With a start day that gets earlier every year, and summer workouts that are becoming increasingly more frequent, the commitment required to play a B-CC fall sports is tremendous.

Junior Ellie Watkins, a player on B-CC girls’ soccer, said, “I love being part of the team, but it’s a huge commitment.” To prepare the team for the fall, girls’ soccer practices go on throughout the entirety of the summer, and they do a four day summer sleep-away camp. Watkins elaborated, “the practices are a good way to weed out the people who aren’t super committed.”

This same trend is illustrated in boys’ soccer. “Throughout August my days usually consist of running, technical work, and good laughs with the other boys,” said rising senior, Dean Hammerman. Practices are every day throughout August to build up for tryouts at the start of the school year. In addition to this Dean commented “Before tryouts, it takes a lot of time to train to have good enough fitness to play.”

The Barons football team, led by Coach Ben Minturn, takes the off-season very seriously. Throughout the spring the football team has had “lifting, agility training, and position-based training twice a week,” said rising senior Kiyan Jacobs. The workouts continue throughout the summer. “Our work finally gets put to the test at the end of July,” said Jacobs. At the end of July, the football team takes a trip to a football camp, and this trip serves as a bonding session and gives time for the offense and defense to learn plays and formations. After the camp finishes marks a turning point where the team starts practicing in pads, giving the practices a game-like feel.

Off-season workouts are a staple in preparing fall sports teams for the regular season, and even though there is a large time sacrifice associated with those fall sports, the outcome is well-prepared players from the first game of the season.