Published Wednesday June 9, 2004 Football recruits seek that competitive edge BY DAVID DIEHL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

There probably were days in T.J. O'Leary's first-period creative writing class that the Millard North senior didn't exactly follow class protocol.

Looking for an edge? Here's a typical week of workouts for T.J. O'Leary and Seth Olsen at The Xplosive Edge. • Monday and Thursday - Explosive day, working Olympic lifts, and secondary pulling muscles. Two hours of straight-ahead speed conditioning. • Tuesday and Friday - Metabolic circuit: Squats and a push-pull circuit, looking to build size. Two hours of agility conditioning. • Wednesday - Active rest, shoot hoops, run, swim. Do anything but weight training. • Source: Zach Duval, The Xplosive Edge.

Iowa football recruit Seth Olsen has been training at the Xplosive Edge since finishing a Parade All-America career at Millard North. The 300-pound lineman says he can now dunk a basketball.

Being creative at 8 in the morning can be difficult when you follow a schedule like O'Leary's.

Since February, the New Mexico State football recruit would be up before 6 a.m., head to intense workouts with disciples from the University of Nebraska's strength program, drive to school, shower, then soak up all the alliteration, foreshadowing and character development that his tired body would allow.

Exhausting, yes, but O'Leary said his workouts at The Xplosive Edge, run by former Nebraska strength and conditioning coaches Robby Butler and Zach Duval, have helped ready him for his college football career at New Mexico State.

The same workouts are preparing fellow Millard North lineman Seth Olsen for Iowa. "The shape I was in for football I thought was pretty good," Olsen said. "But not compared to now."

At The Xplosive Edge, 14706 Giles Rd., O'Leary and Olsen work alongside a handful of other elite high school athletes from around the metropolitan area. Such private training facilities have become commonplace for young athletes searching for that extra edge in their sport, even in Nebraska.

Omaha-based Going Vertical now has facilities in Portland, Ore., Windsor, Colo., Sacramento, Calif., and San Diego, and it's planning sites in Louisville and Lexington, Ky. Fast Forward has been operating near 149th and Industrial Road since November 2001. The Frappier Acceleration training center in Lincoln, formerly known as Nebraska Sports Acceleration, is one of more than 130 worldwide.

Chris Range, the director of training at Lincoln's Frappier Center, estimated that between 85 and 90 percent of his clients are between junior high and high school age, and centers across Omaha reflect similar numbers.

Range compared athletic training to teaching the body a language. "It's much easier to learn a language when you're young," he said.

Most training centers subscribe to different methods to achieve the same basic goals - personal instruction to maximize athletic performance, or in the cases of Olsen and O'Leary, preparation for the next level.

The basketball rims at Millard North should know the pair are getting there.

Olsen, who weighs more than 300 pounds, and O'Leary, who finished the season at 255, both can now dunk.

The training program used by Duval and Butler comes from their combined 11 years of working under NU strength guru Boyd Epley. They stress technique, conditioning and biomechanics to create a well-rounded athlete and prevent injury.

At Going Vertical, agility is the key and the training instrument is "The Reactor" - basically an interactive Twister mat that tells a user which spots to quickly hop to and fro.

Speed is the focus at Lincoln'sFrappier center, where Lincoln Pius X and Lincoln East's state champion girls soccer teams trained. Athletes work on high-speed treadmills, do plyometrics and resistance training.

Pius Girls Soccer Coach Jeremy Ekeler was pleased with the results he saw on the field - and notably in the trainer's room, where no Thunderbolts were treated for major injuries this season, a fact Ekeler credits to the Frappier workouts.

"That 30- to 40-yard explosiveness, they've done a great job with that," he said.

So, between the treadmills, Twister mats and broken rims, which is the right way to train?

"I think there are a hundred different right ways," said Matt McKay, Going Vertical's general manager.

Proponents say the benefits of private training stretch far beyond those that come with your basic coach-supervised school weight room. The instruction is more advanced, andworkouts are catered to individual needs.

On one end, private training can be seen as a resource for high school coaches. On the other, it could be seen as stepping on their toes.

In Ekeler's eyes, his Pius soccer team is a family during the season, so team workouts take priority then. If a player wants to train privately in the offseason, he's all for it.

Olsen and O'Leary could be the exception at Millard North. Football Coach Fred Petito said he's OK with those two going elsewhere to train. After all, they've graduated and the school's weight room is already crowded, Petito said.

But regarding other players in the Mustang program, Petito said, "Our kids at Millard North train at Millard North."

For the private workouts there is a price, which is sometimes hefty. Frappier Acceleration has rates as low as $16 a session, or $60-$70 for professional-level workouts. Six months at Going Vertical runs around $250.

But O'Leary and Olsen say it's a small investment if it helps land a full ride to college. Both said they'd be worse off athletically if they played 20 years ago, when personal training wasn't as common.

All the testimonials and results lead many to believe speed and sport-specific training isn't just a passing fad.

Heavy weight training was pooh-poohed during its genesis in the 1960s - it makes you nothing but bulky and slow, you know - but has long since been accepted as essential. The industry may have found a new revolution, McKay said.

"It's definitely not a fad," he said. "It's an exploding field."