Newton football coach Jeffrey Crosby has made plenty of changes in the football program.
The Tigers have a new weight room and equipment, new uniforms and helmets and a slew of new assistant coaches.
Crosby said he believes the weight room was the biggest addition this offseason.
“A new weight room was overdue,” Crosby said. “With having it now, you can do so much more, and you can do so many different lifts than we could do before. Now we actually have everything we need. We can do dead lifts, shoulder shrugs, eccentric squats, front squats. We have new medicine balls and can do so many things with those. We can keep working on that core strength so we can take on blocks. It makes a big difference when you start trying muscles that you actually use when you play. You can actually work on stuff that’s going to help you win the game.”
Crosby said he got full support from the central office in buying new equipment and trying to upgrade the program. The Tigers got new weight racks, bars and weights for the weight room.
“Dr. Nickson came out and look at it and said that we needed to do something about it,” Crosby said. “I showed her what we needed and what we wanted, and she got it. I told her we are trying to progress the program and if you are going to turn it around, you turn it around in the weight room in the offseason. And it’s important for the entire schools, for every program. I think it’s going to benefit all of the other sports programs because they can now lift properly.”
The Tigers also got new helmets and uniforms for the upcoming season as well.
“With the new uniforms, we now have about 12 combinations, so we don’t have to wear the same uniform every week,” Crosby said. “We got new Axiom helmets and they all come with a data strip. It gives us a reading and gives us data from kids use their heads. So now we can go back and review that data and teach the kids the proper way to use their hands to help prevent concussions. You have to continue to update equipment, especially helmets. You have to recondition them every two years, and they are done after 10 years.”
Crosby said he believes the investments will pay dividends.
“I’m glad that they are investing in the program,” Crosby said. “It’s going to pay off. When you invest in something and see the results, more people are going to invest in it. And we have added assistant coaches as well. Last year was really a struggle. In football, you need at least six assistant coaches. And then you need coaches for junior high as well.”
Joining Crosby on the coaching staff will be Cortez Parker, Justin Wilson, Evan Bigby, Kyle Wolf, Tarlys Smith, Jeffrey Ickom and Robert Gilbert.
“I’ve got some young guys and now I’m the old guy,” Crosby said. “They are young guys who are hungry and want to get better and work with the kids. You need young coaches who are hungry. I think it’s really going to help have all of these different position coaches to be able to teach the small details of what we are trying to do offensively and defensively. When you only have three people, something is going to go lacking.”
