“But if I knew then what I know now, we might have won a few more championships.” - Mike Nitka In Indiana, basketball is king. Except at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis. Sure, the basketball teams have enjoyed modest success recently. But since 1984, the football program has won seven state championships, been nationally ranked three times, including a national championship in 1991. Strength coach Kevin Vanderbush is largely responsible for that. Before Vanderbush arrived in ‘84, the football team had only 11 winning seasons in the school’s previous 47 years of football. “I was very fortunate in that when I started as a strength coach, our school’s football coach (Dick Dullagham) had just come back to high school coaching from the college level, so he had an understanding of the importance of strength training,” said Vanderbush. “Our strength training program was
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