thought about.''
The first thing people may think about when they talk about this year's Salem team is strength.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Miles, Weikle.by CNB