While the summer months offer the softball team a break from its sport, they do not offer a break from all work.
Coming off of a loss to Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference finals a few weeks ago, coach Jodi Hermanek said the girls had a softball-free week to recuperate.
“(Last) week it was them getting together and doing some conditioning games,” she said, adding that the team played volleyball, soccer and ultimate football as some of the ways to stay in shape.
Hermanek said that it is time for the girls to take a break from softball for the first time in 10 months, and that it is time for them to focus on being student-athletes.
Over summer break, some of the girls will practice with their old softball teams to stay in shape while others will simply be working, Hermanek said.
“They have their conditioning packets that they take home with them to keep them on track with their strengthening and conditioning regiments,” she said. “But for the most part, most of them will be taking some classes … a lot of them will be travelling and just being a normal person for a while.”
Shortstop Alexis Joseph said the girls fill out their packets as the weeks go by, usually with three hard days of practice in a week, and they return the packets to the coaches when they get back to school.
Joseph said she also uses the summer as an opportunity to catch up with old teammates from high school, and she uses the time to condition and play games with them.
“I have girls who I played high school with, and they are Division I as well,” she said. “We will get together at the high school facility and play games and work out together.”
In addition to playing softball with her old teammates and training with the packet the team is given by the coaches, Joseph said she gets exercise from watching her two younger siblings.
“They are a work out on their own – they keep me going,” she said, adding that she works at a lawyer’s office in the meantime as her summer job.
Hermanek said that once July and August roll around, that is when the training will really pick back up for the team, but added that practice for the team will start the week after school begins in September.
“Most of our offseason training is in the fall – that is when we focus more on the strengthening and conditioning,” she said. “Summer for us is more like some people’s Christmas breaks, or some people’s Thanksgiving breaks.”
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