This summer, athletic training resumed, resembling pre-pandemic regimens, many Knights taking advantage of such opportunities in order to be in the best shape possible for the fall sports season. 

“I help students stay in shape over the summer by being there in the facility,” Barclay Spring the strength and conditioning coach said, “ I point in the direction I think they should go and I get to personalize each workout.”

Before the pandemic, Spring says he would  train as many as 120 some days. Despite the pandemic halting use of the performance lab temporarily, Spring says numbers are steadily climbing back to before, training between 20 and 30 people daily.

“Last year we could only work outdoors,” Spring said. “Now we have the ability to have as many people in the room as you like, as long as everybody wears masks. It’s a lot different than it used to be, but slowly building again.”

Cross Country was also able to start practicing. The team met three times a week for runs and conditioning.

“We’ve done a normal summer program for cross country running,” Buckley said. “There’s just no substitute for that work. It can’t be successful without doing work and we can’t be successful without doing work in the summer.”

Students say summer practices prove to be helpful for preparing student athletes for the fall sports season.

“The cross-country summer workouts were epic,” freshman Luke Endres said. “I made new friends, and I feel stronger.”

For the upcoming school year, sports are expected to resume back to normal according to the department of public health but Buckley says the possibility of invitationals and championships are still up in the air.

“Regular athletic practices that are outdoors should be minimally impacted,” Buckley said. “In terms of competitions, they are a little bit trickier because they involve mixing kids from different schools.”

Summer programs allowed athletes to to be as ready as possible, just in time for the start of the fall sports season

“If we’re gonna achieve things as a team that we want to achieve and we need to have work put in right now,” Buckley said.