SAN SABA — The clanging of weights and heavy metal music are audible, long before you set foot in the facility.

It is the sound of work. It is also the sound of a changed culture.

The San Saba weight room, an old middle school basketball gym converted into one of the area’s largest high school weight training facilities, is alive with activity by 6:45 a.m. each day. 

The pace is brisk. The noise is loud and the enthusiasm is off the charts.  Through it all, second-year coach Andreas Aguirre and his staff act as drill instructors, making sure wasted time is kept to an absolute minimum. It is a methodology introduced by Aguirre’s predecessor, Jerod Fikac, for whom Aguirre served as an assistant.