With the spring sports season coming up, excitement and anticipation fills the air. Will they improve or do worse than last season? What will they do without their star players from last year? How will they do with a new coach?

These questions are asked by spectators and peers but also by the players themselves. However, something that the spectators don’t see is the work that is put in behind the scenes and before the season begins. Offseason work and practice is shown to prove that “athletes have been able to gain an advantage over their competitors by getting a head start” as it improves “strength gains, increased speed, improved flexibility and agility, reduced risk for injury, and burnout prevention,” according to Team Speed. The offseason is used by players not only to make sure they don’t lose their edge from last season, but also to get fitter and improve throughout the year.

An important aspect in the offseason is consistency. Returning to varsity baseball, senior Matthew Kunst said the team has frequent workouts. “We have workouts every Tuesday and Thursday, along with bullpens once a week on either Monday or Tuesday, and hitting sessions every Wednesday and Saturday,” Kunst said.
One of the main things that Kunst and the team focus on is what they can control, like strength and fitness. “One of the main things I worked on this offseason was gaining muscle. All players try to gain muscle, exit velocity, throwing velocity, or just get better in general over the offseason,” Kunst said.

Returning varsity track junior Bryson Filbert focuses mostly on his technique and his fitness and speed, as those are the main things to improve in track. “My goal this offseason is to stay in shape to be the best runner I can in the spring,” Filbert said.

However, training skills and being physical are necessary in other types of athletic contests. Returning varsity girls lacrosse senior Paige Euler said a training regiment is needed for a sport with both fitness and speed but also when cradling, passing and shooting are involved. “We work on agility, stick skills, shooting and do sprints and distance runs for conditioning. Some work on passing and shooting while others work on more advanced plays and drills,” Euler said.

Although the returning and experienced varsity players focus mostly on improving their team’s record and their individual stats, they also have to make sure to incorporate the younger and more inexperienced players. This is key to make sure that they all know what they are doing to not only help the JV team, but also to help them be valuable backups or maybe even starters for the varsity team.

Returning varsity lacrosse sophomore Vikram Ayyagari said that the team attacks this challenge by mixing everyone together and helping the newer players learn as they go on, getting experience by playing with older players. “We incorporate helping newer and previous JV players by helping them learn and including them in the drills, teaching them how to do certain things as they are going. We correct them when they are wrong and teach them new techniques and concepts,” Ayyagari said.

Returning varsity softball senior Yael Zief said the team takes on this challenge by setting up stations and drills to help the young and inexperienced players. “We usually have stations and practices separately. We have different drills and stations for JV and varsity, which makes sure every player gets to improve the skills they need,” Zief said.

Despite the different approaches and workouts that are done by each sport, they all have common goals. Teams may have a majority of their previous starters gone because of college, and may have injured players and need to adapt based on their personnel. The main goal is to get better and make sure that everyone can be in optimal shape and skill level before the season starts to give them an advantage.

Returning varsity tennis senior Justin Huang said the team is adjusting to losing players from last year. “Some of our goals have been to get better and stronger as we did lose our top two single players. We need to communicate with each other and make sure that we are in our best shape for the season, adjusting who is playing singles and who is best fit for our team and to win,” Huang said.