HSU weight room the heartbeat of Lumberjacks sports
ARCATA -- As a fifth grader growing up in Yuba City, Drew Peterson didn't have an easy time of it walking home from school. Every day he used to get beaten up by a group of local junior high bullies.
So Peterson decided to do something about it, and, in his own words, he spent that following summer "living in his garage, working out with a set of cast iron weights he inherited from his uncle."
By the time the fall rolled around, Peterson discovered he had no problems walking home from school any more, and a little more than two decades later, Humboldt State athletics might want to send a thank-you note to those inspiring bullies.
"From the moment I started working out, I was hooked," said Peterson, the strength and conditioning coach at Humboldt State. "And every morning when I come to work, I walk through the dark gym and say a little prayer of thanks, not just for my job, but for being able to do it here in Humboldt County."
In the 12 years since he arrived at HSU and initiated the strength program at the school, Peterson has overseen a weight room that has grown into the heartbeat of Lumberjack athletics, and has earned the respect of both athletes and coaches while doing so.
He has seen the subtle and not-so-subtle changes evolve over the past decade plus at the university, and as the importance of proper conditioning and the understanding of the role it plays in sports have become more and more apparent, Peterson's program has become more and more crucial to HSU sports.
"Drew is tremendous," men's soccer coach Alan Exley said. "I think he deserves credit for improving all the teams at Humboldt, and he's relates well to all the athletes, and they relate well to him.
"He organizes a wide range of fitness programs for the different sports, and he's devised programs that I think have had remarkable success."
But Peterson's job involves far more than just working with the athletes. As strength and conditioning coach, he is responsible for teaching classes, running clinics, and working with any student using his facility.
Last year alone, more than 2,000 people passed through the doors of his weight room, ranging from high school students to college professors to HSU students.
Plans are currently under way to expand the program, with a new 10,000-square-foot weight room scheduled to open in the fall of 2004 as part of the HSU field house renovation program, which was passed by student referendum last year.
The new facility will more than double the current 4,500-square-foot weight room, which is probably just as well considering the changes and growth in popularity the program has seen under Peterson's guidance, particularly from the female athletes at the school.
"It kind of used to be a novelty to see the women in the weight room, but the women's basketball team changed all that in the early 90s," he said. "They started working out here and it kind of spread to the other teams from there."
Now, under Peterson's guidance, more and more of the female athletes are starting to reap the benefits from working out in the weight room and starting to see the dividends on the field of play.
Late last season, Women's soccer coach Andy Cumbo told Peterson how he noticed his team had dominated a game physically at Western Oregon, something Cumbo credited to the strength program he insisted his players undergo.
"A lot of them weren't enthusiastic about it at first, but when they get that kind of reinforcement they feed off it and it makes them want to come in and do workouts," Peterson said.
The other women's teams at the school have also taken on an added presence in the weight room in recent years, including the volleyball team, who Peterson claims had a huge turnout during the summer, the crew team, who Peterson says works harder than any other team at the school, and the women's softball team, whose impressive work ethic, Peterson says, is a reflection of head coach Frank Cheek.
And then there's football, a program, one suspects, Peterson holds close to his heart, and one he feels has worked particularly hard this past off-season.
"The football players started working out right when the last season ended," he said. "A lot of that has to do with (head) coach (Doug) Adkins. He's a workaholic and I think it rubs off on his players. And once they got in here, they worked their tails off."
And that hard work also has Peterson feeling "cautiously optimistic" about the upcoming season for the Jacks, who have struggled on the gridiron in recent years.
"They've worked hard in the off-season and they've got something to prove," he said.
One of the big advantages for Peterson in his role at HSU is the variety of athletes he works with, and unlike any of the other coaches at the school, he gets to be on familiar terms with each of the teams.
"These teams really support each other," Peterson said. "They're very complimentary of each other and the players all support each other."
That wasn't the case as recently as 12 months ago, when in-house bickering and squabbles over a meager scholarship budget left many of the teams at odds with each other.
Peterson, however, credits interim Athletic Director Dan Collen with changing the atmosphere within the department and bringing a fresh air of optimism to HSU sports.
"It was kind of fun this year because we had a lot of different athletes that stayed up here during the summer to work out, more than usual," he said. "It's just a fresh feeling, and Dan Collen has made a huge difference. It all starts with him, and if you ask any coach, that's what they'll tell you. I just hope they remove that interim tag"
Among the teams thriving off that newfound optimism, and one arguably responsible for shifting much of the attention away from the negatives last year, is the men's basketball team, fresh off its most successful season ever, when the Jacks made it all the way to the NCAA West Region championship game.
"When they lost that game in the regionals last year, they all made a pledge to stay here during the summer and work out together," Peterson said. "They don't want to lose again."
And it's that sort of dedication and attitude that Peterson thrives off, making his contribution and efforts all the more worthwhile.
And just as heartfelt for the strength and conditioning coach is seeing his students move on to run strength programs of their own.
Indeed, with former Lumberjacks like Jason Loscalzo at Marshall State, Andy Dendas at Oregon State, Michelle Latimer at the University of Washington and Teresa Farmer at the University of San Diego, the Peterson legacy stretches way beyond Humboldt County.
Holly Shummard out of McKinleyville High is the most recent Graduate Assistant under Peterson's tutelage, and someone who impressed the HSU coach at a young age.
"I discovered her as a high school sophomore," he said. "She joined up for the summer program, and by the end of the summer she was stronger than any of the boys in the program, and ever since then she's been big into it.
"The best part of the program is being able to develop kids like these and send them off to their own programs. It''s exciting to put these kids out there, and I get to learn from them now."
But after 12 years of seeing an assortment of athletes come and go through the weight room, if you ask Peterson to pick out the best athlete he's ever seen at HSU, it's not an easy question.
"It's really hard to say who was the best athlete, but nobody ever worked harder than Chris Butterfield," Peterson said, referring to the former HSU football player, who has played pro ball in the Arena Football league for the past six years, and someone who was credited with building up his strength extensively while at HSU.
But if Butterfield was the hardest working athlete he's seen, Peterson credits former soccer All-American standout John Coven as probably the best male athlete he's seen at the school.
And as for the women's side, Peterson points to sprinter Juan Ball, who made the Olympic trials and will be inducted into the HSU Hall of Fame this fall.
But while those athletes achieved their success through hard work and athletic ability, Peterson admits he would be naïve to believe steroids and performance enhancing drugs aren't a part of Division II sports, even if he strongly disapproves of them.
"The biggest disservice my field did for a long time was saying they don't work instead of educating the athletes and telling them what they do and the long-term effects," Peterson said. "It's cheating, and there's no substitute for hard work."
It may have seemed like hard to Peterson too all those years ago when he first lifted a set of weights in his garage in fear of local bullies, but it hardly seems like that now.
"How many people get to make a living at a hobby?" he asked. "I get to make a living at what I love to do and share that passion."
I wonder if those junior high bullies back in Yuba City can say the same?