Due to this year’s later end time, several athletic teams have moved practices to the morning before classes start.
In past years, every team could practice after school because classes ended earlier. But, this year’s new schedule limits the time available after school for practices. To solve the timing issue, the athletic department has given teams the choice to practice before school.
Any team can schedule early morning practices with the exception of football, which has many METCO students who would have trouble making it to the early morning practices.
Athletic director Mike Jackson said morning practices help because it mentally and physically prepares students for the school day ahead. “There are a lot of studies that say early morning exercise is a great way to start your day, so I would hope that early morning activity would just jumpstart the day for the athletes,” he said.
According to Jackson, additional practice time has also been offered to give teams time to practice on the turf or in the pool, something that is not possible after school because other teams are using the space.
Dive coach Kylie Calzone said she believes morning practices are receptive because athletes “can get it over with so then they have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever else they want to do.”
Sophomore Suzanna Luptakova, a member of the swim and dive team added, “Everyone on the team does their best no matter what time it is. Honestly, when it’s in the morning I think people are more focused about it because they haven’t had a full day of school yet.”
Practices before school allow students to work on multiple facets of their game. Luptakova said that the alternative practice time allows her to do both swim and dive. “It gives me more time after school because otherwise, it [dive] would always be after swim, which is really late,” she said.
According, Brian Leighton, the soccer coach, “When they get there at 6:45 a.m. for training, of course, they are a little tired for those first couple of minutes of training, but as things get going it’s like a normal training session.”
