As a cool breeze blows through the stadium, a blanket of snow covers the track and field, the same track and field that hundreds of spring athletes will fill in just a few months. For now, it’s undisturbed–aside from the path of footprints running up from the sophomore lot out of the stadium–while athletes are preparing for the upcoming seasons.
Many spring sports athletes have big expectations of themselves going into the spring. With winter coming closer to its end, the time to train is now. Track athlete junior Michael Voth uses his goals for the upcoming season to motivate him in his training.
“One of my biggest goals is to break 4:45, in the mile, which is 20 seconds faster than I ran this past fall,” Voth said. “That is mostly the big one that I’m focusing on, however, I do run two other events that I would like to do well and like I would like to run two minutes and five seconds in the 800.”
Winter conditioning, which began on Dec. 2, attracts many of the spring sports athletes and their sports themselves, with spring coaches including Kailey Zvosec, Liz Gebhardt, Marli Ruis, Morgan Bryan, Jackson McCally, Matt Hill, Suni Haberland, and Faith Danaher, collaborating in its organization. Not only does winter conditioning allow for consistent training throughout the winter, but it also allows for the creation of team relationships prior to their seasons.
“The biggest advantage is honestly just being with the people that we’re going to be playing with,” softball player senior Ivy Williams said. “We get to work on those relationships, so that when we play together, we play as a team, not as individual players. It’s pretty good to get to know your players before you just get thrown on a team together.”
Some athletes train completely outside of the school, utilizing their own resources, such as gyms and home workout equipment, and training plans to prepare in the best way possible for their sport. Individual training can prove incredibly useful to many, allowing them to focus on specific areas that they wish to improve upon, creating a specialized training program specifically for what they want to accomplish rather than the general training through winter conditioning.
“I do my lifting and hitting through Top Flight Performance, we are a gym located in Olathe,” sophomore Cole Harris said. “At my gym, we have a lot of pro baseball players that I work out with during the off season. They’re always there to push you and teach you some tips just to be better overall.”
No matter which way any athlete may choose to go with their training, whether with the school or independently, many are very ready to step into their sport this spring and, using all the work they’ve put in over the winter, achieve their goals and meet those expectations. Long jumper and triple jumper Jillian Jones is itching for the season to start, having big expectations going into the first Track meet of the season.
“I’m really, really excited,” Jones said. “ I get so much adrenaline when I jump, and it’s such a good feeling. I was just on the runway and I just felt like I’m ready, I can do it this year. I’m not a prospect, really at all, so I feel like I’m kind of in an underdog situation. I scratched 16”7’ last year at regionals.”
Jones is hoping to prove herself, overcoming her scratch at regionals last year, as early as the first meet of the track season: the Blue Valley all-comers.
“I’m really hoping to [jump 16”7],” Jones said. “If it’s nice outside, at all comers–it has not been nice the last couple years–but I’m really excited to break out and show what I can do this year.”
