Dear Bear Fans,

February has been an exciting month for our program! The first day of the month was National Signing Day and we had seven athletes sign with some great institutions to continue their football careers.  It was great to be able to celebrate this tremendous milestone and we wish them nothing but the best in the future.  We love it when we have the opportunity to watch our players play at the next level!

Winter sports have wrapped up and we saw some of our football athletes have some great seasons!  In wrestling, Court Towns finished 4th at the CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament in the Heavyweight Division.  We also had multiple athletes in Basketball who qualified for the CHSAA State Basketball Tournament but ended up falling in a very close game to Thomas Jefferson in the first round.

Starting March 6th we will be starting our Spring programming in the weight room.  I am amazed at how fast our players have made gains in the weight room during the Winter season.  On average our athletes have seen an increase of 15% to each of their lifts.  We are starting to encourage athletes to keep track of what they are eating so they can fuel their bodies properly.  It is important that our athletes take advantage of their post-workout window and immediately take in calories.  If your child is not a planner please encourage him to bring protein shakes or bars to school.  Post workout nutrition is a competitive advantage.

In the beginning of February we kicked off our Team21 meetings.  During this month we have focused on stories that demonstrate our core values, and we are looking to build upon this aspect of our culture.  In the next couple of weeks we will be starting a six week curriculum focused on athletes' responsibility.  Along with our lessons we are looking forward to getting our athletes out in the community and have communicated some opportunities for them to participate in.

I would like to continue to encourage everyone to get involved with BFCOM.  There are many areas in which we will need help headed into this upcoming season.  BFCOM provides one of the best playing experiences for our players in the state of Colorado.  I encourage everyone to become a member and reach out to them if you are interested in volunteering!  There is a wide range of opportunities within the club where help is needed.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for the support of our program.  We are relentlessly pursuing our mission of being respected as the best program in Colorado in developing student-athletes.  We cannot do this without your support!

Go Bears!

Coach Carlton

Palmer Ridge Football Calendar

Coach Speak - January Recap 2023

Core Values: Tough, Hard Working, Competitive

Dear Bear Fans,

We are off to a great start in our first month of the off-season.  Our athletes and coaches are working hard, and we have some exciting things happening within our program!  During the month of January we had our 8th Grade “Choice” Night, which was a very successful event for our program.  Our coaches and BFCOM members were able to meet many quality young men and their families that could be future Bears.

This off-season we have put a major focus in creating a year round strength and conditioning program.  Even if your student-athlete is in a winter or spring sport we would like them to continue to workout under our program.  Please do not hear this as we do not want our student-athletes participating in other sports, we will have special programming for them to still compete at a high level, but not hit the reset button when they come back to workout with the football program.  Adopting this focus of year round training accomplishes multiple things.  First, it reduces the risk of non-contact injuries, keeping student athletes competing at a high level year round.  Secondly, committing to a year round program can help raise student athletes' overall athleticism by building proper movements and motor skills.  Lastly, for us to consistently compete against the best schools in the state we must commit to being as big, strong, and fast as possible.  The easiest way to accomplish this is for athletes to be in a strength class, this eliminates the need to workout before/after school on top of having to go to practices/games for another sport.  If your athlete is not in a strength class we are happy to accommodate them before or after school.

Another major focus of our off-season programming we will be introducing  to our student-athletes is #Team21.  #Team21 is a campaign focused on concepts of leadership that focus on the 21 hours before and after practice that build a winning culture.  The #Team21 campaign will have a leadership focus, but will be deliberate in addressing issues that are facing today’s high school student.  You can expect to see leadership and community service opportunities for our student-athletes that help them execute our core values not only on the field, and when they are at football, but also the 21 hours they are away from the program.  We will start rolling out #Team21 “classes” in the beginning of February and we are excited about the experiences and opportunities for our student-athletes to take part in.

Please understand that it is our mission to be the best program in Colorado at developing student athletes.  If you ever have a question or need clarification, please reach out to me at zcarlton@lewispalmer.org.  We are looking forward to taking this program to new levels in 2023.  I look forward to seeing and meeting as many of you as possible on February 8th at our “Vision and Values” parent meeting.

Sincerely,

Coach Carlton

Palmer Ridge Football Calendar