By Michael Pepin
Football season is months away, and yet the members of the football team are already training for the far off games with early conditioning. Conditioning started around Thanksgiving for most of the team, who use their PE elective, Advanced Personal Conditioning (APC), in order to train during school hours. For the rest of the team who have no room in their schedule, they come to football coach Brian Glesing Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays after school to avoid falling behind the rest of the team. For many, such as junior Nick Uhl, conditioning begins when football season ends.
“The sooner you start getting better, the greater results. “If you take a long break, then you get out of shape and it takes a lot of effort to get back in shape and you lose a lot possible improvement,” said Uhl. “The training never really ends in Football.”
Staying in shape is the main goal of conditioning, so that players can be at optimal performance by the time the football season rolls around.
“Our goal is to keep playing as long as we can next season and win more games. We were 2-8 this year which wasn’t good. Football is so competitive that it is year round. The team needs to be constantly building in order to succeed,” said Glesing.
The majority of the team takes APC rather than coming after school to train. In this class, they follow a rigid schedule of exercises designed to heighten their performance. They begin stretches and form running exercises, and then move onto speed improvement activites and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, move to the weight room to lift. They follow a specific program of sets and reps in certain exercises, but they always do the bench press and the squat.
“APC is a way to get faster and stronger while at the same time staying in shape for Football so we can do well. It also brings the team together because everyone does it,” said junior Even Rue.
No one is technically required to attend or participate in the football conditioning, but it is highly recommended.
“It’s easy to tell if you aren’t doing conditioning because you get passed up by all the players who do. It hurts the whole team when one person decides not to train or put forth the amount of effort he is capable of. Also you have to run laps to make up for the work you missed when season begins,” said junior Brandon Stout.
There are no individualized workouts for players in conditioning, everyone goes through the same hardships, but this is why Rue claims that it brings the team together.
“Sometimes you never really want to be there, but you know its for the best and you go anyway. I am for conditioning because it makes the whole team better,” said Stout, who agrees with Evan Rue that it brings the team together.
The football players will have an assessment of their progress in March this year and hope to beat their previous scores. With the new season slowly approaching, every member on the football team is determined to make this season their best yet.
“I think it’s a great program…you are constantly working towards improvements and have the ability to track progress on a regular basis. It also benefits the players themselves…it really begins to pay off when next season begins,” said Glesing.