Jared Kilkenny – Special to the Southern News
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — With their eyes barely open and hoods draped over their heads, a group of SCSU students drag themselves out of their dorm rooms and into the frigid, darkness while most of their classmates are still in the middle of night’s rest. When they reach their final destination they will continue to struggle to stand up straight while preparing for the most strenuous physical activity they will do all day. Their exhaustion is justified—it’s 5 a.m.
This is the normal routine for members of the SCSU football team currently taking part in their spring conditioning program. The regimen is highlighted by a
high tempo weightlifting session promptly at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“When you wake up that early it’s pitch black,” said Tyler Williams, a sophomore sport management major at Southern and offensive lineman for the SCSU football team. “This time of year, it’s bitter cold and the ride over to the fieldhouse is cold too. It can be a struggle just to get there.”
Although the football team starts the earliest, other SCSU athletic programs are not far behind. Women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, and women’s volleyball all juggle the responsibilities of being a student and athlete with regular workouts and practices before 7 a.m. Even for a mixture of lifelong athletes and high school state champions, these times are early—as early as they’ve ever had to wake up in their lives.
“I have alarms set for 4:45, 4:50, 4:55, and 5 a.m.,” said Tyler Loring, a freshman sports management major at Southern and offensive tackle for the SCSU Football team. “It’s so hard to get out of bed but at the same time as soon as I’m up I’m ready to go.”
The football team combats this exhaustion before workouts even begin by raising their voices to raise their energy. In a matter of minutes, sluggish students become bright-eyed mascots for one another yelling at and encouraging one another.
Coaches set the tone by being the most energetic people in the room and focusing on individual groups of players. By the time the team has broken it’s first sweat, other athletic groups enter the gym for their own sport-specific workout programs.
“We get after it for sure,” said Loring. “When we get going, everybody is yelling and everybody is pumping each other up. We are moving fast and we have our coaches yelling at us to move faster. We run at a high tempo and we go through the weights making our reps as fast as possible.”
Committing to such early workouts, student athletes are faced with the decision to dive right in to classes with an early schedule or spread out their days with later classes.
“Freshman year, I made the mistake of having class at 8:10 a.m., then 9:10 a.m., then 10:10 a.m.,” said Williams. “It was awful. I would barely have time to shower after my workout before having to focus in class.”
As for Loring and Williams, they prefer the spread out day. Although they have said that having classes as late 7 p.m. when they have been up since 5 a.m. can be difficult, some strategically placed dorm room naps help them get through it.
“When I do the morning workouts my body feels great,” said Loring. “When I’m working out I know in my head that I’m getting prepared for what’s ahead of me and my body has been responding in a pretty positive way.”
