Winning Winter Workouts

By Sarah Cipolla

As the spring sports season is around the corner, the Glenelg High School student athletes have been gearing up and getting in shape. March 1st is the first day of tryouts when young athletes will try to make their sport of choice. During the long winter break, many athletes find it difficult to get in shape, but Glenelg students have found ways to stay in shape aside from everyday practice and a few games a week.

​Just about every spring sports holds some kind of preseason workouts. Sports might decide to hold weekly, or daily workouts that may take place at school or at an offsite gym. For example, Emily Nalls, Glenelg Senior lacrosse captain, says, “We lift and condition two to four times a week at a gym called Campanaro Strength & Conditioning.” Nick Campanaro, the owner of Campanaro Strength & Conditioning, has done a great job getting the girls in shape for their lacrosse season. For the girls who do not attend their workouts with Campanaro, they are able to workout with Coach Trunzo on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Some teams decide to train completely on campus instead of splitting time between GHS and an offsite gym. For example, boys lacrosse train Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in preparation for March first. They get their cardio by running on the track and build their muscles by lifting in the GHS weight room.

Spring baseball stays in shape by participating in a Fall league where they are able to practice their skills and condition for the season at the same time. Players on the team train and run by themselves in order to stay in shape during the winter break, if they do not play a winter sport. As for softball, the girls host preseason workouts on Mondays and Fridays. They do most of the running on their own as well.

Similarly, for outdoor track Coach Johnson will give athletes a set of workouts two week before the season starts to get in shape. If someone may be interested in starting track, Junior track runner, Katie Melesko says, “It takes at least two weeks to get in shape for track with high intensity running, stretching, and drinking lots of water.”

Some of the teams at GHS have been working on their skills over the winter, so they can be in tip top shape at the start of the season. Both lacrosse teams take the time to do “Wall-Ball”. Girls lacrosse on Mondays and boys lacrosse holds captain’s practices after school where they participate in drills such as “Three, two, drop” and play “Six v six.” Along with their fall league, baseball has “Winter training at a batting facility,” says Senior, Payton Jaap. Softball has throwing sessions during the winter months where they practice their accurate passes, hard pitches, and catching hard to reach balls. Similar to the more individual sports of baseball and softball, typically tennis players hit around by themselves or with friends, or join local winter leagues to prepare for the coming season.

In order to entice students at GHS to play a sport, the sports have been holding interest meeting through the winter months to give more information about tryouts and what the team’s atmosphere is like. Interest meetings are there for students, so they can sign up to tryout and meet the coaches they may eventually be playing for. Earlier this month, softball, outdoor track, and Junior Varsity Boys lacrosse already had their respective interest meetings. Other sports have already had their information meetings, but if interested, stop by the appropriate coach and ask about the sports program.

March 1st is a big day for spring sports. It marks the beginning of a new set of activities that the Glenelg community cannot wait to support. All of the teamwork put in this winter will create relationships that will also help the players on the field. Hopefully, all of the winter preparation leads all of the teams to victory. Stay tuned for more on the spring sports as March 1st is fast approaching!