Athletes Prepare for Competitive Winter Sports Team Tryouts
“I hope we’re not already at the point of people having heart palpitations when they see my name in the inbox,” reads Girls Basketball Coach Hadley Camilus’ email to the team. Another message encourages athletes to run before the tryouts to prepare for intense cardio at the start of the practice. “In my past, I’ve always had to have trash cans around the court because the ones who are unprepared get sick,” Camilus’ note reads. Exonians are in the midst of trying out for winter sports teams, working to improve both their fitness and skill levels to compete against fellow athletes for coveted spots on varsity and junior varsity teams.
Lower Tyler Morris, a member of the wrestling team, commented that he enjoyed this hard work. “Getting in the wrestling room with my teammates and grinding out a tough practice is the most satisfying feeling,” he said. Morris has been “preparing for tryouts since the end of last wrestling season.” He added, “I try to keep myself in shape even when I’m not competing.” Senior Kevin Lyskawa, also on the wrestling team, said that in his opinion, “Just wrestling all year is the only way to prepare for the season.”
Bruce Shang, girls volleyball and squash coach, expects athletes to arrive at tryouts in strong physical condition, and provides them with a workout program for the off-season. “If they are not fit at the beginning of the season, they soon become injured and hurt the team,” he said. Shang continued, “I am amazed at how many athletes come into the season out of shape and without practicing, expecting a championship.”
For many athletes, preparation for the season begins before their team’s official tryouts. Upper Matt Hawke, who opted during fall term in order to train with his teammates, said, “For basketball, tryouts start the first week of fall term.” He added that the team works out five days a week during fall term to prepare for their season. According to Hawke, practicing together helps the team bond, reducing the pressure that comes from first impressions at tryouts.
Similar to Hawke, other students felt pressure during tryouts, and explained that it stemmed both from their internal drive and wanting to impress their coaches. Morris said, “I feel a certain pressure to do well in tryouts, but the pressure is created by myself to be the best person in the room.”
Lower Nick Schwarz, a former wrestler, said about the wrestling coaches, “They’re good coaches. It’s easy to see why Exeter wrestling is so successful.” Upper Jordan Davidson, a former member of the wrestling team, added, “The coaches are really supportive, but they’re very intense as well.” He commented that some of the pressure also stemmed from working alongside dedicated athletes. “There are some kids who have been doing this for their entire lives, and so you’re working with them and you want to be as good as you can because you’re standing next to kids who basically [consider it] their entire life.”
To help ensure all athletes feel welcome, Head Wrestling Coach David Hudson divided incoming wrestlers into three groups, attempting to make tryouts effective for all. Hudson allows fall athletes to observe the first few days of practice in order to heal, but starts training for the season with both experienced wrestlers who have prepared throughout fall term and wrestlers with minimal experience who are starting the season in a lesser physical condition.
Senior Samantha Weaver, a basketball player, found tryouts to be more stressful than the regular season. She said, “There is definitely pressure to perform better at tryouts. Tryouts are about showing the coach what you are made of, so there is a lot of pressure to perform well.” She added that she prefers the regular season because “there is less anxiety if you mess up. A mistake at tryouts could be the difference between making a team and not making it.”
Upper Inumidun Oyebode, a former basketball player, said, “I always want to try harder during tryouts to show the coaches how committed I am.” She added, “Tryouts personally are one of the hardest parts [of the season] because sometimes I’m out of shape and really want to push myself to do well.” Upper Ursula Sze, a member of the squash team, similarly feels pressure to demonstrate her skills during tryouts. She commented that she feels she has to maintain or improve upon her standing in the squash ladder from last years. She said, “On this team, our coach has expectations from where we were last year, so I can’t move down in the ladder.”
Weaver described the challenges fall
athletes face to start the winter season after limited time for rest and recovery. “We get one day of rest between E/A and tryouts, which means you have no time to prepare for your winter sport as most of the day is spent doing homework.” She added that playing a fall sport has kept her from practicing with her teammates. “Although fall athletes are most likely in shape because of their fall sports, time limitations have made us unable to commit to scrimmages with our winter teammates, which is a huge disadvantage at tryouts.”
Senior Bobby Murray, a member of the hockey team, agreed that it was challenging for him to begin winter tryouts directly after the fall season. “Last year I was on the soccer team and remember trying to prepare for the hockey season during soccer season.” He added that he had limited time to rest between the seasons, and he no longer plays a fall sport. “There’s not a lot of time to prepare and I had some lingering injuries,” Murray said.
Hudson helps his team members avoid this issue by allowing fall athletes to take the week off from tryouts to recover. According to Hudson, wrestling differs from other sports in that the team doesn’t compete until after returning from Thanksgiving break, and therefore he uses the tryout time as a training period to help athletes acclimate to the team. Hudson said, “We sort of have an open roster where if you are putting in the time and the commitment we have a spot for you.”
At the start of the season, athletes take a hydration and a body composition test. According to Hudson, Exeter’s trainers are certified to do a body composition analysis on the wrestlers, the results of which are entered into a national database. The database provides students with a safe weight class and a minimum weight class they are permitted to wrestle at, and athletes are only allowed to lose 1% of their body fat each week. According to Tasie-Amadi, wrestlers are given a decent plan to ensure they have no less than 7% body fat by the end of the season.
