With the school year coming to an end, many sports are out of season, and players are now in the off-season. 

But, this does not include all of the teams at the college. 

The football team has spring practices in the off-season. 

“We do 16 practices and four padded practices, so the other 12 were just in helmets,” sophomore defensive back Toby Splitt said. “There’s a lot of individual work, and we put it in our whole playbook for defense. We practice so we can get our fundamentals down so then we can get back straight into the season.”

Over the off-season, many athletes also take advantage of the athletic facilities on campus, such as First-Year track athlete Peyton Sand. 

“I’m typically in the weight room, sometimes two to three times a week,” Sand said. “But other than that, I will be on the track getting some laps in and staying in shape over the off-season.”

One important facility on campus is the weight room that is used by most teams in the off-season.

“At the beginning, we kind of have a recovery period right after the season. And then once we get to J-term, we do a lot of things like strength building,” sophomore Splitt said. “We pretty much lift and use it every day… As we move into spring we look to do more explosive workouts that will help us more for speed… And then as we get into our spring season, we do more laid back lifts because it’s pretty much right into season, so getting hurt or overdoing [it] is bad.”

Another big factor to the off-season is the plans that the coaches give them to use on their own or with a personal trainer.

“So there is a lifting plan that the coaches give us,” Splitt said. “They would like us to do it, but if we are working with, like, a personal trainer they trust that they’ll do a good job as well… We also meet twice a summer for seven on sevens.”

The most important thing is to stay healthy and not overdo anything so the athletes stay ready for the next season. 

“Getting enough sleep, drinking a lot of water and just making sure you are stretching enough is really important in the off-season,” Sand said. “Sleep is the biggest contributor to staying healthy, but it’s also important to take your easy days lightly.”