Walton’s offensive line at home in weight room
By Adam Carrington
MDJ Sports Correspondent
The offensive line is usually an unappreciated
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unit.
The only time it seems to get recognized
is if it is getting called for a penalty. That
does not seem to faze Walton’s senior offensive
tackles Cason Henry, Ryan Purves
and guard Evan Bax. All three are experienced
and know just how important their
roles are.
“I really don’t care about the glory,”
Bax said. “It’s a team sport. I’m in it for
the team.”
It will be up to them to help groom Walton’s
front line if the Raiders want to make
a deep run in the state playoffs.
Walton has the offensive talent to take
that step with quarterbacks Zak Rozsman
and Jeremy Hecklinski returning along with
running back Braylen Stokes and North
Carolina commitment Marcus Brown, who
will help out at receiver. But its the offensive
linemen who understand the offense
will not excel if they don’t execute.
“We go where they go,” Walton coach
Daniel Brunner said. “I’m expecting them
to have a lot of success this year.”
All three linemen talked behind the
scenes on the work they put into their craft
this offseason.
For starters, they treat weightlifting as a
part-time job. Henry, who has committed
to South Carolina, is in the gym six days
a week lifting for as long as three hours
per visit.
“It’s my go-to place,” said the 6-foot-6,
300-pounder. “When I’m bored, I go to the
gym. Whenever I think about something, I
go to the gym. When I need to expel energy,
I go to the gym. It’s a fun place to go.
You got to love working out if you’re going
to be a good football player.”
Bench press, squats and power cleans
are what the offensive linemen key in on.
When asked if they celebrate maximum
weight milestones, Henry said they just
congratulate each other and immediately
focus on their next max weight.
“There’s not a lot of bragging rights,”
Henry said. “We’re working as a team.”
When it comes to repetitions, Purves
said they usually do five reps at 80 percent
on each exercise. One day, it’s the
bench press. The next day, it’s squats. On
Wednesdays, they power clean.
As they lift, they often compete with one
another as a way of pushing themselves.
“If Cason got 10 (reps), I would try to
beat that, and it makes ourselves work that
much harder,” Purves said. “It’s nice to get
more reps and feel good about yourself, but
we like to push each other. If I got eight
reps, I would push Cason to get nine. We
want to see each other thrive in that way.”
The power clean is the exercise they
dread every day because its so reliant on
the correct form.
“It’s the most difficult lift to do,” Purves
said. “You have to have perfect form in order
to be able to go up in weight. It’s the
explosion from the ground to get the bar
up. It’s very detailed-oriented.”
Not only do they have to be physically
prepared for each game, but they have to
be mentally focused. Henry said they can
not afford to be intimidated by the defensive
line they are facing off against.
That can lead to mistakes such as jumping
offside, false starts or holding.
Purves added that the line focuses on
their “two steps” during pre-game, knowing
they have to keep the defensive front
off balance once the ball is snapped. They
also rehearse the plays that they practice
during the week.
“If you practice a play 100 times and still
miss an assignment, (coaches) don’t like
it if you miss an assignment,” Bax said.
“If (they) realize we’re not doing too well
on a certain play during that week before
a game, we’ll rep that play more often.”
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