Servite won back-to-back CIF Pac-5 Division titles in 2009 and 2010. The ’09 CIF title was the program’s first since 1983. The Friars went to consecutive state bowl games, winning in 2009.
On Saturday, Mater Dei will return to the CIF finals for the first time in a decade when the Monarchs take on Long Beach Poly at 7:30 p.m. on FOX Sports West.
There’s a common thread in the recent success of these two programs aside from their Trinity League ties: Scot Prohaska.
The modest Prohaska is in his first season as the strength and conditioning coach at Mater Dei. He held the same title at Servite for three seasons.
While he won’t take credit for the resurgence the programs have seen with his involvement, there’s reason to believe he’s the man behind the magic.
Prohaska’s formula is not based on the barbaric premise of who can put the most plates on the bar. In fact, when he got to Mater Dei, one of the first changes he made to the weight room was taking down all the charts with the records of who could power clean or bench press the most.
“I don’t care about that,” Prohaska said.
Those charts were replaced with what he calls the Lou Gehrig Board.
Of Gehrig’s many accomplishments, the New York Yankee great played in 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood for 56 years before being surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr.
Prohaska wanted players that were going to be committed and dedicated to showing up to weight training every day for four days a week.
“That’s the kid that’s going to get consistently better every week,” Prohaska said. “That’s all you want from a high school team. Get better and you’ll be there at the end.”
The improvements have been tremendous in just under 12 months since Prohaska has taken his plan to the Mater Dei campus. It began with the participation in the offseason. Prior to Prohaska, there was 73 percent attendance in offseason weight training.
The Monarchs went 4-6 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1986. Changes had to be made.
Head coach Bruce Rollinson picked up the phone and made the call to Prohaska, who was at rival Servite.
Prohaska is loaded with credentials. Not only was he behind Servite’s success, but he’s a nationally recognized strength and conditioning coach and is the Founder and Director of EKAWA Sports Lab. Some of his local clients include Clippers forward Matt Barnes and reigning Conn Smythe winner, Jonathan Quick of the Stanley Cup champion Kings.
“Bruce gave me a call and said ‘I need your help. I’d love for you to be a part of this team and help turn it around,’” Prohaska recalls.
The two later met. Despite growing up across the country, Prohaska was familiar with the name of Bruce Rollinson before he made his trek west. He became familiar with the Mater Dei program over the last few years, seeing the Monarchs in the Trinity League.
Upon meeting with Rollinson, Prohaska was taken aback.
“After meeting Bruce and realizing not only what a great football coach (he is), but what a leader of young men and what an amazing guy he is, that kind of sold it for me,” he said. “I was like ‘Wow, this guy is amazing.’”
He was intrigued with the challenge of helping get a program back on track as opposed to maintaining a program that was already at the top. One thing he required before accepting the position was making sure the school and the parents were all on board with the changes that were going to be required in the area of nutrition.
The school provided a nutritional portion on the menu. Parents were explained the do’s and dont's of meals. What to prepare and how to prepare it.
Upon taking over in January, what he encountered was a bunch of overweight football players.
“I let them know, they were fat,” Prohaska said.
Added Rollinson: “I knew that we had players that everybody said ‘Oh boy, he weighs 300 pounds.’ Sure, he was 300 pounds and he was a walking heart attack and he couldn’t play.
“Now, all of a sudden, with proper nutrition and proper training, he’s 270, 265 and he’s playing. That’s the biggest change in our program.”
There were strict rules that players had to follow.
“Pizza is not a meal,” Prohaska proclaimed.
Every meal was required to have a protein. For example, instead of having just a bowl of cereal for breakfast it had to be accompanied by an omelet or, perhaps, a protein shake.
Carbs had to be earned. They were only to be eaten immediately following a practice or workout of some sort.
“With the timing of the carbs like that, what that does is it balances their blood sugar, which means not only are they going to lose body fat but they’re going to be able to be way more focused,” Prohaska said. “They used to, kind of, get drowsy because they would eat a burrito with some rice or a slice of pizza before film and they’d fall asleep during film. It’s because their blood sugar would spike and then drop and they’d get all sleepy.”
The focus intensified and the body fat began to slide off. After the players’ body fat was tested for the first time, Rollinson checked in with Prohaska to see how things were going.
“Bruce asked me, ‘What do you think?’” Prohaska recalls. “I said ‘I think I just got off of the set of the Biggest Loser.’”
Every player in the program was held accountable for attaining their specific goals. Prohaska challenged the seniors to take ownership in the program and they obliged. After the players saw how successful they were in dropping the body fat, they wanted to gain more nutrition tips from Prohaska, but he wouldn’t give them up unless every player accomplished their goal.
Rules are rules and because he established them beforehand, Prohaska didn’t have to be the bad guy. That forced the players to police themselves if anyone wasn’t meeting expectations.
During the first two months, they only focused on losing body fat and gaining muscle. Talk of anything else wasn’t allowed. It was about narrowing the focus and not inundating them with tons of information.
“If you talk to every football team in America, they think they’re the hardest working team,” he said. “Hard work doesn’t do anything. Everybody thinks they work hard. Energy and focus, that’s what I got the boys to do.
“We’re only going to focus on a couple of things and bust our butt at those things.”
In March, the focus was on speed. The attendance in offseason weight training increased to 98 percent. The two percent that missed are no longer in the program.
Strength coaches have become of higher importance. You see it at the collegiate level where head coaches and strength coaches are almost joined at the hip.
At the high school level, it allows coaches to focus more on Xs and Os. Knowing his team was overweight, Rollinson had to make the call for change but more importantly he had to come to grips with knowing the formula for change wasn’t an area he was strong in, so he brought in Prohaska.
The right strength coach not only brings a new voice, but by getting players to believe in what he’s doing, and in Prohaska’s case, getting the players to hold one another accountable, the overall mindset of the team changes. The dividends aren’t paid only in weight, nutrition, or in the weight room, but rolls over to the football field as well. The same way a player will hold a teammate accountable for not sticking with the diet, he'll hold him accountable for missing an assignment in a game.
You can make a valid argument that Prohaska’s formula is the plan of champions. If Mater Dei is able to win on Saturday, it will further solidify that. Prohaska will then have been a part of three sectional championships in four years.
Most would consider that a dynasty.
