St. Xavier SPARQ Rating of 90.77
April 26, 2008
Skyler Ashbaugh
Cincinnati, OH- The road to football greatness in the State of Ohio goes through St. Xavier High School, and everyone knows it. After testing teams the last week around the state, the common theme from both players and coaches has been, “when do you test X?” “have you seen the facilities at X yet? They will blow you away,” “X is full of studs.” As the Central Truck rolled onto the campus of the St. Xavier Bombers, the expectations were higher then they have been all tour for a team and probably will be the rest of the summer. After it was all said and done the Bombers lived up to all the hype and then some as they posted a tremendous team SPARQ score of 90.77.
Everyone wants to play at “X” and for good reason. The Bombers are coming off a 2007 season which began with a pre-season national ranking of #1 and finished with a perfect record, a 27-0 victory in the Ohio State Championship game, a 2nd state title in the last 3 years and a final national ranking of #1 and #2 depending on which poll you looked at.
With spring sports wrapping up for high school athletes, the Bombers were only privileged to have not even a quarter of their team out to test. A quarter of a typical high school team would leave most programs high and dry, however at “X” a quarter of their program is almost 80 players.
While a stadium full of young stars participated in SPARQ Testing, one star shined far brighter then the others… that star was Junior LB Luke Kuechly who posted an off the charts SPARQ Rating of 106.14. Kuechly, a member of the 2007 state championship team, finished in the top 3 in each of the 4 SPARQ events. When asked what benefits SPARQ Testing will bring the Bombers, the Junior LB feels “the testing will help us set goals because you really don’t know what goals to set until you come out here and test.” The power ball toss proved to be Kuechly’s strongest event as he placed himself among the elite athletes in the country with a toss of 43 feet. Rounding out a performance that ranks Kuechly in the 99.9th percentile in the country was a 4.78 second 40 time, 4.35 second shuttle and a 32.9 inch vert. Kuechly, who has gained interest from high profile colleges such as Stanford, Boston College, Michigan State and Northwestern plans to “work on a lot of speed drills to improve my 40 time.”
It takes more then one person to win a state championship, just as it takes more then one person to earn a 90.77 Team SPARQ Rating. Junior RB Connor Earley earned elite status after posting a 94.71 Rating on the shoulders of a team high 35.6 inch vertical. Pat Muldoon (87.84 SPARQ Rating), Patrick Grote (84.81 SPARQ Rating) and Will Carroll (78.72 SPARQ Rating) round out the top 5 for the Bombers. Other noteworthy scores were posted by Andrew Brown with a 4.3 second shuttle and Trever Hoelker with a 4.71 second 40-Yard Dash. Earley used last season to gain valuable experience as a back up and stated his personal goal this year was to “score 15 touchdowns and be a be a senior leader towards another state championship.”
The Bombers are a well oiled machine. They are disciplined, they work hard, they run fast and they are flat out G.O.O.D. A lot of their success over the last 3 years can be attributed to strength and conditioning coach Carlo Alvarez. Alvarez has worked as a strength coach at the University of Notre Dame, Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. After working with some of the best athletes in the world, Alvarez has found his niche with high school players. “As a strength coach you are always looking to develop your athletes, I have coached at all levels and I love working with high school kids the most. The support of administrators, coaches, parents and the kids wanting to improve everyday is a great feeling,” commented Coach Alvarez on his transition to the high school level.
The Bombers test, train and compete at an elite level and their hard work is paying off. They are elite athletes, with an elite coaching staff and are producing an elite program. On behalf of the Central Squad it was an honor to test such a great program. Expectations were high but according to Coach Alvarez, the program prides itself on “meeting expectations and we do a good job of that in this program.” Keep up the hard work and we expect to see the Bombers make another prolific run towards back to back state championships.
The Bombers test, train and compete at an elite level and their hard work is paying off. They are elite athletes, with an elite coaching staff and are producing an elite program. On behalf of the Central Squad it was an honor to test such a great program. Expectations were high but according to Coach Alvarez, the program prides itself on “meeting expectations and we do a good job of that in this program.” Keep up the hard work and we expect to see the Bombers make another prolific run towards back to back state championships.
If you would like hear how Coach Carlo Alvarez develops football speed with the St. Xavier Bomber Football Squad, attend the Strength and Conditioning Clinic for Football on May 17th.
