Seeking an edge

Staff photo by Joe Phelan
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Cony High School junior John Carll, left, strains doing squats under the watchful eye of his trainer Nate Mullens recently at the Senator Swim and Health Spa in Augusta. Mullens was working with Carll to get him ready for the upcoming football season.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan
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Trainer Nate Mullens, top right, talks to Cony High School junior John Carll about how to use this machine recently in the mirror-walled strength room at the Senator Swim and Health Spa in Augusta.

AUGUSTA -- His face red and squished up, John Carll of Augusta grits his teeth in front of a floor-length mirror and shoulder-presses 25-pound hand weights.

The 16-year-old Cony offensive lineman warms up with side raises and shoulder presses before advancing to the heavier weights used in his training sessions.

He wants to excel on the football field so, for the past four weeks, Carll has been working with a personal trainer at the Senator Inn & Spa to increase his strength.

After warming up, Carll -- who came over to the spa straight after football practice -- sits on a shoulder-press bench and lifts 40-pounds weights above his head.

"Be explosive! Try to drive it up," exhorts Nate Mullens Jr., Carll's trainer at the spa. "Good. Nice and easy. Two more now . . . That's it."

By request, Mullens is working to improve on Carll's upper-body strength to give him more balance.

Since Cony High School closed down -- students will move into the new school in less than a week -- Carll said he hasn't been able to use the school gymnasium to work out.

So he's been doing it on his own -- with workouts at the YMCA and personal fitness training at the spa.

As he's done increasingly for the past several years for high schoolers seeking an edge, Mullens helped John develop the off-season workout program he needed.

"I didn't fit this T-shirt five weeks ago. It was skin-tight," Carll said, pulling on the front of his shirt. "I weigh about the same, but I've got more muscle mass.

"It's made me bigger, faster and stronger. That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

Carll isn't the only student Mullens has agreed to train for a school sport. Often, he says, parents search him out to help their children increase their upper and lower body strength in advance of school sports seasons.

Mullens says he has trained budding basketball stars, girls on softball teams and teens who play golf and tennis.

A personal trainer at the spa for six years who also is employed by the Augusta Surgical Association, Mullens says strength training thickens the tendons, reduces the risk of injuries, and increases flexibility and core strength.

"They want to play their sport better, and they learn quickly. But parents don't think about (hiring a personal trainer)," he said. "You don't have to have tons of money. You can get a workout plan to go home with after a three-week session."

Nancy Marshall, who lives in Carrabassett Valley and works in Augusta, hired Mullens to train her two sons, Craig, 13, and 10-year-old Jamie -- both alpine skiers who compete throughout New England.

"I wanted (John) to work on their strength and balance," Marshall said. Mullens is "also very good about nutrition and eating healthy. I wanted him to talk to my kids about eating good food for their endurance."

Mullens said owners of the Senator Inn & Spa have offered his services to Cony High School free of charge. Cony coaches each year pick one student who needs extra strengthening to be trained by Mullens.

"It's sports-specific," he said. "The extra training gives them a little jump start. John's a lineman, so he needs upper body strength so we focus on a lot of upper body and core strengthening."

Assistant freshman football coach Fred Searcy said Carll came to Cony as a 6-foot-2-inch freshman weighing 315 pounds -- and totally out of shape.

But he "busted his butt" playing football and track -- and now, at 6 feet 4 inches, the junior has dropped his weight down to 265 pounds.

Searcy said Carll has done everything he could to get fit -- including the strength training -- and that has helped lift his confidence and earn better grades. He said Carll is on the honor roll. And if he continues doing well in his studies, meeting his fitness goals and maintaining a positive mental attitude, Searcy said he believes strongly that Carll will be on his way to playing football at the next level -- college.

"He's loving (weight training) and is learning more exercises to do that he hadn't done before and that has helped him all away around," Searcy said. "He's worked himself into a starting position and I'm really impressed and proud of him."

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