Pre- Season at CU as a 1st year.....By Kallie M

                Going into college can be a frightening experience, but add the nerves from being an athlete having to go thorough pre-season and it can be terrifying.  I have known quite a few athletes who have gone on to play sports in college and have gone through their own pre-seasons. Most of the time all I hear about the pre-seasons are how horrible and exhausting they are. So naturally I was extremely nervous going into my own college pre-season.

                The day to leave for college arrived a lot faster than I expected it and after 13 hours we pulled onto campus.  My family and I arrived on campus a day before the rest of my new teammates would move-in.  After we moved all of my stuff in, I waited anxiously for the next day to arrive.  Finally everyone else moved in and pre-season officially began that night with our first of many team meetings. In this meeting we went through basic rules and expectations for the new season. Then we were released back to our dorm rooms in Luther Hall (we all roomed with another teammate). The next day two-a-days began with our first practice at 8am and afterwards we had another practice at 2pm. This continued for a week and a half. The first few days of pre-season began with us mostly scrimmaging allowing our coaches to get a feel for how we play. Practices then increased by having drills and fitness tests incorporated. During the most intense workouts that spanned over the week and a half our coaches encouraged us to hydrate and ice a lot to avoid dehydration and injury. The hardest thing about pre-season was having practice twice a day, but it was not as horrible as what I had imagined.

My favorite part about pre-season was getting to know all of my new teammates. During this week and a half the team spent almost the whole day every day together, so we got to know each other pretty quickly. We did quite a lot of team bonding during our week and a half together, such as, a baseball game and camping overnight. I hope know that now our pre-season has ended, we will continue to grow closer and become a strong team for our coming season.