The lights flicker on in the weight room early on Monday morning as the girls soccer team walks in to begin their workout. The girls pair off into groups of two and three and claim stations. Senior Paige Butterfield heads over to a power bar and adds the weights onto the ends. Once the weight is to her satisfaction, she begins to do a set of squats as her partner watches on. 

Before and after school, the weight room is a hub of activity, as athletes across all different sports train to be the best they can be. While training for spring sports officially started in January, for dedicated athletes such as senior Brice Miller training can start as early as September. 

“Season training started in January, but I’ve been training since September, so I’ve already been in the groove,” Miller said. 

To get a head start on the track and field season, Miller started training in September with other students, as well as a personal trainer to get himself settled in the routine before the season officially started. Along with getting used to a routine early on, starting his workouts early has also helped him build up the endurance needed for his events.

“I have been training with Quincy Morris and also have my own trainer. Also, I’ve been training by myself, so I’ve been keeping the same mindset,” Miller said. 

Miller’s workout schedule is specific to the days of the week, and can sometimes depend on the weather. For example, on Mondays he typically works out in the weight room, while on Thursdays he takes a thirty minute run. On top of a specialized workout everyday, Miller also has a night routine to guarantee that he is in his best shape. 

“Mondays I workout [in the weight room], on Tuesdays I run then I [do] lifting. On Wednesdays, it depends on how the weather is, but on Thursday [I] do a hard run day, so I’ll run for 30 minutes or I do like 500s,” Miller said. “[For my] night routine I do like push ups and crunches for 10 minutes and then calf raises or squats.”

Athletes from track and field are not the only ones getting a head start on conditioning for their sport. Senior Zach Baldi started his personal training for baseball during November. His workouts focus on isolating his main muscle groups to make himself stronger. 

“I mainly hit on the main muscle groups, [and] try to hit all of them just to get strength and ready to roll,” Baldi said. “Usually I try to hit legs the most because that’s what I use when pitching.” 

Along with personal training, teams such as the girls soccer team have also gotten a head start on training for their season. Butterfield reveals that the team started doing team workouts in November to increase their edge over other teams. 

“We [started at] the end of November, which is earlier than most schools. This year we’re definitely trying [to] get a head start getting fit for the season,” Butterfield said.

The team has the weight room on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and does after school conditioning on Tuesdays and Thursdays to increase the girls’ endurance. The girls’ workouts include lifts such as squats and deadlifts, sprints and lunges. 

“The morning workout is more weight [focused] so I do squats and deadlifts,” Butterfield said. “Tuesdays and Thursdays we do track workouts like sprints [and] maybe some lunges.” 

While the exact reasons for starting to train for spring sports early on vary, they all have one goal in mind: to get stronger. For Baldi, he uses preseason training to increase his chances for scholarships. 

“[Preseason training] gives me more of an opportunity to get looked at by college scouts and it improves my overall performance,” Baldi said. 

Teams like Butterfield’s start their conditioning early on not only to improve their strength and endurance, but also to bond as a team. 

“It definitely makes the start of the season easier. Just preparing ahead of time definitely gets you in the team aspect and pushing each other,” Butterfield said. “It makes you ready for the season, [and] have an advantage over other people, because with soccer, you have to be strong. We also have to have endurance because you’re playing for like 90 minutes, so it helps with that a lot.” 

As the seasonal tryouts creep ever closer, more athletes begin their training to give themselves the best chance they can get to make the teams they want.