With fall sports starting up again for the new school year, many students spend their summer preparing for the season ahead. The two-month period gives athletes time to practice, improve skills and build fitness before the fall season begins.

GIRL’S FLAG FOOTBALL

Noelle Leja (12), finds herself preparing for the new season through a flag football camp held at the football stadium.

“I did practice a little bit [before the season] because [the school] held a flag football summer camp. They also held some open gyms on the football field,” Leja said.

She usually practices in late summer, around July and August, since that’s when flag football camps and open practices are held. Over the summer, Leja also practiced with her sister, her dad and the varsity team.

“I practiced a lot with my sister, because she was also gonna play flag football, and our dad also helped us practice a lot with throwing a football,” Leja said.

During practice, the team works on offence and defense, as well as playing 1v1 against each other.

“[That’s] where one person will have the ball and try to run to the defensive person who will try to pull your flag,” Leja said “We work on flag pulling skills, because that’s considered a tackle in flag football.”

Leja began her flag football career being on the team during her junior year when the sport was new to the school. She developed an interest in flag football from her friend Madison ‘August’ Mays (12), and her father’s interest in football.

“August came up with the idea, sophomore year, and she wanted a lot of people to sign up for it, so it could become an official sport. [Joining it sounded] cool, because my dad watches football all the time… And I’m glad that I joined because it’s a really fun sport,” Leja said.

GIRL’S CROSS COUNTRY

Tamara Lopez (12), is getting ready for the cross country season by doing morning runs around her neighborhood, parks near her house or if she has time she will go to a forest preserve.

“I like short runs, some stretching, and then I go run and kind of personalize it, to what I think I can do,”
Lopez said. “Especially because I was trying to recover from injury from the season during the year. I was trying to slowly ease into something,”

Practicing before the season helps her be more prepared. Practicing also helped Lopez recover from an injury she had the year before.

“I think it’s good to just prepare [your] mind [and] body for being able to run some distance comfortably, it can make you faster and be more prepared for working on speed training during the season,” Lopez said.

During practice, athletes work on breathing techniques while running, and split into groups, individually working on their pace.

“We always go in groups. We’re always with someone. And there’s also days when we have harder workouts, which are in groups, or they can be on a smaller loop, on a track […] We do them together as a team […] then we come back, and we do stretching,” Lopez said.

Lopez began her cross country career in her freshman year. She wanted to experience new things.

“I joined [because] I wanted somewhere to make friends and work on personal goals. And then I really
kept doing it because [of] the community,” Lopez said.