Every Friday night, thousands of fans file into Perry High School’s John Wren Stadium to watch Pumas football. Of the chorus of cheers and screams, there is one voice that stands out from the rest.

It belongs to strength and conditioning coach JoEyln Boone, who patrols the sidelines each week to monitor and push her student-athletes. It is something she has been doing since 2012, when she took over the Perry weightlifting program and helped fuel an unprecedented period of success for Pumas athletics.

“I want to get them to where they can perform better as a high school athlete,” she said. “Maybe have an opportunity for those few who go on [to the collegiate level].”

Boone works with most of the school’s sports teams to build weightlifting and strength and conditioning programs. For each sport, she has a different plan that she hopes can unlock a higher performance level from its players.

“It’s very fluid,” she said. “If we get a week in season where they might happen to not have competitions then we might up the workload, intensity and increase the volume. So it’s basically collaborating with the head coach and make sure we’re not affecting their practice or their competitions in a negative way.”

Among her toolbox of knowledge and skills, Boone’s voice might be her most distinguishing quality. At least among her students.

“She was really confident with her voice,” said senior girls soccer player Jackie Gilbert. “I knew right away that I was going to learn a lot from her.”

A passionate coach in the weight room, Boone has spent the better part of her life molding young athletes and refining their athleticism and skills. She hopes her influences have long-lasting effects on her kids.

“I have a mindset that I want to get them hooked on lifetime fitness,” she said. “That is always in the back of my mind. Someday, football is not going to be there. Someday soccer is not going to be there, volleyball is not going to be there. I want them to learn enough with me, and like it enough hopefully someday that they are going to keep up with it.”

Boone would know just how impactful fitness can be not only during an athlete’s career, but even more so after their playing days are over.

The Phoenix native went to Arizona State, where she was an outside hitter on the volleyball team. It was her work in the weight room that helped her escalate to becoming a top-level college athlete.

“I upped my lifting and I started running -- three miles three or four times a week. And my body composition changed and I felt like that, around 18 and 19 years old, my body composition went down,” she said. “I started eating different, running, lifting…that was the difference for me. I don’t think I would have been able to play otherwise.”

After getting a graduate degree in Exercise Science, Boone found her calling in developing athletes at the high school and community college level, where she spent decades between Gilbert Public Schools and Mesa Community College before coming to Perry.

The current state of exercise – one where she gets to lead entire programs – is far different than how it was when she was introduced to the world of fitness as a teenager.

“I started lifting probably when I was 15 – when girls weren’t even allowed in the gym or the weight rooms,” she said. “So I started lifting on my own.”

The place she used to be excluded from is now the place she wants to include everyone.

“Just like any female that goes into a male-dominant world, or the opposite, you think about it for one day and then that person blends right in. You think they know what they’re doing and then you forget about it. And then they are your weights coach – they are not male, female, a certain race, or a certain anything. They’re your weights coach.”

And as a weightlifting coach, first and foremost, Boone wants to share her passion and knowledge with others. There is no better place than with young athletes – like the one she used to be.

“I try to push [all the sports] the same. We definitely do that with all the programs; the girls programs as well. My philosophy is I don’t train males and females any different. We train our athletes hard, male or female. It’s the same thing. Guys are going to make faster gains, but intensity and expectations are the same.”

Gilbert picked up on that ideology the first time she met Boone, back in her freshman year in one of Boone’s weightlifting classes. “She lined us all up and pretty much told us her motto: She wants us to work hard and she cares about us and wants us to do great things.”

Four years later, Gilbert is entering her final season with Perry’s girls soccer team and is in the process of being recruited by collegiate programs. She credits Boone with helping her accomplish both.

“The experience that I’m gaining now, that I wouldn’t have had going into college,” she said. “With the weightlifting and the techniques and the right ways to do the workouts, that’s really important for me. And I’m getting stronger at the same time.”

Boone recognizes the potential in her classes, where diamonds in the rough, like Gilbert, can flourish into elite athletes with the right training and dedication.

“As the school got bigger and everything got more intense with how big the school was, the competition got better,” Boone said.

Her hardcore style might not be universally loved by her students, but the results of her work have proven to be positive.

“She's really, really tough in the weight room but as soon as its over she's a totally different person,” senior boys soccer player Kyle Davidson said.

Added Gilbert, “She’s really intense. She really wants you to just get better. Some people take it the wrong way, but just having the mindset that she really cares about us and she just wants us to become a better player and a better person.”