New Coach Kiser has Weighty Goals for HRA Football

Friday, September 03, 2010

NEWPORT NEWS – Bryce Kiser has only been on the job for a few months, but he’s a quick learner.

If your team hasn’t reached the playoffs since 1999, shake things up. If someone feeds you bulletin-board material, post it as soon as possible.

Before Thursday’s practice, Hampton Roads Academy’s first-year football coach read several unflattering statements aloud to his team published about the Navigators in an Eastern Shore newspaper. The article said HRA pales in comparison to Chincoteague’s first opponent, West Point, and that’s even after allegedly signing players away from Hampton Christian.

After he first read that message-board rumor, Kiser checked with HRA athletic director Max Gillespie to see if anyone had even transferred from that school. They hadn’t.

“This year I haven’t beat on anyone’s door to say, ‘Hey, come play,’” said Kiser, who served as an assistant under Tom York the past two seasons.

The Navigators, who open their season 7 p.m. Friday at Chincoteague (0-1), are up to 38 varsity players from 26 last season. There are four first-time football players and several of the 18 seniors are returning to the program after a year off. The added bodies are just one reason for some optimism at HRA after going 2-7 and finishing 1-3 in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools last season.

One of the first changes Kiser made after taking over for York was to institute a 1,000-pound club for weight-lifting exercises. If players could total a combined 1,000 pounds in the bench press, dead lift, power-clean and squat, they would receive a T-shirt boasting their feat.

Players worked out in the weight room twice a day four times a week. Only three players – senior running back Andrew Maser, senior lineman Ben Rhodes and junior tight end Tre Swinton – topped 1,000.

“We gave them a concrete goal to try and shoot for,” said Kiser, a 2008 graduate of Washington & Jefferson College who adopted the program from his old high school coach.

Maser, who skipped football for soccer last fall, improved his bench press by 20 pounds through the offseason.

Junior quarterback Marshall Bagley benches 190 pounds – up from about 150 last year – and added 10 pounds to his frame.

“We’ve been beat down before because of not being strong enough, fast enough before,” Bagley said. “People realized that.”

Kiser, who teaches Spanish at HRA, also switched defenses to a 4-3 set from a 4-4 to utilize a deep secondary. The offense will be run heavy and feature the I-formation, one-back and shotgun offensive sets.

“We can spread the wealth around,” Kiser said.

For once, HRA might have the numbers to make it work.