At just 13 years old, Taran Brown weighed more than most grown men. Like many children in the United States, he ate too much and exercised too little. But in the past year, since Taran became a student at Frick Middle School in central Oakland, home to one of the top physical education programs among Bay Area public schools, he's shed 40 pounds from his former 220-pound, 5-foot-9-inch frame.

"If there's no one trying to make (kids) stay healthy, they're not going to do it," said Taran, 14, who now plays basketball and runs regularly. "I have enough energy to keep doing it. Now I'm more respectful of myself."

Frick Middle School, in a predominately poor, black and Latino neighborhood, has defied the odds by turning its students into some of California's fittest teenagers and becoming one of the Bay Area's highest-achieving middle schools on the state fitness test. No middle school in Oakland or San Francisco ranks higher.

In California, black and Latino students are less likely than their peers to pass the fitness test at every age, but students at Frick are statistical anomalies: 68.2 percent of seventh-graders there aced the fitness test last year, compared with 16 percent of all Oakland seventh-graders. Across the state, only 29 percent of seventh-grade students passed the fitness test.

"Other schools have the mentality that during PE they just roll out the balls," said Frick's physical education director, Kermit Bayless. "We can't buy into the dumb stuff. Our society has gotten too lazy. I make my kids work."

When Bayless, a professional boxing judge with a teaching credential in physical education, was hired to clean up Frick Middle School's rowdy physical education program a decade ago, he told the school principal he needed one thing -- a bullhorn.

When the class bell rings at Frick, 100 students in sweat pants and T-shirts head to the school's blacktop yard and stand in eight parallel lines. Bayless stands in front, a yellow stopwatch and gold chain hanging from his neck and a bullhorn in his hand.

On his command, the students start a boot camp-style routine from memory -- a series of jumping jacks, push-ups, stretching and jogging -- while counting in unison.

Bayless paces in front of the group, quizzing the class on the names of targeted muscles and shouting directives.

"Get those knees off the ground!" he called to a boy in mid-pushup last week.

With two other gym teachers, Bayless begins training Frick students in September for the spring state fitness test.

The state administers the test in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades. But at Frick, all 650 students are tested every year and are graded quarterly on their progress toward meeting the state standards.

The fitness test measures six areas of physical health, including aerobic capacity, abdominal strength, body fat and flexibility. To pass the test, students must perform within a state-mandated healthy fitness zone for each of the six exercises, including curl-ups, push-ups and a mile run.

"You have to make (the test) an important part of your curriculum," Frick gym teacher Nancy Robertson said. "The students have to see how important fitness is. They have to buy into it."

Frick's gym teachers take a no-excuses approach to the class. Unlike many other schools, when students don't bring gym clothes, they don't get the day off. They must spend the 55-minute class either walking around the track, picking up litter in the school field or writing an assignment on muscles in the body.

Under Bayless' leadership, the physical education department has become the heart of the school. Frick's annual sports festival draws hundreds of parents and community members to watch the students compete in track, double Dutch (a rope-skipping exercise), soccer and other sports.

Throughout the day, the synchronized voices from students in the field reverberate in the school.

"We're No. 1 in the district, and we're going to stay No. 1," Bayless shouted into his bullhorn during a class last week. "What does PE do?"

"It sets the tone for the whole school," the students shouted.

"I can't hear you!" Bayless commanded, and the students repeated the department's motto.

Frick Principal Calvin Criddle, who is retiring this month, said he encouraged the department to run its classes like a boot camp because a strict fitness program influences students' overall behavior -- and also may have contributed to their improved academic performance.

Although Frick's score on the state's Academic Performance Index remains below the district's average, it has jumped an average of 37 points a year for six years. Now, Frick's score is 595 on the 1,000-point scale, up from 409 in 2000. A score of 800 is considered excellent. The average score for Oakland schools is 634. The API scores are compiled from a variety of test scores.

With a strict fitness program, "you get discipline, you get social skills, you learn how to work as a team," said Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, whose district includes Frick.

"And you see the students not only excelling on the basketball court, but the test scores have risen as well."