Preseason practices just aren’t what they used to be.
If you have been lounging on the couch all summer playing video games, or spending July days working on your tan, odds are you probably will not be starting this fall on your high school sports team.
And maybe you have already been cut.
The world of high school athletics is a lot tougher and more competitive these days than when athletes’ parents or grandparents were in school.
Football teams have been going through two-a-days, while practices for sports like soccer and volleyball have been lasting three or four hours.
If you weren’t working out this summer, running miles and hitting the weight room, you have probably been hurting for the past week.
“We’ve reinforced it, when they come into camp, they better be able to run and be ready, “Penns Valley girls’ soccer coach Jeff Wiest said. “We go on several-mile runs every day initially and a lot of conditioning anyway. Several years ago some girls learned the hard way, when our program was in its infancy, they wouldn’t do anything and see how hard it was.”
Teams officially started fall practices around the state just over a week ago, and football teams had “heat acclimation “practices for a week before that.
That was simply when the formal practices began.
Coaches had their football players in the weight room several times a week, cracking open the playbook now and then as well, while others were holding open gyms, group runs and pick-up games in area parks.
And that is just for the average high school athletes out there.
Some kids were hitting the courts and fields in various organized programs like club volleyball or soccer, traveling around the area, the state or even the country.
Those athletes have been facing tough competition most of the year, making themselves better, but winning at the club level can be just as important as winning with the high school team, and that can raise other issues coaches didn’t have to worry about years ago — burnout.
Playing soccer or volleyball or anything else from April to November for a 16-year-old can really take a toll both mentally and physically.
“The elite player today compared to the elite player of 20 years ago, “State College girls’ soccer coach Kevin Morooney said, “is playing about 10 months a year and for the high school season there’s an element of consideration that you didn’t have too much of before — coaching to burnout or recognizing burnout.”
While having some athletes who play with travel teams can be beneficial for a high school program’s success, it also adds another element to practices. Sure, the kids may be in shape to run mile after mile on that first day of practices, but some are in need of getting back to fundamentals, splitting coaches’ attention.
“It’s very uneven, “Morooney said. “You’ve got a handful who are just coming off a competitive season versus a handful who played in the spring but didn’t play deep into the summer. Others may have played three sports or different sports in the spring or summer and they may need to hit the basics a little harder.”
In some ways, that mix has not changed over the years. It is just the levels of where the bottom and top players stand.
“There’s the same gambit, “Penns Valley boys’ soccer coach Scott Case said. “There are kids who are all ready (and) there are kids that have the theory that God gives them only so many steps and why waste them before the season starts?”
Even the individual sports have the same dichotomy.
The golf teams have some players who were on the course nearly every day of the summer, while others may have picked up their clubs once or twice a week. Cross country runners may have been running during the summer, but how often and how many miles a week did they put in?
In the end, whether it is a team or individual sport, it still comes down to the student and they have to decide the price they want to pay for success — or for just making the team.
“It’s easy to encourage them but it’s difficult to see if they’re actually going to do it, “Penns Valley girls’ cross country coach Scott Brooker said. “I can only give them opportunities. They have to want to do it.”
Gordon Brunskill is a sports writer for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4608 or [email protected].
Wrestling Gear
