Some of the best high school football linemen in the Chicago area also are some of the biggest, and yet they find themselves under pressure to pack on even more poundage if they hope to earn a Division I college scholarship.
The 300-pound lineman, a rarity on the football field as recently as 20 years ago, has become commonplace in college football, and pretty much the standard throughout the pros. The death of Minnesota Vikings All-Pro lineman Korey Stringer, who weighed 335 pounds, from heatstroke in 2001 raised the question of whether massive size had become a health risk. But apparently it did little to curb the trend toward ever-bigger linemen on both sides of the ball.
The debate is likely to begin again with two more player deaths occurring within the last week. Thomas Herrion of the San Francisco 49ers, a 310-pounder, collapsed and died Saturday of undetermined causes after his team’s exhibition game with the Denver Broncos.
Doug Schmied, a senior guard at Illinois Wesleyan who weighed 285 pounds, died Wednesday, five days after being hospitalized with heat-related symptoms following a preseason workout.
Meanwhile, high school linemen keep working under the premise that bigger is better.
Take Joliet Catholic standout Brett Stengele, who preserves his 6-foot-5-inch, 275-pound frame by eating heartily and lifting weights daily.
His breakfast bowl of cereal is easily Stengele’s lightest meal of the day. For lunch he has 2 1/2 sandwiches, a “big, tall” glass of milk, chips and a bowl of fruit. Stengele downs a 32-ounce sports drink before practice, and a 24-gram protein shake after an intense two hours on the field.
Then comes his real feast: A dinner that could serve as a smorgasbord. Stengele typically eats three pieces of chicken (or a quarter-pound of red meat), a large bowl of steamed carrots or green beans and a heaping helping of pasta and bread.
Stengele is being recruited by Western Michigan, Ball State and Illinois, and he believes his chances of playing college ball will increase if he gets bigger. At most Division I football schools, the majority of freshman linemen are redshirted and given a full year to concentrate on improving their size and strength before they play.
“Absolutely there is pressure from college coaches to get to a certain weight,” Stengele said. “My freshman year, [coaches] will probably have me work out to get huge.”
Heavy pressure
Going back 30 or 40 years, a 200-pound high school lineman was the norm, considered a good-sized player. Today, Rich East coach Alan Greenberg sees a 200-pound player and asks if he’s a running back or a defensive back.
Jon Asamoah, a 6-5, 275-pound tackle, is more typical of today’s linemen. Asamoah said no one from Rich East has pressured him about his weight, but “all the college coaches say I have to gain 20 pounds.”
Asamoah is being recruited by Northwestern, Illinois and Bowling Green.
“I don’t know if it’s fair to ask me to gain 20 pounds,” he said. “I guess it comes with the territory. I know what I’m getting myself into.”
Asamoah’s family has a history of diabetes and high blood pressure, which medical experts say are two possible consequences of massive weight gain and obesity. And with rare exceptions, a lineman who tips the scales at more than 300 pounds is obese, according to the Body Mass Index Scale that helps determine the ideal weight for people of various heights and body types.
Dr. Bob Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and former president of the American Heart Association, said larger athletes place more strain on their hearts.
“The body’s demand for more blood causes the heart to work harder,” Bonow said, describing a “perfect storm” scenario involving heat, dehydration and being overweight. A heart working at peak capacity under such conditions can develop an arrhythmia, an abnormal rhythm.
“Usually when sudden death occurs, the heart has an abnormal rhythm,” Bonow said.
That might have been the case with the 49ers’ Herrion.
Dr. Linda VanHorn, a nutritionist at Northwestern, says there is no good way to weigh 300 or more pounds.
“From a scientific point of view, in order to get to that size, you might have to double your weight,” she said. “There are so many biological risks. But if you are already big-boned, then physiologically it might not be that big of a risk.”
Among high school linemen, there are not many big-boned prospects larger than Morgan Park’s Ramone Johnson, a 6-4, 305-pounder whom recruiting analyst Tim O’Halloran of rivals.com ranks as the No. 1 lineman in the Chicago area. Southern California, Tennessee, Nebraska and Illinois are among the schools recruiting him.
Johnson weighed 290 pounds as a high school freshman and has worked hard to tone and condition his body. He already has prototypical college size.
“For me, it’s been maintaining,” Johnson said. “As a freshman, I didn’t have that body. Now my body has more definition.”
Were Johnson to attend Northern Illinois, he would fit in along an offensive line that averages more than 300 pounds per man. Such is now the norm throughout the country.
Fifth-year senior Brian Van Acker is the Huskies’ starting center. Listed at 6-4 and 300 pounds, he weighed 250 pounds when he arrived at Northern from Prairie Ridge High School in 2001.
“When I first got to NIU, the coaching staff told me to gain weight,” Van Acker said. “As an offensive lineman, if you’re not hovering around 300, it’s going to be hard to be successful.”
Van Acker said he took his time gaining weight during his redshirt year. Proper diet and four weightlifting sessions per week was the route he took.
But a high school player desperate for a scholarship or a college player seeking more playing time might consider ways to speed up the process.
“The pressure on these younger kids to build up as quickly as possible might lead them to steroids, which leads to all sorts of problems,” said Dr. Arturo Olivera, who runs a weight management clinic next to Illinois Masonic Hospital. “I would advise these athletes to lift weights and build lean muscle mass.”
Van Acker added: “A lot of people are into the weight gainers, which is fine, but don’t get out of hand with that. If you are eating right with good portions, you will be fine.”
Feeling invincible
The coach who recruited Van Acker has mixed feelings about the ever-increasing size of linemen.
“There’s no question they have been getting larger the last decade,” Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak said. “But I don’t get hung up on the 300-pound number. In high schools, we look at height. . . . We go for the 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 guys who could grow into their bodies.”
Purdue coach Joe Tiller espouses a similar philosophy but concedes that certain “physical specs” have to factor into recruiting.
“It would be hard to recruit a 6-foot-1, 200-pound lineman for the Big Ten,” Tiller said. “You cannot get too far from size. It serves strictly as a guideline. I think the younger guys inflate the alleged standard they think they should come in at. Young kids make the mistake to gain weight too quickly.”
Tiller doesn’t believe the death of Herrion will influence young linemen to keep weight off any more than Stringer’s death did.
“These kids think they are bulletproof,” Tiller said. “They might even do things from time to time that are completely unsafe and illegal to gain weight. They think [poor health] would never happen to them.”
Joliet Catholic coach Dan Sharp, winner of back-to-back Class 5A state championships, agrees.
“Kids live in the moment, and they think they are invincible,” Sharp said. “It’s up to us to educate the kids and look for the signs, to encourage kids to be physically fit. We have to keep the outside influence out. We all want to win, but we have to know what’s best for our kids.”
Stengele, Sharp’s standout lineman, never can picture himself obese or getting diabetes.
“Rewards depend on motivation,” he said. “I have to look at what I want to be after football. I don’t think gaining too much weight would be worth the potential consequences.”
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ptokarz@tribune.com
