For the Venice High football team, success on the field kicks off in the weightroom

VENICE — For Matthew Peavley, one of the benefits of being the strongest player on the Venice High football team is when this brawn forces an opponent to lose his head.

Followed by Peavley losing his helmet.

Long after last week’s highly anticipated matchup between Manatee and Venice had become a green-and-white runaway train, the hosts added insult to injury in the form of backup quarterback Ryan Downes running 50 yards untouched for a touchdown.

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The score and PAT, with three minutes left, pushed Venice’s lead to 56-24. It also pushed Manatee defensive end Najah Sexill over the edge, a night of pushing by Venice’s all-state guard the primary reason. On Downes’ TD, the 300-pound Peavley rag-dolled the 190-pounder into the ground, as he had all game.

“We were just abusing him all night,” Peavley said, “and he got sick of it.”

Sexill’s response? “He ripped my helmet off and tried to hit me over the head with it,” Peavley said. “He posted on Instagram him holding my helmet, and I posted the film clip on Twitter.”

That Peavley was able to physically dominate Sexill, who was ejected from the game for his actions, reflects one of the chief reasons there’s Venice High football and then everyone else.

Weightlifting makes good players better

And that process can’t happen when players miss workouts, which almost never happens at Venice. The consequences are too severe. “If they’re not in class, they lift after practice,” Peacock said. “If you miss your workout, that means you miss practice.” As well as that week's game.

Every Monday through Thursday during football season, from 7:15 a.m. to 8 a.m., the clanking of iron, the whistle, and subsequent instructions from Peacock, the relaxed yet focused demeanor of Venice’s players, paint the picture of a team cognizant of how these 45-minute weightlifting sessions translate into either success or failure on the field.

“Strength doesn’t make you a good football player,” said Peacock, standing in the middle of his team’s weight room as groups of players worked out. “It makes a good football player better. Strength can increase your chances of becoming a starter.”

In a sport where an opponent tries moving another opponent in a direction he doesn’t want to go — “trying to move someone off their position,” said Peacock — gaining muscle through weight training is non-negotiable. That wasn’t the case years ago, Peacock said, at least during the season.

“Not like this,” said the former Cardinal Mooney running back. “Not as much emphasis as what we put on it. The workout (years ago) may be similar, but it wasn’t an emphasis to make sure we were lifting every day during the season. It was more or less the offseason.”

During the season, Venice players lift in the morning for 45 minutes. In the offseason, they’ll lift in the morning, then again in the afternoon. When Peacock took over as head coach in 2007, his predecessor, Nick Coleman, had installed a weight-training program Peacock liked.

“I modified it, for sure,” Peacock said. “You gotta put your own spin on everything. He had a great weight program set up. I just kind of built off that. What you think worked for you, and what you think works for your team.”

What works for Peacock is his players, regardless of position, performing the same lifts, though the weights will vary. So, on upper-body day, the 150-pound defensive back and 300-pound offensive lineman each will do five sets of bench press, three sets of neutral grip incline, and three sets of core press.

“Typically, it’s not tailored to the player,” Peacock said. “It’s tailored to a high school kid. I have a strong belief in not having these individualized workouts for positions, at this age group. A lot of people buy into that, but I don’t. I think when you become a professional athlete, you can do that, but not right now at 15, 16, 17 years old. You’ve got to get your core muscle group strong. We’re trying to build a bigger, faster, stronger athlete. Bottom line.”

Still, the excuses come. Peacock said he’s heard over the years so often from his players how they have an orthodontist appointment at 2:30 p.m. and would have to miss weight training, he wonders if all the orthodontists in Sarasota County only accept 2:30 p.m. appointments.

Trey Burton eclipsed by Jadyn Glasser

“Everyone works out,” he said, “but if you don’t put an emphasis on it, if it’s not as important as the game day, or as important as practice, it really doesn’t matter. If it’s gotta be important to them, it’s gotta be important to their parents. If you don’t put it first, you’ll never be as good as you should be.”

In the Venice weight room are signs on the wall listing the top weights lifted by players per position in the bench and clean and jerk. Since 2010, former Super Bowl-winning Eagles' tight end Trey Burton held both records for quarterbacks. But then, Jadyn Glasser arrived this year on the Venice campus from South Plantation High School. And, soon, he owned both of Burton’s marks.

“That was one of my goals when I first came here was to beat that,” said Glasser, who’s increased his weight from around 190 pounds to 220 since he’s been at the school. “I pushed myself to be on it. We did have a decent weight-lifting program at South Plantation. But it’s definitely more serious here. The coaches and players take it a lot more seriously than at my old school. The coaches hold you accountable.”

Glasser’s name is on a board with former Venice players. But right in the middle of the room, on a wall, is a board with just one name. Matthew Peavley, whose 435-pound bench press is the most in program history. Up until the spring, former Venice defensive end Damon Wilson held the mark at 420 pounds.

“I had 300 pounds my freshman year,” said Peavley, who’s headed to Colorado Springs in the fall to play at the United States Air Force Academy. “(Strength) makes everything easier. If you make a bad step, you can make up for it by just grabbing him and moving him. Strength and technique. Two of them together, there’s not much the other person can do about it.”

The most important time superior strength and conditioning can make the difference is late in a game, when a tired player often can be a mistake-prone player. “Typically throughout the game,” Peacock said, “the strength shows up.

“You could see it big time in the Manatee and Riverview games. We were ready to play another half. They were ready to get on the bus.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Getting stronger in the weightroom helps keep Venice strong on field