With the season's opening whistles coming as early as next week and the Sept. 9 NESCAC opener date approaching, fall teams have little in the way of prep time. Athletes jump quickly into game situations and coaches have little time to implement game plans and pull together a starting lineup.
With so much to do and so little time, both coaches and athletes rely on summer fitness programs to ensure a successful start to the season.
"Our summer workouts are crucial," volleyball coach Cora Thompson said. "We don't have time to get our athletes into shape, so we trust that they will come prepared after a full summer of working out. If they are not in shape, injuries happen and/or they don't make the team."
Football coach Bill Samko echoed Thompson's emphasis on the necessity of summer training.
"Games are not won on Saturdays during the fall; they are finalized on Saturday," Samko said. "Most games are won or lost before they are played."
With only a week of preseason, coaches need to focus on skills rather than building fitness.
"Playing volleyball at a high level is our main focus," said Thompson, whose team will be the first one in Tufts uniform, opening its season next Friday with a tip-off tournament at Muhlenberg in Allentown, Penn. "If [the players] are in shape, they'll be able to keep up."
While the whirlwind of move-in and the start of classes is taxing for fall teams nationwide, Tufts coaches and players face an additional obstacle in NESCAC rules, which only allow athletes to return on Aug. 28, almost two weeks later than most non-conference competitors, and even then only for informal captain's practices. This extra time crunch makes it even more important that athletes arrive at campus already in top condition.
"[Field hockey coach] Tina [McDavitt] really stresses that we be in top shape the day we arrive to preseason," said junior defender Meghan Becque, who is also a staff writer for the Daily. "Most of us stay motivated not only by the scare of [fitness] testing when we arrive, but also for our motivation for a successful and fit team."
Most coaches issue detailed summer training programs that incorporate many different types of training. Head strength coach Mike Pimentel has a hand in fashioning in-depth programs for both the men's and women's sports teams that combine plyometrics and strength training.
For cardio and skill maintenance, athletes have a range of possible approaches. Some work out with old high school teams, others follow team running programs, and still others coach at summer camps to keep their skills sharp.
"Our girls are very competitive and disciplined," Thompson said. "They make sure that they keep up with their cardio, sprints, push-ups and sit-ups no matter where they are, because they can. Nowadays, it seems like you can find a gym anywhere. They do a great job of finding them."
McDavitt took a more organized approach, hosting a Tufts summer field hockey league from Jun. 20 to Aug. 9 that attracted a diverse range of players from schools across New England, such as Bentley, Harvard and Trinity, as well as current and former Tufts players.
For athletes based stateside during the summer, opportunities to stay fit are readily available. But for those athletes that choose to spend their summers out of the United States, following a fitness regimen abroad presents a host of different challenges.
Junior Catherine Beck, co-captain of the women's cross country team, spent nearly two months working on a Tufts-sponsored archaeological dig in Vescovado di Murlo, a small town in Tuscany, Italy. She made the countryside back roads surrounding her residence her training ground and was able to stay in stay in shape, although it wasn't always easy.
"When you stop digging and go back to the house when the [work] day was done, getting out of the door was one of the hardest things to do," Beck said. "I was fine once I started, but it was just getting going [that proved challenging]."
Beck enlisted some help to cope with the fatigue, running on occasion with seniors Michael Siegfried and Mike Landsberger. While neither are track and field athletes, Beck feels that having company was a great morale boost.
"[Running with the Mikes was] mentally very helpful, but we would definitely slow down and take breaks," Beck said. "It was great to have those days, though, when everything was more relaxed. Sometimes I get so caught up in training, it's a good reminder that you can take it easy sometimes."
That downtime will be a rare commodity for fall athletes, as season schedules open next Saturday. Field hockey and both soccer teams open against NESCAC rival Colby, while Beck and the cross country teams will travel to New London, Conn., for the Conn. College Invitational.
