Dear Otter Athlete:

As one of the Otter coaches, we try our very best to demonstrate and teach our athletes many things about our particular sport. However, of the hundreds of coaching points and techniques we teach our athletes, there are only few of them that we definitely “emphasize” every single day. The single most important thing that you can do to make yourself a better athlete is to become active in strength training and conditioning!

Last fall, our football team completed the season with a successful 10-1 record and qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1987. Why did this happen? Did we have more talent than other teams in the CLC? Did we have better coaches? No, our players worked hard in the weight room the entire year and a Section 8AAAA and CLC championship in football was the result; two more banners for our gymnasium!

Strength training will not only make you stronger, it will make you faster. In athletics, speed really does kill! It kills our opponents! When you get stronger and faster, you become more confident as an athlete. When you enter your contest, you know you beat your opponent and win! An additional benefit is that you have now minimized your chances of ever getting hurt. In high school athletics, it’s usually . . . the player that didn’t lift as much as his teammates that gets hurt.

As the Otter football coach, I highly recommend and fully endorse the strength training and conditioning program here at the high school run by Paul Ratz. Paul has done an excellent job developing our high school strength training program to be the best it can be. He has learned and received advice from some of the best strength training minds in the business like Greg Lanners, former strength coach for the University of Minnesota. Greg is a certified NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) trainer, and he is now owner and President of Innovative Strength Concepts. Paul and Greg have worked hard at developing programs for high school athletes that are “sport specific.” It doesn’t matter what your sport is . . . basketball, hockey, football, baseball, volleyball, swimming, track, etc. As an athlete, you will have your own specific program for strength and conditioning. It doesn’t get any better than that!

You can’t change the talent you were blessed with. But you can change your strength, your speed and your confidence to reach your full potential as an athlete. Be the best you can possibly be! Enroll in our strength program today. Help yourself! Help your team! Help make athletic memories that you will cherish for a lifetime! Like the Nike commercial, Just Do It !

Now, . . . go and “git ‘er dun!”

Richard Risbrudt
“Otters” Coach