Cardinal Gibbons is one of the best overall athletic programs in the state and part of what makes our athletic teams so successful is our strength and conditioning program.
Our strength and conditioning program is led by coach Erin Bratcher who is assisted by coach Bo May.
Bratcher became the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Cardinal Gibbons in 2022. Aside from coaching at Gibbons, Bratcher also is the head strength coach at Meredith College in Raleigh and she also trains privately.
Bratcher grew up in the Raleigh area and attended Ravenscroft for high school. After high school, Bratcher committed to play Division I basketball at Charleston Southern.
After college, Bratcher received the opportunity to play basketball in Germany in the German Bundesliga playing for the Krofdorf Knights. In 2019, the Knights retired Bratcher’s jersey as an honor to her greatness.
Following her four years of playing overseas, Bratcher came home and became the head strength coordinator at Meredith College.
Bratcher benefited from her connection with Mr. Dean Monroe (who she played against in high school when Monroe was coaching at Gibbons) by having the opportunity to become a strength coach at Gibbons to help out with the female athletes.
“We kind of had connections and he reached out asking for help with the female athlete population mainly, saying, they need access to the weight room and how do we encourage them to use it. So when I first started coming in, it was a part-time basis with that kind of focus, and it just turned into a bigger role.”
Bratcher has helped get the weight room attendance to 100 percent of all athletic teams as of Fall 2024. This was different in the past as Bratcher said some JV and Freshman teams were not utilizing the weight room regularly.
A Difference in the Weight Room
Since Bratcher’s hiring in 2022, a lot has changed in the weight room.
“This is a really unique program that we have here,” Bratcher said. Bratcher attributes this to the accessibility to the weight room, the size of the weight room, and the high level of coaching.
Bratcher isn’t like any ordinary strength coach; however, Bratcher’s main philosophy is to teach it “by the book.”
“Nowadays there’s a lot of social media influence of just doing things that look hard or look cool, but don’t serve a purpose or might get someone injured,” Bratcher said. “So our main focus here, especially working with high schoolers that are on social media so much, is teaching them how to do things the right way.”
Another main focus for Bratcher is getting more students in the weight room. Bratcher wants all students to know that everyday during the week, the weight room will be open to anyone for one hour between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day. Bratcher says any student can come in and ask how to do a workout, and tell the coaches about their goals in the weight room.
If you would like to attend one of these open gym sessions, see the weight room door for what hours it will be open, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
