OAKLEAF - Walking into the Oakleaf High football weightroom, one is surprised that there are not many bars with massive amounts of weights on them on any on the stations.

“We want explosiveness; that’s by design,” said Oakleaf head football coach Chris Foy, who enter his first season at Oakleaf with a searing eye on the fine points of body mechanics for his players. “It’s not how much weight they can lift, but how much weight they can move. We want them to be athletic on the field and full tilt for four quarters.”

Foy’s troops; offensive and defensive linemen in the morning session of his summer programs were in the midst of jumping dead lifts with a trap bar; google that, while others, including the massively big guys like 310 pound Chase Johnson, 340 pound Quory Ambrose and 240 pound J.J. Marsh Mensie were hopping up on a 18 inches high platform.

“It’s all about the hips and activating for power,” said Foy. “In the weight room, it’s all about fast moving, little rest and recovery and continued movement around the stations. Quory and J.J. have taken their game to a next level just by being here and understanding what we are doing.”

Foy has traveled to a few position camps in the last month; Mercer University, University of Central Florida (twice), Charleston Southern and University of South Florida, to let his boys see coaching from the college level.

“It’s good for them to see coaching from the next level and get an idea as to what will be expected once they leave high school,” said Foy. “I like my guys to get coached by somebody else.”

The coaching aspect adds to Foy’s expected immediate impact on the Knights’ program, but, coyly, Foy hopes that his guys see some of his credibility.

“I’ve been around the best coaches at the high school level and also at the college level,” said Foy. “I hope maybe they get something from the college guys and come home thinking maybe their own head coach is doing okay.”

Part of the traveling, Foy cited, was a chance to see the underbelly of his players and maybe some insight to their own internal drive to be successful on the field and off the field.

“I think the most important part of the trips is that team camaraderie part,” said Foy. “We get to see how they react with a little adversity; hotel rooms, roommates, different foods, bed checks, and even curfews. Some guys have never had to be accountable to their teammates at a high level.”

Foy noted that the UCF camp was as brutal a session as any he has been to.

“That camp was all about punishment; a three day session with the first session all conditioning,” said Foy. “They had a 12 station setup and it was brutal.”

On the field, Foy emphasizes his conditioning program as one that will bring opportunity.

“The whole key to our program is for our guys to be ready at all parts of the game to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves,” said Foy. “It’s hard to win at high school football on it own let alone when you are tired. That’s why we work on the clock here.”

At the skill camps, Foy noted that senior quarterback Brandon Wallace, Jr.; at Mercer and UCF, was impressive each time he touched the ball.

“He upped his game everytime he got a rep,” said Foy. “We have to get him ready for all situations in game situations because he came in behind the guy last year (Drew Ammon).”

Next phase, Coy intimated, may be a trip to a local pool for his boys to not swim, but to run in the water. Stay tuned.

Oakleaf, as well as other area schools, will be at Tuesday’s Jacksonville Jaguars 7 v 7 tournament for action against a day’s worth of athletes.