Here it comes, the dreaded event at the end of every summer. Every athlete loses sleep and has the most extreme nightmares of what’s to come around this time of year. You all know what I’m talking about… the inevitable Preseason. Where we fight through blood, sweat and tears to play sports that we’re not even sure we like anymore, but they’ve just become routine.

With all the practices at least three times a day, we’re up to running about 6-7 miles. Along with practicing comes the putrid conditioning that’s unbearable. The minute you hear “7 up, 7 down,” your entire being cringes and your mind shuts down. Honestly, making it through preseason every year is extremely shocking to most of us because of how much stress we put our bodies through.

The amount of times we will hear “get on the line” the first few weeks is infinite and the extreme sense of hatred we will feel towards those who are saying it will be unbelievable. At the end of the day, with as much ice bags as we can possible fit on our bodies, we’ll limp back to our dorms to roll out for hours. God bless us all during preseason.

I don’t know about your coach, but every year our coach sets up a “super fun” team activity that usually brings us to near death (kidding). BUT it is extremely insane every year. Although people would call us insane for sticking to these sports when we train so intensely, but honestly these “super fun” activities just bring our team closer together.

As much as we all dread the early morning practices and the infinite amount of sprints, we all learn to really love it at the end of the day. After all, we pretty much dedicate our life to these sports that we train for day in and day out. Though there is much pain that goes into preseason, there are also a lot of good things that come out. It is true at the end of the day, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And ask anyone who belongs to a team, there is nothing better than having 20 or so other people putting in the work and suffering just so they can have your back no matter what. Belonging to a team teaches you a lot and it is probably one of the best experiences one goes through in life. So while you’re sweating profusely and gasping for air during these first few weeks, just remember its all for the sport that you can’t live without and for the teammates that you learn to love.