Some Plant City High School students stick around after school for study hall, working on reading, writing and arithmetic. Some of their teachers are sticking around after the final bell for physical education.
They’re not playing sports in the gym, though. They’re gathered together in Wayne Ward’s classroom in the social studies department for “30 minutes of insanity” in the form of HIIT workouts. Ward himself will be right there with them, leading by example, until the session is over and everyone is drenched in sweat, tired out and pleased with their progress.
“They’re sweating,” Ward said. “Some of them are crying, it’s like, ‘There’s no time for crying! Suck it up, one more rep!’ But those ladies and those gentlemen, it’s simply amazing, the results that they’re getting.”
It’s a big part of Ward’s latest venture, a personal training business he calls Team Fit 2.0.
Ward, a PCHS alumnus who also coached the football team from 2010 to 2014, created Team Fit 2.0 last year with help and encouragement from fellow Raider Danny McIntyre and officially launched on September 17, 2017. He’s trying to model Team Fit 2.0 after Virginia Tech teammate Lorenzo Ferguson Jr.’s Orlando-based service, HIIT Next Level, and his goal is to one day move out of the classroom and open a similar studio in Plant City.
His client base is mainly comprised of PCHS teachers, students and alumni, for now. Ward’s HIIT classes with teachers are held in his classroom, but he’s been known to train at Power Shop Fitness (where he works out on his own time) and will work with clients at any gym. When college athletes come home and want to train, Ward will do weight training and cardio at the gyms and footwork and speed training at local parks.
No matter what anyone’s doing, they can count on two things: the workouts will be tough, and Ward will go rep-for-rep with them.
“I think what makes me different from most coaches is that I get my hands dirty,” Ward said. “When they see ‘Coach’ right along with them, struggling and working out with them, sweating, I may not get a rep but what they won’t see is me quitting. Those are some of the things I want them to understand. It’s bigger than the workout itself. It’s mental discipline.”
That mentality was developed during Ward’s own football playing days. He said a lot of it stems from his time working with strength coach Mike Gentry while at Virginia Tech from 1997 through 2000. With Gentry’s guidance, Ward became known for his gym sessions and earned Iron Hokie honors in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Even after his coaching days at PCHS, Ward could often be found in the Raiders’ weight room lifting with players.
Ward raves about the progress his group of teachers has made since September, and says many of them are actively encouraging each other, posting workouts and sharing healthy recipes on a school Edsby message board online. He hopes word of his classes will spread and more PCHS teachers will come to his classroom to work out.
He wants to make a positive impact on the Plant City community in any way he can, and he believes mentoring the youth is one of the best ways to approach that. Ward wants kids to know that, no matter what, someone out there believes in them and wants to see them succeed. A man of faith, Ward also loves hearing that people he’s worked with have taken their experiences with him to heart and found Christ. Ward calls it a “mind, body and soul” approach that helps kids be the best they can be.
“One thing that we have to remember is that our young people are looking at us…we’ve got to be very careful with some of the things that we say about and to our youth,” Ward said. “What we speak will come to light. If we continue to say how bad they are, how ‘you’re no good,’ that’s the very thing they’re gonna actually do. So, speak life into them. Let them know they will be a powerful man or woman.”
Whether someone wants to work with him or any of the other personal trainers in town, whom Ward said have helped him tremendously as a first-time personal trainer and business owner, he’d like to see Plant City commit to health and wellness on all levels.