Prior to the first football game of the season, comes year-round conditioning. Though the season ends momentarily after the final game in the audience’s eyes, a new one immediately begins for both players and coaches on the field.
The significance of practice is key to an upcoming successful season to Coach Brad Seiss and Coach Josh Sabinas.
“We want to see how far we can push these young men. Things will get tough during the season, so we need them to be mentally strong as well,” Sabinas said.
Off-season conditioning consists of workouts put in by players like Juniors Jordan Sanders, Warren Brown, Jac’Quarious (JQ) Johnson, and Mikel Smoot. With a variety of exercises, it ensures all areas are reached to fully prepare their bodies.
“We do a lot of running, bear crawling. It’s called paving the path, it’s just a big exercise or circuit we got to do. I feel like everybody who does it gets tired, even some linemen that are over 200 pounds, they have to condition through that,” Smoot said.
Players often hold a motive to prevent a feeling of apathy and to promote determination for practice. Motives vary from personal goals, offers, and growth.
“I think everybody gets tired of it, just got to motivate yourself to go cause you want to play, you want to start and win,” Sanders said.
Before the warm weather returns, players go through training without any connection to football.
“This is definitely the most difficult time for a football player because we literally go through about six months of training where we aren’t really doing all that much in relation to playing football,” Seiss said.
In the spring and summer players are able to return to the field and put their work to use as well as getting used to the upcoming season’s layout.
“We workout, lift weights, we squat, after spring break we are going to the field and we are going to start going over the plays with the new offensive coordinator,” Johnson said.
On top of football practice, some follow up with participating in additional sports to help maintain skill.
“I do three sports so, and I am used to running a lot and using my legs, so it feels good to be out there running,” Brown said.
The team holds a shared objective for their conditioning, which is overcoming state at the end of season.
“During the season I’m just trying to play the last game, I just want to make it to state for my last year,” Johnson said.
Regardless of focus and expectation, the team must continue striving for improvement
“I don’t think there is any secret formula to trying to become successful besides being committed and working hard. It’s our job as coaches to put our kids in the right position to succeed and right now the only thing we can do is work hard and push ourselves in the weight room,” Seiss said.