Before the test, athletes are not supposed to manage body weight by unhealthy means such as dehydration and intensive dieting. Despite this, Lyskawa loses a small amount of weight before the initial test. He said, “Usually before I take the test, I’ll cut down a little bit even though we’re not technically allowed to, but I’ll cut down a little bit to get to the weight and then make sure I’m hydrated.”
Upper and wrestling team-member Chimenum Tasie-Amadi commented that most athletes concern themselves with training for the season, and consider their weight after making the team. “For people who are trying out, what you weigh doesn’t matter. It’s more about getting adjusted to the program first and then seeing your future as a wrestler as opposed to looking at weight,” Tasie-Amadi said. He added that athletes adjusted to the weight management process throughout the season. “Sometimes we do worry about cutting, but truthfully if you’re smart about it, it’s not as bad as we make it sound usually,” Tasie-Amadi said. XXX GRADE Aaron Baez added that as wrestlers gain experience, they develop effective methods for weight management. “It’s tough, but it’s something you’re used to,” he said. Baez added that he loves the sport, and said, “Wrestling’s awesome.”
Hudson explained that the school has worked to ensure the weight management process is healthy. “We’ve done a lot as a school to make sure kids establish a safe weight that they can compete at,” he said. “Weight management is part of the sport.” Lyskawa commented that the wrestling is unique because it is weight-oriented and therefore “nutrition is a big part of being successful.”
Each week before their matches, wrestlers are weighed and their weight is inputted in the database to ensure they are managing their weight in a healthy manner. “Basically, it’s a check and balance of the sport so that kids aren’t going way up and way down and losing ten pounds the day before,” Hudson said.
Lyskawa said that as the season progressed and he gained more muscle mass, he had to lose weight to stay in the same weight class. “As the season went on and I sort of started to get a little bit bigger, I was probably losing upwards of ten pounds a week.” He added that after the weigh-in before each match, he would refuel and gain back the lost weight before starting the process over each Sunday. Lyskawa originally found this practice challenging, but asserts that he has adjusted to managing his weight. He said about wrestlers, “I guess we just have some really strange bodies.”
Although most wrestlers’ weight does not fluctuate as much as Lyskawa’s, according to Davidson, many do some form of weight management to ensure they remain in their weight class. Davidson said that a lot of kids on the team will exercise in very hot rooms to sweat and consequently lose weight. “They’ll drink only water, tons of water so that they feel filled. A lot of kids just go a long time without eating or eating really small portions,” he added.
Tasie-Amadi explained that after athletes sweat out their water weight, they “rehydrate after weigh-ins about two hours before [their] match with stuff like Pedialyte or fruits.” He added about the practice, “If you’re just sweating before a meet, like the day before, it’s not as bad. It’s not perfect, but it’s also not life-threatening if you’re only doing it the day before.”
According to Baez, the majority of the team has done some weight management. However, the practice is not universally challenging. Upper Jalen Thomas said, “Even though I opted this season I didn’t work out at all. My weight is fairly stable, so I didn’t have to cut or gain much.” Morris explained that he has never been pressured to weigh a certain amount and his weight does not play a large factor in the season. “My answer stands that I wrestle what I weigh and that’s it,” he said.
Schwarz attributed the differences in the weight management process to athletes’ differing physical conditions and their starting and goal weight classes to wrestle in. “There’s a difference of 100 to 200 pounds for the weight classes, so I would say that’s why there is such a disparity in terms of the wrestling experience,” Schwarz said. He added that if a student was losing weight at an unhealthy level, the coaches would intervene. “If there is a serious health problem with weight loss, the coaches aren’t going to push that.”
Hudson explained that practices are less effective for athletes who are approaching them with the goal of cutting weight. “I’ve been doing this a long time and have really found that if wrestlers are coming to practice to cut weight, they’re not getting better as a wrestler, so our kids tend not to have cutting and weight management be the focus of their season,” Hudson said.
Weight management can also affect students’ academics. Lyskawa commented that wrestling limited his time for other activities, including academics, and said that his schoolwork was challenging during the winter “because you’re trying to have a healthful diet, but you’re not getting the energy you need so trying to do homework at night is tough.” He added that throughout his first three years at Exeter he has adjusted to this challenge. “Your GPA takes a little dip for sure, but you find ways to just fight through it.”
Baez added that he dealt with the increased time commitment to wrestling by managing his time more efficiently during the wrestling season. “If you play a sport, you’re sacrificing something in your life to train for that sport,” Baez said. In his case, he spends less time socializing and the sport does not affect his academics.
Team dynamics’ make up for athletes’ reduced time for socializing. “For me, wrestling is a place for me to be free, just to have no worries and focus on what I’m doing,” Baez said. Oyebode said that she does, “small things to keep spirits up” during tryouts, including cheering for her teammates. She added, “keeping spirits up really helps to create a positive atmosphere during tryouts.” Lyskawa added that he enjoys being on a winter team because of the close dynamic. “My favorite part of wrestling is the team…. watching someone else succeed was just as good of a feeling as watching yourself succeed,” Lyskawa said.