Chasing glory: Big buildup — Players' push to add pounds today may bring grief tomorrow

A 185-pound center, Cody Larsen decided he'd better bulk up after getting knocked around by some big boys in a varsity football game his sophomore year.

"I just saw how big they were and knew I had to gain a couple of pounds to compete with those guys," he said. The Jordan High defensive end went to work in the weight room and at the dinner table.

Two years and 55 pounds later, Larsen, who stands 6-foot-4, is one of the big boys. But he's not done yet. College recruiters have told him they'd like him to get up to as much as 257.

"I'm competitive right now at this level," Larsen said. "If I move up to the college level, I have to gain pounds and increase my speed."

Back in the day, teams were lucky to have a couple of 200-plus pounders on the offensive line. Now boys that size are carrying the ball.

Greg Shepherd had a 235-pound lineman when he coached at Granger High School in the late 1970s. "That was considered a really big guy," he said. At Hunter High School where Shepherd is now the strength coach, the offensive line goes about 270 pounds.

Ask any coach the difference between GenY athletes and those of past decades, and the answer is the same.

"You'd be an idiot not to know they're bigger, faster and stronger," said Jordan High coach Alex Jacobson.

Consider: In 1992, the average weight in the largest school classification for the Deseret Morning News all-state football team was 199.8 pounds. Last year the average weight was 213.8.

Is there something in the Gatorade? Genetic engineering? Evolution?

Coaches interviewed for this story generally attribute the super-sizing to year-round weight training. Calorie-laden, protein-rich diets also play a large part.

Steroid use and proliferation of dietary supplements can't be discounted as contributing to the phenomenon, either. How widely Utah high-schoolers use them isn't known. But coaches and players say they're out there.

Becoming a big man on campus is the literal quest of many Utah prep athletes, particularly among those aspiring to play beyond high school, although very few do.

"They play their senior year, then what?" said Russ Toronto, a Salt Lake doctor of sports medicine. "They're all buffed out and nowhere to go . . . The muscle turns to fat."

The combination of heavy lifting and eating, health experts say, poses the potential for obesity and its long-term health consequences.

"You can go down the list. Arthritis, especially osteoarthritis, would probably be at the top of that," said Richard Bullough, Utah Bureau of Health Promotion program director. "If you don't get your weight down after competing in sports, you're at much higher risk of arthritis."

Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers also make the list, he said.