Simon embraces ‘freak’ label

By Tim May

The Columbus Dispatch

Usually a parent would be angered to hear someone refer to his or her kid as a freak. But make it “workout freak,” and John Simon III has no problem with the reference to John Simon IV, a defensive tackle at Ohio State.

“I take it as a compliment,” his father said. “He works extremely hard, and he sacrifices a lot. Growing up, he would miss parties or doing something with other kids on occasion if he knew he had to get a workout in. That was always his priority.”

It started when he was about 3 years old. His father, who is a salesman and — big surprise — a weight-lifting freak in Youngstown, would take him to the gym and sit him at a table with a toy to distract him. It didn’t work.

“He’d see me and the guys working and say, ‘Can I try this?’’’ his father said. “So, supervised, we’d let him do a chin up or a press, something small. It grew from there.”

Or as John IV put it, “It became my hobby.”

The hobby keeps gaining recognition for Simon — “We just call him Johnny,” his father said. It helped him grow into a must-sign defensive line prospect at Cardinal Mooney. It aided his rise to playing time as a freshman at Ohio State last season. Now it’s landed him at No. 8 on the list of top 10 college football workout freaks as compiled by ESPN.com.

“I think you’ve got to be a little bit crazy to do what I do, but I take [being labeled a workout freak] as an amazing compliment, because I know I have worked hard,” said Simon, whose bench press best of about 450 pounds isn’t outlandish but whose ability to bench press 225 pounds more than 40 times is. “I’ve just got to keep working hard every day to help the team any way I can.”

Eric Lichter, head of strength and conditioning for Ohio State football, smiles any time the 6-foot-4, 285-pound Simon is mentioned.

“He’s gifted, because he’s got tremendous physical talent but he he’s also got a drive that is very rare,” Lichter said. “He’s got that 99th percentile mentality where he is going to outwork 99 percent of the guys in the room. His work level is equal to three guys. What he does in a week would be like adding three players together.”

For example?

“His supplemental squat workout is 10 sets of 10 reps of over 450 pounds,” Lichter said. “That’s more intensity and work than most people put in during a week on squats, and that’s just his supplemental work.”

For as Simon said, “It’s not just lifting, it’s conditioning and everything. You’re always looking for new, creative methods to take it to that next level and put a little spark back in the workout.”

Like when he was in high school, and he and several buddies would carry truck tires to a local park so they would have something to lug as they ran the hills. Or like this offseason, in the sandpit workout area just outside the Les Wexner Football Complex.

“I never had one of those back in Youngstown, and I’ve really enjoyed it,” Simon said. “I’ve done some creative things in it, like pulling [truck] tires, or I’ll carry a tire in each hand and run, or flip tires in between — just little things I think of when I’m sitting around and bored.”

Looking for added explosion, he stressed he is never out there by himself.

“There are so many great athletes on this team, and so many competitive guys,” he said. “We have fun every day pushing each other, trying to get better. It helps you prepare for a long season.”

If, for some reason, he had to relinquish his title on the workout freaks list, he said there is a long line of worthy candidates at Ohio State to replace him. Pressed for, say, a top three, Simon finally named senior linebacker Ross Homan, his sophomore fullback brother Adam Homan, and safety Orhian Johnson.

“Those guys are always in there, always working,” Simon said.

It has been a way of life for Simon, whose father long ago converted their home’s garage into a weight-lifting gym. But other things rubbed off in the father-son relationship, shown by the younger Simon’s penchant for the 6 a.m. summer workouts at Ohio State.

“I just see the discipline, the self-discipline,” John Simon III said. “Every morning I am up at 5:30 and I try to do something in a workout way. I’m not a hunter, a runner, a fisherman or a golfer.

“I don’t want to say he’d brainwashed in that, but we don’t miss a workout. Since middle school, I haven’t had to tell him to do that or push him. He just naturally wants to do it and be as good as he can.”

He didn’t want to be heard as a bragging father, but there are some things that are evident about his son at this point.

“He is just so motivated, and he’s got his goals,” John Simon III said. “He is not the biggest kid and he is not the fastest kid. But it is going to be hard to outwork him.”