GET TO WORK     
     During what the coaches call the most important part of off-season, the weight room, we put our bodies through rigorous and gruelingworkouts trying to improve our over all strength. The weight room helps us get stronger so that we may over power the weaker opponents. I for one am not alone when saying that I despise the weight room and everything about it. It's not that I don't like working hard because I've put in my time. Putting in my time possibly is the reason that I don't like the weight room because ever since I have played football I have lifted weights. The weight room does bond the team together when all the players have to go through the same adverisity it just seems to make everyone form as a team. I believe the reasoning for coming together might be that we all hate the coaches during lifting sessions and we all have a common enemy. But the coaches are there to push us and reveal to us the best possible players we can be.

     In the weight room we usually start off by forming lines and stretching out to get the muscles activated so that we don't have an injury. After stretching we go into the weight room and grab our workout sheets that tel us what to do. I usually pick my friends to workout with so that I can get away with not working out as much as possible but also lift enough to get a little stronger. Yes, I may be lazy but I can say what I lack in desire in the weight room I make up for on the field by being a little more talented than most players. In the regular lifting session we start off with bench press or squats and work our way to assistance lifts to work the smaller muscle groups. Sessions aren't long but they require a lot of focus because they are pretty intense for the amount of time that is allowed. After the lifting is said and done it is outside for conditioning were depending on the coaches mood could go really bad or go about as good as running could get. Then we get on the line and wait for the whistle to sound so that we can push throught the 100s 200s or sprints. Once I cross the line for the last time I breath the deepest sign of relief because now I know I wont be begging for air. We then recieve a small talk to motivate us to work hard everyday to get better and that completes the workout for the day. I try to go home and relax the best I can to recover because I know for the next 6 weeks it will be the same unless it is the weekend cause those are the best days, OFF Days.
 

Weight room somewhat similar to the one we use

3-2-1 Two-A-Days

It seems like there isn’t any situation in football that we don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go through hell especially during two-a-days. During two-a-days we wake up early as possible so that our coaches allowed exactly 8 hours of sleep, yea right. But seriously the team goes through it waking up at 6 A.M. every morning for around 2 weeks to go eat the same Hein dining hall breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes, biscuits, and the topper of gravy. Yes, that food gets really old after two weeks. After pushing what we can down the food shoot we move reluctantly to the field house to go get dressed and make it to meetings on time. Getting to our meetings the upper classmen learn the same plays we have ran for the past three years while the freshmen frantically take notes so they aren’t behind when we get out to the field. Meetings are the last separation between being OK and going through the next two hours of practice that feels like days. Pushing through drills and plays the wear a player to his breaking point to where they you feel like passing out and when you think it’s all over we end practice with the hardest part. Boot camp and yes, it is as bad as it sounds. In no way am would I compare it to what our armed forces go through but to me a lineman it is the worst thing I could do following practice. Post boot camp though we are done with the hardest part of the day and it’s off to lunch at the dining hall again where it is either a chicken breast and salad or possibly some sort of casserole for yesterday’s supper and salad. The best part of the day is after lunch being our break or NAP TIME. Now days I wonder why I never took a nap in kindergarten when I had the chance but who knew I would’ve been this sleep deprived in college football. Football isn’t all that bad but two-a-days definitely makes you second guess your decision to play division 3 football with no scholarships given that though the best part of being a division 3 football player has yet to come in our day because the team can only have on full padded practice a day. Don’t get me wrong though the second practice our “walk though” isn’t the cake walk it sounds it really is a full padded practice without the presents of the pads. Sometimes I wondered which practice was actually worse because of the shoulder to shoulder contact we had to go through but still this practice meant we didn’t have boot camp. When that practice was over it was clear sailing for the rest of the day. Going back to the dining hall on last time to get complete our eating sessions of the day we go to the team meeting where we have one of our coach’s talks about something inspirational that usually lifted my spirits enough to make me come back for another day. Then one of the position groups introduces themselves by getting a partner and introduces his partner with factual information followed by friendly put downs about his partner that usually gets the whole team laughing. When the team meeting concludes it’s on to our nightly position meeting where we spend around 30 minutes going over practice and cutting up to relieve the stress of the day. After that meeting it’s back to the house to go to sleep and pray I make it through the same thing the next day.

 

  Brad Snowden- Linebacker #42

I'm in this photo to #68