New Wheaton Academy football coach T.J. Ragan chose a house across the street from the school in West Chicago, and it’s no accident. Ragan wants to live as close to work as possible for several reasons, including making it easy to entertain players at his house. Ragan replaces former coach Ben Wilson, who will be part of his staff after Wilson stepped down following brain surgery to remove a tumor after the 2011 season. In this week’s Weekend Chit-chat with Chronicle sports editor Jay Schwab, Ragan compares Wheaton Academy to his old school in Colorado, describes his program philosophy and lays out Wilson’s role on his coaching staff. The following is an edited transcript:

With your strength and conditioning background (Ragan is a former strength and conditioning intern with the Denver Broncos), how central is that to your plan for the program?

It’s, for us, the key to our success. Our kids had already started training very hard the very first day I got there. We really believe the kids will grow physically as well as mentally and spiritually through offseason training that will apply onto the field when we get there in August.

How is the equipment you’re dealing with compared to what you’re used to?

It’s interesting you say that; we just came out of a meeting, and we’re very fortunate we’re able to put new equipment in our weight room. I was actually just making an order as you called, so we’re going to pretty much re-equip our entire weight room. We’re very excited about that.

Will it be a pretty drastic difference?

Yes. Our goal with our performance program, whether it be with the football program, basketball program, soccer program, we want kids to be able to come in and do a collegiate style program, so we have to have a weight room that will match that program. So we’ll have 18 units that teams can be training on, so it’ll work out very well.

How would you characterize what your primary message to the team has been during this transition?

I think, one, trying to develop passion in our athletes. We want them to be passionate about football, we want them to be passionate about being teammates to each other and passionate about the Lord. That’s been the main thing and second, along with that, is accountability. We want to be accountable to each other.

How does Wheaton Academy compare demographically to Valor?

It’s fairly similar. We have families who really value a great education and they’re willing to pay for that education, and they value the quality of people and coaches that we hope to have [at Wheaton Academy]. It’s a great partnership with the people of Wheaton Academy and the parents. I think it’s a lot of the same at Valor.

What do you intend to spend most of your time with during the various summer sessions you have with the team?

Right now, the way our schedule has been set up, is we have the whole month of June just to do performance training and July is where we start our 25 days of football. Right now, we’re focused on getting kids bigger, stronger, faster but also creating a culture of performing, making sure football is a five-second play of passion and fury. But we also want to see them to be able to think, be aware of what’s going on around them.

How do the numbers in the program compare to what you envisioned?

It’s about what I envisioned; it’s not where I want it to be. We’ll probably have 45 people in our varsity program, and I’d love to a year or two from now have 70-plus in that program, but right now we have kids who are there, learning commitment, accountability and learning what it means to develop that program to where we want to go.

Ben Wilson had said he was open to playing a role in the program going forward. Where do things stand with Ben?

Ben for six years poured everything he had into building this program, and unfortunately he had his health issue. He’s doing really well right now. He’s my right-hand man and he’s going to be my assistant head coach and be my offensive coordinator. He’s been investing in this program before I got here and every day since then, so we’re very excited to have him be a part of it.

As a head coach, what aspect of the program – in practices, games – do you envision being most hands-on with?

Oh, boy – I’m a hands-on guy. I’ll be heavily involved in every aspect, so whether it be game planning, watching the film, establishing the [practice plans], being right by each of our individual coaches at our positions. That’s kind of the way I work, so there probably won’t be a piece I’m not involved in.