Today: Mar 28, 2024

Offseason: no relaxation, more training

Edgar Ayala – Sports Writer

When a student-athlete is not in season, some people tend to assume the athlete gets vacation time from their sport. However, the long workout days and sore nights continue from the regular season and into offseason training.

The offseason can be an essential time for the college athlete to focus their attention on getting bigger, better and faster. But the student-athlete has to be dedicated, in order to take advantage of the time they have in the offseason to on improve their game.   

Vienna Palisco, a junior field hockey player at Southern, said she doesn’t see the offseason as a time to relax, but as a time to improve her individual set of skills. By the time the season starts again, she executes the skills she learned during the offseason and applies it on the field.     

“The offseason is very important,” said Palisco. “It really helps the team become more closer in getting a better understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and helps build the team chemistry to become a more solid unit.”

Southern’s field hockey season ended on Oct. 31. Where the Owls played Saint Michael’s College, and finished the season with a 1-0 over the Purple Knights.  

The lady Owls, however, were not able to reach the postseason as they closed their season with an overall record of 6-12, and 4-8 in the Northeast-10 Conference.  Placing 10th in the conference, and missing postseason action for the second year in a row.

Yet, with field hockey season ending short, some athletes get happy with the fact that a short season means less work and practice on their part.  This was not the case for junior Kristi Montemurro.  

Montemurro, teammate of Palisco on the field hockey team, said the team always wants to extend their season as much as possible, but did admit it was “disappointing” not to reach the postseason.  

“Every athlete should have a drive and thirst to win, and expect to do well every season,” said Montemurro. “The team did well this season, but there’s always room for improvement. There’s not a single athlete or team that is perfect, there’s always something that they can improve on.”

Now with the regular season out the way, the field hockey team commenced their offseason this past Monday. They consisted of individual stick work, running and lifting three times a week, according to Palisco and Montemurro.  

But the two weeks from the time the season ended on Halloween, and this past Monday when the offseason started, Montemurro said she missed being on the field during the time span.  

“Every athlete dislikes being away from their sport, even if it’s needed,” said Montemurro. “Having more free time is a big adjustment, but it allows us to fully recover.”

The men’s soccer team, on the other hand, has not fully committed to the offseason just yet, but is rather doing a couple of drills and practices before the semester ends, according to the Owls’ top-scorer, Louis Greenway-Tambini.  

“We have a few training sessions out on the field before Christmas,” said the forward, Greenway-Tambini. “Then we start offseason schedule, which consists of lift twice a week, as well as training twice a week.”

Staying in shape is year-round at the college level. For many athletes, the offseason is arguably one of the most important time spans of the year. As the athlete is going to compete with the best, therefore need to be training their best.

Photo Credit: John Liu 

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