The shared attitudes, behaviors and expectations that shape how players act, treat each other and represent their program, especially when coaches aren’t around is referred to as “locker room culture.” The head football coach here at Struthers High School, John Pascarella, is striving to change this culture for the better.
The coaches on a team are often responsible for molding and changing the culture of a team by instilling their philosophies on their players and holding players accountable on the field and in the weight room. This culture change outside of the locker room can mold how players act towards themselves and each other.
Pascarella wants to mold this culture for the better.
“I am taking many steps to improve the locker room culture here, such as raising the daily standard for everyone, holding our players to the highest standards possible, building real player leadership and accountability, not just by naming captains but by creating comradery, addressing issues on the team immediately, and being consistent even when it may be uncomfortable,” said Pascarella.
The football team has partnered with the Iron Fit Crew gym, a strongman and athlete focused gym in Struthers for highly intense yet functional leg training and strongman workouts twice a week, on top of the team’s regular lifting. This IFC training has been described as “a good workout that makes you work hard” by some, such as Mason Wortman, an Offensive and Defensive Lineman, and “very intense compared to any other workout I have had” by others, such as Ryan Tarr, a Defensive End and Tight End. Workouts like this are designed to change the mindset of players such as Tarr and Wortman and help them push past all forms of adversity.
Coach Pascarella, who works out at IFC himself, believes that these workouts will improve players both physically and mentally.
“I think that the change of atmosphere there is just what we needed as a team. Not only does IFC offer us workouts that we couldn’t do in our own weight room here at the high school, but they help bring a different, more intense mindset that our players have been drawn to. Not only are these workouts helping us get stronger as a team and ready for the season, they are helping us come together as a team and turn to each other when things get hard, rather than turning on each other when the going gets tough,”says Pascarella.
The players on the team have done a particularly good job of holding both each other and themselves accountable. Players have gotten others to show up and push through adversity both in the weight room, on the field, and at home and school. One of the biggest examples of players holding each other accountable and pushing each other is the sudden change program. For context, sudden change is a form of discipline where at any given point in a workout, a coach can yell “Sudden Change” and the entire team will instantly stop what they are doing, and do 16-30 push ups or do some other form of exercise as a team. According to Coach Bakko, a new coach here at Struthers, our current team is the first and only team he has ever seen or heard of whose players have done the sudden change on their own, with the captains calling it independently. This goes to show how the players on the Struthers football team push each other and hold each other accountable.
For Pascarella, players taking accountability and pushing each other is the most important part of a locker room’s culture.
“Holding each other accountable both on and off the field has been amazing to see throughout the offseason. Watching a player go up to a teammate and actually talk about and discuss the importance our offseason workouts hold with strength, conditioning, and most importantly, building trust is amazing to see as a coach and shows that we are heading in the right direction as a team,” said Pascarella.
Overall, the culture of the Struthers Football team is improving day by day, both due to the coaches philosophy and the players work ethic. There is sure to be a definite change from this season compared to the last one.
