Cameron pushes Panthers

Assistant excels at strength, conditioning

Graham Thomas/Siloam Proud Siloam Springs senior basketball player Harrison Kretzer works with resistance bands during a weight-training session back in May.
Graham Thomas/Siloam Proud Siloam Springs senior basketball player Harrison Kretzer works with resistance bands during a weight-training session back in May.

Chris Cameron is getting to enjoy both of his passions at Siloam Springs -- basketball and strength training.

Cameron, an assistant coach with the Siloam Springs boys basketball program, has been the point man for the Panthers' strength and conditioning program since he joined the staff in 2011 when Tim Stewart was hired as boys basketball coach.

"Just a tremendous coach on and off the court," Stewart said. "We hit a home run when we found Chris. To find a guy with that background -- a basketball guy but passionate about strength and conditioning -- we were really blessed."

It's clear Cameron goes the extra mile for his athletes, Stewart said.

"He takes it past the status quo and really goes over the top," Stewart said, "and our athletes are getting the best of the best and that's really fun to see. He puts a lot of time and effort into that on top of the normal basketball load. He's a really hard worker and diligent. We are truly blessed to have him."

Cameron's road to Siloam Springs began at Buhler High School in Hutchinson (Kan.) where he played basketball for his dad Don.

Following a successful high school career, Cameron played two years at Hutchinson Community College and spent one year at Division I Oral Roberts in Tulsa before finishing his college career at John Brown.

"I think at Oral Roberts was where I fell in love with strength and conditioning because it's a Division I school and they had a strength coach," Cameron said. "I was playing against all these 6-foot-8, 6-9 athletes, and I was trying to find a way how I could merge that gap and get myself on the court. Through my strength and conditioning coach, I figured out I could improve my vertical, I could hold my box outs and I could improve my endurance. It was huge for me and my game."

Cameron, who is a half-inch taller than 6-foot-4, graduated from John Brown after playing for one season under then coach John Sheehy.

Following his college career, he was a graduate assistant at the University of Arkansas before going to work in the private sector at Parisi Speed School in Bentonville.

"That was really good exposure for me on the speed side," Cameron said.

But Cameron missed basketball.

So he found a basketball coaching position at Moseley (Okla.) for a couple of years before moving over to Siloam Springs.

"I wanted to find a niche where I could get back on the (basketball) court and then my ultimate goal was to do both," Cameron said. "I knew this area was moving towards having head coach and assistant coaches that could do both at these 6A and 7A schools. I knew if I could get back into basketball that I could eventually get back into the high school setting and do strength and basketball -- my two passions. It was my big dream and a big idea."

Strength a priority

When Stewart and Cameron came on board for the basketball program in the spring and summer of 2011, they took a long, hard look at strength and conditioning and decided it had to be an area of priority for the Panthers.

"We felt like the strength section was a category we had to win," Cameron said. "We looked at all these categories. We shoot the ball well. We defend. We've got to have kids that are strong."

Cameron's ideology in strength and conditioning comes from a Russian-Eastern Block method and he credits Ole Miss trainer Matt Turner and high school friend Jeff Langvardt, who is a strength and conditioning associate of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, for having a big influence on his ideology.

"We're always talking, always trying to break down how do we see improvements," Cameron said. "Their athletes are on a different level than mine, but a lot of the same things are common in terms of how do we get kids to run faster, how do we get them to jump higher, how do we protect their joints. Those are two guys I get a lot of my thought processes from."

The Eastern ideology is very non-traditional in terms of how to run a program, Cameron said.

"Most American programs have have this basic linear periodization," Cameron said. "They train hypertrophy, then they train strength, and then they train power. The common thought is you train all these things but as soon as you move from one block to the other, you're leaving something behind."

"Myself, I do something called the conjugate method. We always train max effort, which is absolute strength. We always train dynamic effort, which is the velocity size, and we always do repetition effort, We always train something that's working on our strength, our hypertrophy, and something that's working on our speed and power. So the thought process is we're not leaving anything untrained."

The Panthers, under Cameron's leadership, train year-round as well, except for a two-week break during the Arkansas Activities Association dead period. The trainings also vary when basketball is in season.

"As a whole we're always getting stronger, we're always adding hypertrophy and we're always adding power," Cameron said. "Those are absolutes."

More than strength

Cameron doesn't just give knowledge for the weight room. He's also well-versed in nutrition and what foods and how much of the foods players need to be putting in their bodies.

"We give all our kids a manual," Cameron said. "Just like all our strength stuff, we walk them through it. Here's your body weight. Here's your goals and Calorie requirements. Our kids are not only getting educated, but they can have a good idea of what they need to be eating on a day-in and day-out basis.

"It allows the kids to get a good idea of how to eat, what to eat and how often to eat."

And Cameron has been known to help other sports around campus, not just basketball, with strength training and nutrition.

"It's one of those things that I'm passionate about," Cameron said. "I enjoy helping and sharing. Ultimately it's our goal to where we have something here where we have strength courses, classes or we've got a strength coach."

Strength and conditioning is an area where coaches and athletes can see positive results.

"You can measure success every time you're under the bar," Cameron said. "You can have a personal record or have a five-pound or 10-pound increase and kids know right off the bat that they've improved. Kids can see their bodies and the payoffs in terms of jumping.

"We've had a lot of success, and that's due to the kids' work ethic."

Sports on 06/29/2016