Marble Falls High School athletes spent months getting stronger, faster and being more agile.
But that was during the school year under the watchful eyes of their coaches and strength-and-conditioning coordinator Karl “Beef” Bielfeldt.
Now the athletes must choose for themselves how they will spend the next few months as the summer work begins for Forge ‘25, the department’s annual strength-and-conditioning program. It’s each Monday-Thursday, June 2-26 and July 7-24. A week-long break is scheduled June 30-July 4.
Because of the number of athletes the department has and to remove the reasons why some can’t attend, the department is starting earlier and offering more options.
The boys soccer program will begin at 6:30 a.m. with strength and conditioning and will do sport skills from 7:158:15 a.m.
High school athletes will start their strength and conditioning at 7:15 a.m. then go to sport skill training at 9 a.m.
Seventh- and eighthgrade athletes will work out at 9 a.m. and a second sport skill session will be offered at 10 a.m. Before the end of the school year, Bielfeldt said 20 middle schoolers had committed to participating, and he believed that number was rising.
In all, the program has at least 300 athletes in grades 7-12, he said.
Athletes are asked to arrive 15 minutes before their first session.
Athletic director Keri Timmerman and Bielfeldt have been enthusiastic about the way the athletes have responded to the challenges of increasing their weight gains in that room as well as their agility. And they also point out that continuing to put in the work now means much of those increases will continue.
“Taking two months off – that disappears,” Timmerman said. “If you don’t spend time in the summer, you’re behind everybody.”
The simple truth, the athletic director said, is that other athletic departments are offering a summer strength-and-conditioning program with the same goals of maintaining or improving what their athletes have been doing during the school year.
“Everybody else may be doing this,” Timmerman said. “You have to have something more.”
Bielfeldt said that a strength-and-conditioning program can’t overcome a poor diet, not getting enough sleep and not hydrating. He strongly recommends his athletes consider what they consume and how their bodies will respond during physical activity.
“We can’t change what we don’t control,” he said. “They have to take care of themselves like an athlete.”
While putting in the work to continue the gains is one motivation, the other is seeing teammates also work out. In other words, while the building blocks of a strong body that can endure the physicality that comes with being an athlete is working out when fans aren’t around to see it, what makes athletes not want to let their teammates down starts during the hot summer when it’s more enticing to be near water or stay inside in the air conditioner.
When the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs choose to do Forge ‘25 together, it sends a message to one another that the work they do together right now for success in a few months is important, it shows trust and belief and demonstrates they want better outcomes in their seasons.
“What I tell them is what we do – what you do – that’s the program,” Timmerman said. “We have created that continuity.”
Athletes can sign up to participate at MFMustangs. org/summercamps.
Jennifer Fierro publishes reports about area youth athletic events on her website TexasChalk-Talk.com. To send her a note, email [email protected]
