Better conditioning playing a vital role in St. Edward's success

As the St. Edward football team began preparations for the 2010 season, coach Mike Rolando and his staff were forced to grapple with the same engineering problem facing today's automakers: how to get more mileage from a smaller engine.

In 2009, the Green Wave broke through for their first playoff appearance since 2003, the third postseason berth in school history. It was a rugged campaign for the roster of 36 players, one that took a physical toll by the time the playoffs arrived. St. Edward lost three of its last four games, including a 27-13 first-round playoff defeat at Mendota.

"We felt like we kind of fizzled out a bit at the end of the year," Rolando said. "By the Mendota game we were spent."

"People were getting tired and a little more gassed," said senior Derek Porto, a team captain in 2010 along with seniors Ben Lehman, Sam Pozezinski and Jon Keokanlaya. The need to be in better shape in 2010 was apparent.

Graduation losses made the emphasis on off-season conditioning even more critical. This year's roster has 26 players, down from 36. As Rolando made his initial roster projections for 2010, he envisioned as many as 10 players would need to play both sides of the ball.

And much of last year's size was gone. The 2010 roster lists only three players weighing more than 200 pounds. The 2009 roster boasted 12 such players, seven of whom weighed in at 220 pounds or better.

Clearly, the smaller but athletic players on the smaller roster had to be in top shape if the program hoped to match or better its 2009 accomplishments.

Enter Joe Giustino, a NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist who owns and operates St. Charles-based thespeedschool.net.

Giustino had previously instructed Porto, Lehman and St. Edward players Dan and Luke Duffy. A graduate of St. Rita with dual degrees from Northern Illinois in exercise physiology and kinesiology, Giustino came out to watch his pupils play Wheaton Academy last season and loved the atmosphere so much he "had to be a part of it," he said.

Beginning on Saturday mornings last January, Giustino held speed camps at St. Edward, which were open to athletes from all sports. The football team worked with him more and more in the off-season. Soon every player was taking part, and they quickly realized these were no ordinary workouts.

"No one really thought much of it until they went to it and were drenched in sweat and couldn't breathe," Keokanlaya said. "Then at summer camp it was the same guy, the same coach, busting us up and down the field."

Giustino was named the program's strength and conditioning coach. Not only did he rewrite St. Edward's in-season conditioning and weightlifting handbook, he was given full control over the first half-hour of practice throughout the team's 24 summer camp days. His mission: prepare the players physically to last a full season plus playoffs.

Giustino pushed the team hard on some of the summer's hottest days. Though past St. Edward teams had trained hard to improve over the last five seasons under Rolando, the 2010 team found a new level of commitment.

"I've been here for four years and I've seen the off-season work ethic, the weightlifting ethic," Lehman said. "I don't think any of it compares to what we did this off-season."

The players allowed themselves to be pushed, even if they didn't always like it.

"They hated me, of course," said Giustino, who often closed his business early in order to volunteer at St. Edward summer camp. "But I'd rather they hate me because if they are too much my friend, they wouldn't respect me.

"It was a paradigm shift. I wanted to bring a blue-collar working mentality to a white-collar community. But the kids had to decide they wanted to do the hard work to get better and they did. I saw boys turn into men in eight weeks."

The results speak for themselves through the first three weeks of the season. With what turned out to be six - sometimes seven - players competing both ways, St. Edward has been able to forge a 3-0 record and claim the No. 10 ranking in the Class 4A poll by the Associated Press. The Wave have outscored their opponents 112-13.

"This summer was the hardest conditioning I've ever had as a student at St. Ed's," said wide receiver and track sprinter Sam Pozezinski. "That really helps out now because we're just so used to it the game doesn't even affect us. We're just thinking and we're not tired when we think."

The improvement in stamina and endurance can be seen in every player on the roster, particularly on the offensive line, where four players also start on defense. "We're smaller, for sure," said Porto, a guard and defensive tackle, "but we're a lot faster and quicker. It's made a difference."

Giustino made a difference in players across the board, Rolando said.

"We have 25 kids and we can put them all on the field," he said. "When your 12th and 13th players are only a step behind the starters, it helps because you can get guys off the field. We needed to get the kids in the best shape they could be, and I believe we've done that."