Strength, speed and agility were all tested throughout Tuesday’s
third annual Hoggie Fest at Gilroy High School.
Strength, speed and agility were all tested throughout Tuesday’s third annual Hoggie Fest at Gilroy High School.
“It’s just a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate the guys who get the most important job done on the field,” Santa Clara High head coach Rich Hammond said. “I’m looking to make sure everyone has fun and just gives their best effort.”
Linemen from nine different programs made up 16 teams that competed in five events – the bench press, squats, truck push, obstacle course, and tug-o-war.
“Basically, it’s a chance for the linemen to get together and have a good time,” Gilroy High junior Bobby Best said. “It’s fun, but it gets a little tiring after the second event. … The obstacle course is a change of pace from all the driving with your legs and weight lifting.”
At the end of the grueling day of activities, two Tri-County Athletic League teams proved their front-line dominance with Gilroy High (90 points) winning for the first time ever and San Benito High (50 points) finishing in second place. Aptos and Soquel tied for third with 45 points apiece.
“We always see all the little, skinny guys doing their stuff. It’s nice to get some big, heavy guys out here doing their stuff,” San Benito High senior Nick Kostielney said. “We look forward to this. We started doing it two years ago and we’ve been coming ever since. My sophomore year we took first. My junior year we took third.”
The host Mustangs gave garlic gridmen fans something to talk about, as they won three of the five events.
In the bench press of 185 pounds, Gilroy did 101 repetitions ahead of second-place Soquel with 91 repetitions. In the squats of 225 pounds, Gilroy again came out on top with 234 reps ahead of the second-place Haybalers with 164 reps. Best did 85 squat reps on his own to lead the Mustangs.
“It’s fun. This is our chance to show our strengths and weaknesses and it’s bragging rights,” Gilroy High junior Marcus Munoz said. “The truck push is pretty cool. The squat is the hardest.”
Gilroy also won the truck push with its five-man team moving the 18-foot, bobtail truck (nearly two tons) across the 40-yard finish line in a time of 15.25. Coming in second was Aptos in 15.34.
“The best we placed before was third,” Gilroy High head coach Darren Yafai said. “A big part of it is (former defensive coordinator) Rich Hammond and the coaches and players making a big commitment since December to lift their (tails) off.”
San Benito teams placed first and second in the obstacle course with the No. 1 unit completing the course in 3:23 and the No. 2 unit finishing only one second behind.
“It’s kind of like for bragging rights, but the Hoggie Fest is just a lot of fun,” Kostielney said. “A lot of the guys here we see during the season so it’s fun to hang out with them.”
Some schools had as many as three five-man teams and other schools had just one competing team.
This year’s participating schools included Soquel, Santa Clara, Aptos, North Salinas, Evergreen Valley, Gunn, Willow Glenn, Gilroy and San Benito.
“It’s the greatest,” said Soquel head coach Ron Myers, a one-time Gilroy High assistant coach. “They work so hard in their training and in the weight room. With this, you get to take what you’ve done and compete with it. Competition motivates you.”
It certainly motivated Willow Glenn in the single-elimination tug-o-war tournament that wrapped up the Hoggie Fest. Willow Glenn won four straight tugs to take first in the final event.
“You find out how you match up against other people right now,” Myers said. “It gives them an opportunity to test themselves, and it’s a lot of fun. This is our third year and we’ve seen our kids improve every year.”
Once the competition was over, the linemen enjoyed a meal together with each team bringing some meat and poultry to cook up on the barbecue. Most could not wait for the feast after the fest.
