By Jackie Sayers

With less than a month left in the winter sports season, spring athletes are beginning to condition. Athletes participate in offseason conditioning to increase their fitness level before tryouts, while others condition to avoid injury. According to coaches and players, conditioning is the key to a successful season.How will off-season conditioning prepare your team for the upcoming season?“Conditioning gets us in shape so we don’t have to waste practice time getting into better shape. It’s the one thing we can control. We can’t really force good soccer skills, but we can be in good shape.” — senior soccer player Sophie Tomasic

“The goal of preseason conditioning is to get the girls to a certain level of match fitness prior to tryouts and prior to the season. The sooner we can get to match fitness, the better off we are going to be as a team.” — varsity soccer coach Todd Boren“We have three goals for offseason conditioning. Goal one: injury prevention. Goal two: some form of fitness before the first day because our season is very compressed. Goal three: it’s fun and builds camaraderie.“ — varsity track coach Mike Cooper

“Preseason conditioning really you a sense of what it takes to play the game. Conditioning prepares us for long weeks of practice and games, and really us a taste of what that work is gonna feel like.” — sophomore softball player MaKenzie Cooper“Players that work together, train together, laugh together and learn together will perform better together. All in all, the workouts are designed to get the guys on the right track physically, and build the team aspect mentally to compete under extremely high expectations.” — varsity baseball coach Domenic Mussat