With nearly all spring sports and team practices concluded for the school year, with the exception of a number of track runners competing at the state level, the off season is here for a majority of student athletes.

 Due to fall sport green days and practices not set to take place until later during summer break, many student athletes have taken it upon themselves to stay fit and prepared for next school year’s sports seasons.

 A number of athletes have chosen to partake in leagues outside of school to continue competing competitively against other teams over the summer.

 “I play in a club team named Annandale United FC over the summer,” junior Rudy Flores said. “I usually have club practices two to three times a week throughout the summer and usually have one or two games a week that also last most of the summer.”

 Outside of playing for other clubs, some student athletes choose to attend other workouts to improve skills and stay fit during the summer in preparation for the season of their sport.

 “I also attend a couple of summer college soccer camps which help out a lot since I get to practice at a college level for the whole day,” Flores said.

 As for fall sports participants, those athletes tend to amp up off-season workouts as the beginning of their season is coming to a start much quicker than other sports that do not start up until later in the school year.

“In the off-season for football, I tend to run and lift weights a lot with my teammates,” sophomore Sam Phan said.

 Most fall sports also have scheduled practices and workouts over the summer to the start of the sport.

 “I get to work with my coaches as well since there is an off-season training schedule for the team,” Phan said.

 Along with the physical preparation comes the mental preparation for many student athletes in their competitive sports.  Watching past game film, adjusting weakness and examining areas for improvement in one’s game are all necessities in maximizing improvement.

 “Another way I prepare myself is by watching film from the previous season to gain perspective of what I can do to improve in the coming year,” Phan said.

 It has proven vital in past years that the continuation of practices, workouts and drills for student athletes during summer break takes place. An extended period of time off from a sport will prove to be costly show its effects sooner rather than later.

 “As a track and cross country runner, I can’t really afford to take long breaks or time off from running because that will end up hurting my times and slowing me down,” sophomore Javonte Durr-Cannon said. “Just because there’s a longer break doesn’t mean that I should stop working hard and trying to improve my running times.”

The continuing of putting in hard work over the summer will be reflective of the performances of student athletes come the beginning of their sports season.

 “Putting in a lot of effort during the break will show and pay off once I start running competitively again when the season starts back up,” Durr-Cannon said.

 The start of the fall sports season is highly anticipated and the practice time put in by student athletes over the summer will be important to the success of multiple sports.