Last summer, Lee-Davis strength and conditioning coach Mike Craven introduced a new testing and conditioning method with the high school’s football team. The program, designed to identify and acclimatize athletes susceptible to heat related illnesses, was developed through MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) testing to determine the volume of oxygen or VO2 max scores, which provide information on the body’s ability to utilize oxygen and release heat.

  Being considered the first football program in the country to take such a proactive approach to dealing with heat intolerant athletes, the story of Craven’s program made the front page of the Richmond Times Dispatch. Passionate about heat issues, Craven wanted to give every school a chance to adapt his testing and conditioning plan. However, it did not catch on as he expected.

  “That article that was written was all everywhere,” he said. “How many coaches called us? Zero.”

  But Craven did not give up. He took his presentation to the Virginia High School League where the information could be sent out to all of the coaches in the state. “None of the coaches called,” he said. “None of the coaches acted.”

  Craven recognized the reluctance among coaches stemmed from the fact that the normal progression of new methods runs from NFL to college to high school. “I’m sure because colleges aren’t doing it, that’s why they’re not looking at it,” Craven said. “When you see a college do something different that’s never seen, whether it’s right or wrong they (high schools) gravitate to it because it’s a mindset.”

  Craven finally made a breakthrough in mid-summer when two of the top high school football programs in the Richmond, Highland Springs and Deep Run, started implementing his testing and conditioning plan.

  Then in July, another breakthrough came when a chain of events allowed Craven to make his presentation to University of Richmond.

  As an alumni of Lee-Davis, new Spider head coach Latrell Scott had trained under Craven. As such, Scott allowed him to speak to UR’s training staff.

  “Coach Scott told me he trusts (Craven) and thought he was a really good guy,” said Richmond Strength and Conditioning coach Chris Stewart. “Hear him out and get your opinion on it.”

  Craven gave his presentation understanding that the knowledge of college level trainers would give him every opportunity to be proven wrong. “If there was anything that was presented that wasn’t true to form they would have debated it,” Craven said. “The first thing they did was, they said they were going to participate and they acted on the information.”

  The presentation surprised Stewart. “I was at the University of Tennessee for 11 years. We never did anything like this,” he said.

  “I just felt this one made a lot of sense,” he added. “There’s a lot of attention put on heat illness and if you look at it, we are at fault if someone drops out. That’s something I don’t ever want to have to experience. So if there’s anything I can do to protect the athletes I’m going to do it.”

  But Stewart also understands many coaches are reluctant to adapt the new conditioning process because they want their players to undergo anaerobic or strength conditioning in order to make them stronger. To increase heat tolerance, Craven’s methods call for aerobic or endurance training, which can deplete strength if not implemented properly.

  Stewart admits he too had the same thoughts. “That was my concern at first,” he said. “If I do all of this aerobic training, I’m going to lose their anaerobic power. I’m going to have a soft football team. They can jog laps all day but that’s not what I’m looking for.”

  But Craven explained that through the MET/VO2 scores, Stewart would be able to determine the exact heart rate of each athlete’s lactic threshold whereby anaerobic strength would not be lost.

  Yet, fall camp was getting ready to begin so Stewart took a cautious approach with the Spiders and only tested the incoming freshmen— “instead of throwing the whole thing at the entire team and say, ‘let’s see what happens, because you know we can’t do that this time of year, we can’t gamble.”

  Those that produced MET scores of 40 or higher were deemed safe. But three of the incoming Spiders fell below that mark. “Typically, if you were to look at these guys you could probably pick them out. They’re typically your overweight guys,” Stewart said. “Most of those guys had great work ethics they just couldn’t go. They couldn’t go through the wringer. They were struggling. So now we have a plan.”

  Because of NCAA time constraints, Stewart was unable to administer the full conditioning plan to those freshmen through fall camp. But at the same time he wanted to test results of Craven’s methods, so he asked a couple of UR staff members to undergo the aerobic conditioning plan. Instead of running on a track like the Lee-Davis football team, Stewart adapted UR’s conditioning to the use of a versa-climber to reduce impact on the joints.

  “What we’ve found so far is it’s not affecting their power,” Stewart said. “It’s not affecting their strength, their anaerobic conditioning.”

  As the season gets under way, Stewart will have time to bring the freshmen with low MET scores in on the conditioning.

  “In the long run, you’re going to find overheating, dehydration, heat illnesses, things like that are going to go down too because they’re going to be able to release heat from their body with oxygen absorption and increasing the VO2 max,” he said.

  With the tests proving positive results with the UR staff, Stewart sees a two-fold benefit to Craven’s plan with the players. The conditioning will not only increase their heat tolerance but also make them better on the field. “If I can get them faster, they’ll be able to maintain that speed longer throughout the game,” Stewart said.

  “One of the things I’m really excited about, I’m going to be able to tell if this kid is really giving me all or is he just playing the game so he can get a breath,” Stewart said. “Taking all the guessing game out of it.

  “These football coaches, they want these guys mentally tough,” Stewart said. “You’ve got to push them. You’ve got to go above and beyond what they feel they can do. But now I have a tool that we can use to make it safe. I know exactly where the athlete’s at. I know if he can give me more. He can’t cheat the system. If he’s at his capacity then I know that already.”

  After learning of the football team’s participation in the program, the UR women’s basketball team has since undergone MET testing as well.