Penncrest players realize bigger may not be healthier

Pictures of past Penncrest High teams adorn the school's weight-room walls. They go back, some way back. Many are in black-and-white, some in color. If you look closely enough, the players in those pictures also come in a variety of sizes, all looking a little heftier and beefier.

None, however, will be heftier and beefier than the picture of the 2010 Penncrest team. Players are getting larger, and this Lions team carries particular interest because it will have the largest offensive line in school history.

Combined, left guard Nick Quintans (6-3, 280 pounds), left tackle Page Moat (6-2, 265), center Robby Morrison (5-10, 230), right guard Kyle Wenner (6-foot, 250) and right tackle Ian Fleming (6-2, 215) weigh 1,240 pounds. That's an average of 248 pounds.

The largest player on Penncrest's team in the late 1990s was about 230. Lions coach Paul Graham, an All-Central League offensive lineman for Upper Darby in 1997, played at 235.

Moat admitted before every game he went into last year he checked the height and weight of the player he was going against. He said every player has a tendency to do that.

"There is definitely pressure today, and it doesn't come from the coaching staff, it comes from the players you play against. They're bigger and stronger and you have to get bigger and stronger," said Moat, who weighed 245 last year and gained 20 pounds in adding to his overall strength. "I was thrown all over the field in our playoff game against Downingtown East last year. It was my intention to get bigger. I didn't feel like getting bullied around the field like I did in that playoff game."

Today's high school players are better informed. They're more aware that the excess weight they gain now can have serious ramifications when they get older.

"Believe me, I know," said Quintans, who carries a 3.9 grade-point-average and wants to play at Penn. "Our coaching staff educates us on everything, but high school football today is an arms race. It is about who's the biggest and the strongest.

"I know what can happen down the line. There are consequences with everything you do in life, and, I hate to say it, I might as well enjoy this moment of playing high school football.

"I went to Penn's summer camp and they had high school kids from all over the country there, and if you think I'm big, these kids were gigantic. I was talking to them about size and getting bigger. Some of these kids already had tendinitis and groin injuries, and in my opinion it had to do with the weight gain."

Quintans is correct. The strain of increased muscle and mass, if it's beyond what the body's tendons and ligaments can normally handle, can result in muscle pulls and tears.

"I know I don't want to be that guy who's fat and sloppy at 35 or 40 years old," Moat said. "I'd like to play as far as I can with football, and that will mean getting bigger with each level you play on. There's a good and bad with it. Being in high school, you don't think about it, you do enjoy the moment, but I probably should start thinking about how big I get." *

Send e-mail to santolj@phillynews.com.