Emily Wood & Isabel Hetherington
Sports Editors
As Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIACs) and states start to wrap up, senior athletes are preparing to leave the turf fields of NCHS as they move on to college athletics. But for these athletes, summer is not just a vacation: it is also a training session to prepare for them for their upcoming chapter as a college athlete.
Senior Rami Hamdan, who is throwing on the Division 3 track and field team, in addition to playing football at Muhlenberg College, said that training for college athletics has a large impact on his summer plans for he has to arrive two weeks in advance for preseason.“Traveling is always hard when you are training,” he said, “I’m not going to have many days off this summer, and to take a whole week off for vacation would be detrimental. So, I’m probably not going to go anywhere without a gym.”
Varsity Soccer captain Holly Burwick, who is preparing to play as goalie at Amherst College, starts her training before school gets out. “Starting June 3, I’ll be following a packet that gives me a workout plan for each day,” she said. “I’ll stay hydrated and try to eat a good balanced diet to make sure I’m in as good of a soccer shape as I can be,” she said.
Holly’s college packet consists of an assortment of workouts to ensure that she maintains a good physical condition. “There are various workouts including fartleks, interval runs, shuttle drills, suicides and full field sprints,” Holly said. “In addition to that main workout, I need to lift three times a week.”
Senior Matt Blasco, who is playing Division 1 lacrosse at Saint Joseph’s University, also has a strict training regimen to make sure that he is in shape when he arrives at college in the fall. “I have workouts six times a week: four lifting and two running days,” he said.
Although her season does not start until October, senior Cara Egan has already started training. “I am training every morning this summer from 5:30 to 8:30 a.m.,” she said, “I need this basic yardage and conditioning to be in shape for the season that awaits me as soon as I step on campus next fall.”
Starting sports in college, also means new teams and tryouts. “I’m most nervous about competing to start,” Holly said. “Playing goalie is tough, because typically only one goalie plays.”
“I am most nervous for figuring out how to manage my time,” Cara agreed. “A whole new school and sport environment will be a lot to adjust to at first.”
Unlike Rami, for Holly, a college sport does not mean starting school early. “There’s a NESAC (North East Suburban Athletic Conference) rule that preseason can only be about four days,” she said. “So luckily, I don’t need to show up too early. I just need to be in very good shape when I get there.”
No matter what sport they play or division they will be playing in, one thing all of these seniors have in common is their excitement to take their sport to the next level. “I am excited for new motivation,” Cara said. “It is a chance for me to prove myself to a new coach and new people at a new level of competition.”
