Free time in the summer allows athletes to put more time into their sports and gives them the ability to practice and play more frequently for longer periods of time. Being able to devote more time to their sports, student-athletes have more room to grow and get better. With newfound free time after school gets out, what are student-athletes doing to prepare for upcoming SPA sports seasons?

Baseball and soccer player freshman Cormac Graupman will participate in a range of activities. “I do camps for soccer and baseball… those help me get ready for the season and get into shape and improve before the season starts,” Graupman said.

In the off-season, the team still has practices, which helps the athletes work on building skills that benefit them during the season.

Junior Nathan Rock, captain of the Boy’s Varsity Basketball team, prepares similarly. “I play on a team outside of school, and we do tournaments on the weekends. And then I also do training with a personal trainer,” Rock said.

This translates into his season: “It helps me build my skills and build skills that I will be using during the season. It also makes sure I don’t get rusty for the season and keeps my touch,” he said.

Basketball player freshman Miles Vogenthaler does basketball camps with the school team over the summer. “It greatly adds another layer of chemistry to our team because it is led by the captains with the coaches there. It gets us prepared for the school season because we do running drills and plays that we use during the season,” Vogenthaler said.

These camps help build more of a team community before the season starts.

Soccer player sophomore Hazel McCarthy believes that summer training is crucial to in-season success. “Playing club soccer over the summer helps prepare [me] for school soccer,” McCarthy said.

For club soccer, she plays a lot of tournaments and is even going to Seattle for a tournament this summer. “We have a lot of regular games and practices [that allow us to] improve on things each game, especially since there are more practices,” McCarthy said.

All this work that athletes put in during the offseason helps student-athletes get in shape without the pressure of school getting in their way. Having this time to improve can drastically help improve individual athletes and sports teams within the school.