Footballers take lotus positions

Two years removed from its Central/Western Mass. Division 2 Super Bowl championship, the Burncoat High School football team is reloading for another run.

The players are going through the usual spring training regimen ‹ pumping iron, running laps, watching their diets and, for some, taking extra classes after school to make sure they remain academically eligible to play sports.

But this year, Coach Chris Moriarty has added a new twist ‹ power yoga. That's right. Team members have been regularly hanging out with yoga instructor Jennifer Moiles, sweating and rejuvenating in her June Street studio.

"It is an individual thing," Ms. Moiles said of the training program shortly after a Thursday session with the players.

"It is just you and your mat, without any distraction. We used the Baptiste Power Vinyasa yoga method, which is a potent blend of movements that flow into each other."

Coach Moriarty said the yoga training is helping his big players become nimble on their feet, and most players to gain strength and flexibility. It has even helped one of his players keep his diabetes under control, he said

Anthony Lucivero, a junior, said the yoga training is helping him stay focused. Freshman Robert Liberty called it interesting, and David Earley, a third-year running back on the team, said he finds it "very relaxing."

"Coming in, I didn't really think it was going to do anything, but it is helping me to build up my energy and flexibility," he said.

OK. It might not be the most aesthetically pleasing sight, a football player lying on a mat, trying to curl his 6-foot-4-inch, 315-pound frame into a fetal position.

And you can't help but wonder whether Burncoat opponents this year will drool at the prospect of taking advantage of a team whose players like to finesse their bulging muscles through intricate movements and lie on their backs, with eyes closed and arms folded across their chest, listening to soft incantations that go something like the following:

"The thoughts that linger become your reality. Follow on your intuition, rather than the ideas in our heads that come from outside of us. Doubt your doubts. Act on your intuition, and you will never go wrong."

Well, far from making them pushovers, the Burncoat team's yoga training could make their squad the most prepared football players on the playing field this year, according to Coach Moriarty.

"This is cutting-edge training. A lot of colleges are doing this now," he said. Yoga is part of a specialized fitness program designed to help athletes fulfill their potential, he said.

Ordinarily, it is not the sort of training program an inner-city school can afford, especially during times of significant budget cuts, but in what most people see as a model for community and school collaborations, two local businesses have stepped in to help out, he said.

First, Gold's Gym has offered the football program discounted usage of its facilities ‹ a significant development, since the Burncoat program has long outgrown its meager facilities, Coach Moriarty said.

Secondly, Frank Nash, a 1998 Burncoat High graduate and the owner of Platinum Performance, a fitness program, has made the services of his company available at no cost to the students.

"He believed that without football, he would not be the person he is today, and he just wanted to give something back to the program," Coach Moriarty said.

The Power Yoga class the students are taking is one of the services provided under the Platinum Performance banner. Ms. Moiles has volunteered to instruct the players this year.

MaxVelocity, a series of clinics and camps for girl and boy athletes age 12 to 20, which takes advantage of the latest in fitness science and technology, is another of Platinum Performance services.

Andy Sharry, also a Burncoat graduate and the director of MaxVelocity, has been volunteering this year as the Burncoat football team strength and conditioning coach.

He noted that Marvin Andre, who graduated last year, was one of the first Burncoat football players to take advantage of yoga training.

Mr. Andre is on a $40,000 football scholarship at Stonehill College.

Read into that what you will. Just remember: "Doubt your doubts," and "the thoughts that linger become your reality."

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