While the soccer teams have had fall practices in past years, this is the first time that players are arriving at school early for morning sessions, which have an emphasis on weight training. These sessions take place in the weight room under the stadium.
Last spring, both the girls and boys varsity soccer teams advanced to the second round of state playoffs before losing. After getting so far in the tournament, the girls team became even more determined to succeed this season, according to girls varsity co-captain, senior Marie Godiers.
Godiers shares the varsity captainship with seniors Emily Ferris and Orli Hendler.
According to science teacher and boys coach David Olorunfemi, who has 22 years of coaching experience, the sessions are not mandatory, and cannot be mandatory until the official season kicks off. Tryouts are on Jan. 20. Currently, the teams have not yet been chosen, but the coaches and captains want to ensure that the players start the season at the top of their game.
Rodney Thomas, who has been coaching girls soccer at Grady for nearly a decade, initially came up with the idea for the teams to start this early preparation for the spring season.
“A lot of programs in the state are doing it right now, and have been doing this,” Thomas said of the fall training.
There are four sessions per week: weight training on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for both boys and girls. Captains’ practices are on Mondays and Wednesdays for the boys and on Wednesdays and Thursdays for the girls.
“[Captain’s practice] will probably go to 5 p.m., and then during the regular season we have practice every day,” Godiers said.
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rs said the girls team knew they had to do weight training if they wanted to win state this year.
“The girls are just in cahoots because they want to be in the championships,” Olorunfemi said.
The captains and coaches said that both new and returning members of the girls team are already quite dedicated.
“We’ve got almost a hundred percent participation from our returning varsity players,” Thomas said, “and we’ve also had a nice showing of new players to the program.”
The morning weight training starts at 7 a.m.
“Even if people are complaining or don’t like the idea [of morning practices], everyone still shows up, and I think that says a lot about the players,” Godiers said.
The boys have not been as involved with the training.
“The boys haven’t really been participating I guess as much as we’d like,” senior varisty co-captain Zac Carter said. “That’s probably because it’s so early, and … I don’t think we have a very strong freshmen grade coming in, so it’s hard to get a lot of people motivated to come in.”
The other varsity co-captains are senior Archie Kinnane and junior Parker Maupin.
“Most of our boys, you know, the ones that are very regular, who are very constant with their practice, they are not coming,” Olorunfemi said. “Because many of them play clubs and they’re probably tired, but the girls are just fantastic.”
The morning sessions are laid-back, and are mainly for the varsity players to improve their performance.
“It’s just weightlifting,” Carter said. “It’s not really like a practice.” Carter said he expected the core of the team to be strong, but that the team members would need to train more intensely if the team aspired to do as well as they did last year.
“Some people have been playing soccer, then, for a while, they kind of stop playing,” Olorunfemi said. “So they lost most of their dexterity, their skills, and probably within two, three months, they can pick it up.”
Regardless, the soccer coaches remain hopeful that the informal, student-led practices and training sessions will improve the teams’ success next year.
“I want them to be physically stronger, and in turn, mentally stronger,” Thomas said. “I think that strength goes hand in hand with the mental strength, so I think we’ll be better able to dominate when we take the field this season.”
