Summer is over and you have been working hard day in and day out all summer long to prepare for pre-season. You think you are ready to pass every 6am fitness test with flying colors. Then you arrive on campus and realize how wrong you were.
Here are the 7 stages of pre-season
Excitement
You are so excited to see all of your best friends from last season and can’t wait to meet the new freshmen, sizing them up, who promise to bring so much to the team. You can’t contain your excitement!
Fear
Your first fitness test comes sooner than you would like. You are hardly even settled in yet. Luckily you pass the test and hold back the tears and vomit you felt coming on. How are you going to survive two weeks of this?
Hunger
You just finished up with your second practice of the day and you need fuel. It’s like you’ve never eaten before. You are a never ending food pit. Pizza, fries, pasta, cake- you want it all and you want it now.
Exhaustion
It’s not even 9pm and you are so ready for bed. You even consider skipping your shower.
Pain
You don’t know which is worse, the soreness in your legs or the sound of your alarm going off before the sun is up. Getting out of bed is literally the most painful thing you’ve ever done. You start daydreaming about naps and ice baths after practice, and annoy your trainers with all of your problems that aren’t really problems.
Determination
After a week of fear, hunger, exhaustion and pain, and terrible tan lines, you think about quitting. But only for half a second. Then you realize you’re doing great, and your teammates are helping you get through it. You are nothing but determined to push on. You’ve got this!
Happiness
You’ve survived two long weeks and season is finally here! You are flooded with happiness realizing that for the next couple of months you will make so many memories on and off the field with your teammates who become more like family.
If you have ever experienced pre-season as a college athlete, you can relate!
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