Howe athletes experience no 'Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer'

station for 30 minutes " said West

The coaches split up the long-distance runners from the sprint runners On Thursday, a group ran "the ladder" of 400 meters followed by 300, 200 and 100 meters That particular run is not the most popular with the athletes

"You can do more stuff in the summer because you have more time " said West "We're not on a time crunch, so we can work them up to two hours where during the school day you only get 45 minutes."

The high school kids are encouraged to attend the first session which starts at 7:30 because it is a little more high intense. The junior high kids come later as the coaches slow things down in order to get them more acclimated to the lifting process Most of the entering seventh graders are lifting for the first time

Nat King Cole probably never envisioned lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer to be so athleticintense in North Texas Back in 1963, the popular song was about bikinis hot dogs, beaches, and pretzels That's nearly everything that will send a football coach over the edge from his players in 2015

The program of athletes working out with coaches in the summer is not a new concept, however, the attendance and participation level is new

"The attendance before Coach (Zack) Hudson got here was pretty bad." said assistant coach and football offensive coordinator Dale West.

"Last year, we had 40 total coming last year and now we're averaging about 60 per day"

West says that the difference is the expectation of the athletes from the coaches It's voluntary and not mandatory, but they set the expectations that the kids should show up regularly.

The program is not sport-specific due to University Interscholastic League rules. It's general strength and conditioning for athletes entering seventh grade through senior year.

"We'll do about a 45-minute weight workout and then we'll go outside and do an agility station for about 30 minutes and then we'll do the running

"We try to show them (junior high kids) how to do the workout without heavy weights just to show them how to do a workout " said West

One benefit that the coaches receive from this is the ability to find out which kids are motivated enough to attend the workouts continued on Page #12

"In August, you can tell which kids have been here and which ones haven't " said West "First of all, you can tell by the condition that they're in. If they haven't been working, they're exhausted. The kids that show up, it's just another day for them."

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"I thought about that and I'm going to have kids here (in Howe) for a long time." said Foster. "One time a month is not much to sacrifice "

Foster said that he sees growth coming to Howe and wants to help with the plans that are in place and to help guide those efforts

"We were in a meeting today and they mentioned that Collin County has 950,000 people and are about to have two more million " said Foster "They have to land somewhere. More than likely they'll land here So I want to help this city grow the right way."

Foster, 46, is a native of Plainview, Texas and is a 1993 graduate of

Texas Tech University He married Howe native, Vanna Tate Foster 22 years ago and they have three kids, Darci (17), Dylan (15) and Dax (9)

Foster is a Texas Farm Bureau agent and was in the education field for 20 years. He's been a youth pastor and a minister

"I have a servant heart " said Foster "I just want to serve and help people. That's what I do. I think this feels like a chance to reach out and help people in this community."

Foster joins Haigis, Debbie Lowery, Georgia Richardson and Bill French on the council

The program is put together by Workforce Solutions Texoma and supported by surrounding Economic Development Corporations or cities in Grayson County,

The experiences that the teachers gain from working in local factory or industry settings gives them an idea of what a lot of their students are facing when they leave their classroom

Before the week, Camp told Workforce Solutions Texoma, " I expect to learn how what I teach in the classroom will work in the real world I want to be able to teach them what the company needs them to know in order to be successful, and teach collegebound students what type of degrees to pursue.”

After her experience she said that very few of the workers had college degrees, but most of them were making more money than she was She said that they do have more stress in their lives, however

Friedman also had a good experience, saying, "I was able to see how important math is From payment systems to nurses who use geometry every day The experience was above and beyond what I expected "

Great Days

enforcement of the City of Howe

The city is more interested in helping out the residents, rather than fining them

"Just to see the impact that we can make on people's lives with a lot of care and labor and a little bit of money" said Hepner "We can make a huge different in people that don't have a front door or people that don't have a hot water heater or people that can't walk in the front door because of the steps falling together."

Hepner said that many of the residents came out with tears in their eyes and that the emotions were high all weekend

"The one that's been most impactful to me was a job that we did east of town that the deck was falling together" said Hepner

The project was for a lady who has been and is still in the hospital in rehab for a number of months The daughter of the lady was on-site and emotions of seeing people help overcame her

"She cried so often when we were there, it was amazing to see the impact on her just to know how happy her mother would be." said

Hepner

Another location had a water heater that was not just leaking, but gushing In order to do the necessities of life, they would switch the unit on and off Eventually, the water damage flooded the floor and rotted out the flooring Great Days of Service, replaced the portion of the rotted floor and purchased a new water heater for the home.

"The people were very appreciative." said Hepner. "We rebuilt their porch and the entire family was out there have their picture made on the new porch "

Due to the wet weather, they weren't able to do two of the major yard cleanups They still have some brush to pick up from other locations Three projects were cut short because of the skillset needed to complete the job

"We got a lot done, but didn't get all of them, but we'll continue to work through the rest of the month to get them finished " said Hepner.

The organization was up in continued from Page #1 continued from Page #6