Student-athletes in quarantine are getting creative in their quest to stay in shape
Gyms across the country are closed, so Kansas student-athletes are bringing the gym home ... even if they have to make it themselves.
When Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced a stay-at-home order for the state, former Cherryvale High School football standout Chance Main and his father got to work. They grabbed a few fence posts and barn planks, nailed them together and created a near replica of a bench press and squat rack you’d find at any gym.
Main, who starred on Netflix’s Last Chance U at Independence Community College, posted his setup to Twitter. He already had a bench and weights, but he and his father measured off where his arms reached for the bench press and did the same for squats. They added a spotter’s stand and got to work.
Main is a junior defensive end at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. He came home for spring break and anticipated returning after a week to get ready for spring practices. Those were canceled, and he has been back in Cherryvale since.
He recently posted a video of himself using the new setup.
“Haven’t done much the (past) few weeks,” Main wrote on Twitter. “Been missing my team and football. Realized I (can’t) sit around all day.”
Last week, he put 405 pounds on the bench-press bar with his father there to spot him. He lifted his goal weight on his first attempt and his dad was fired up with an emotional, “Easy, baby.”
“The moment was a little bigger than it seemed on the video,” Main said. “I’ve always worked out with my dad, even growing up. When I’m all the way in San Antonio, he’s not able to be there and see all that.
“You get a little bit more motivated when your dad is standing right there. I knocked that out, and you could see how excited he was. After, I think he might have got teary-eyed for a little while.”
Main said the layoff from team activities has been tough. It can be hard to find the motivation to get better when no one is pushing him every day.
Former Wichita Northwest linebacker Josh Carter knows the feeling. As a Grizzly, he was a two-time All-Metro selection and pushed Northwest to the Class 5A state championship game as a senior.
Now a sophomore at Southwestern College in Winfield, Carter was going to enter spring camp competing for a starting role. When spring practices were canceled, however, he didn’t sulk. He got to work.
Carter created a squat rack using a night stand and a few bricks. It’s not ideal — he has to do a full squat just to get underneath the weight — but it’s better than nothing, he said.
“You have to make the most of what you have,” Carter said. “We are all in the same shoes, so you’ve gotta push through and find a way.”
Carter said he was lucky to already have a lot of weight lying around the house. Not every kid in Kansas has that on hand, but lacking dumbbells wasn’t an excuse for Clifton-Clyde junior Jarik Weiche.
Weiche was an All-Class defensive lineman for Clifton-Clyde last season and helped the Eagles to a 9-1 record in 8-Man Division I, but his team was bounced from the state playoffs in the regional round.
Unsatisfied, he found perhaps the most unique way to stay in shape of anyone in the state.
Weiche’s family had recently purchased a dishwasher to replace one that had broken down. Instead of tossing the old unit on the side of the street for garbage pickup, he had it drilled into a piece of wood, put extra weight inside the machine and used it as a resistance training sled.
He has put weights in his backpack and worn it while running. Teammate Dillon Provost has used tires for overhead presses. No one is Kansas is happy with the current situation, but those who don’t take advantage of what they have will be exposed when organized sports resume, Weiche said.
“Next year, it’s going to come down to how much work you put in when nobody was paying attention,” Weiche said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Student-athletes in quarantine are getting creative in their quest to stay in shape."