Athletes in the off season
By guest columnist Lori Barnes
Every day after school from 3:30 to as late as 6:30; running, kicking, throwing, catching, hitting, or just moving. Month after month having to focus on the one game that is coming. You have you practice at school and at home. But once it’s all over, what now? The season has ended and you can finally let loose and breathe… or can you?
Do players keep up their healthy eating habits to stay fit? Or do they veg out and watch TV? What do players do when the game clock has run out for the season?
George Greig
Boys Basketball Varsity
Power Forward-position
1. When the season ends do you still train?
Yes
2. Do you focus more on the previous season or the one ahead?
Look at the mistakes and things I need to improve on from the previous season and work what I need to do for the season ahead.
3. Do you miss your season at the end?
Yeah, all the seniors leave and you never play with them again.
4. Do you try to keep in shape? How?
Yeah I do. I play AAU B-ball after the season with people in my grade, its like a rec league for really good people.
5. When the season ends what do you do with all the extra time?
We usually take a break for a week, then we get back to improving by lifting weights and working on skills.
Anna Bausum
Girls Soccer Varsity
Midfielder/Defender-position
1.When the season ends do you still train?
Yes
2. Do you focus more on the previous season or the one ahead?
Next. I learn from the past, but focus on the future.
3. Do you miss your season at the end?
Yes. No two seasons are alike, and people leave and things change.
4. Do you try to keep in shape? How?
Yes. I workout at Energy Oasis and do yoga.
5. When the season ends what do you do with all the extra time?
I focus on school more, take more time to do homework, and workout a lot more. I take a break for like a week or two where I just go home and sleep.
Elijha Thompson
Football Junior Varsity
Quarterback/Safety/Receiver-position
1.When the season ends do you still train?
Yes
2. Do you focus more on the previous season or the one ahead?
Mostly on the one ahead, because the one in the past doesn't matter anymore.
3. Do you miss your season at the end?
If we are winning I miss it, but if we’re losing it doesn’t matter as much.
4. Do you try to keep in shape? How?
Yes; running, eating right, working out and being a good kid.
5. When the season ends what do you do with all the extra time?
For a week we don’t have any practice after the season ends, and after that we have practice after school. So I don’t really get any extra time.
Reading for the stars
by Stephen Hundley
The world is run by educated, articulate, and generally tactful individuals.
People who succeed in getting their thoughts across to those around them, whether this be a means to lead a department of some high risk/ high yield business or a task force of soldiers through a hostile environment is irreverent, what I’m driving at here is that the leaders of the world, those that truly master their surroundings all typically have one thing in common. They read frequently from a wide selection of imaginative and scholarly literature, and they’ve been reading regularly for quite some time.
It came as no surprise to me that, after little digging, I was able to find copious amounts of research supporting the link between reading, increased cognitive ability, and success in persons of all ages. The National Literacy Trust’s Family Reading Campaign states that those students who have had parents that read to them when they are very young, "Showed greater social and emotional development including more resilience to stress, greater life satisfaction, greater self-direction and self-control, greater social adjustment, greater mental health, more supportive relationships, greater social competence, more positive peer relations, more tolerance, more successful marriages, and less delinquent behaviors" as well as a greater interest in the classroom, more school involvement in extracurricular activities, and a more successful schooling experience overall. This early interaction instills in the children not only a affinity for knowledge but gives them a leg up on developing an early mastery over literacy, something that can set them apart from their peers and mark the road for a challenging curriculum and a shining transcript later down the road.
The interaction between parent and child, through the activity of reading, is also extremely beneficial to the child’s eventual academic and social success. Reading serves not only as a medium for forming stronger family ties, but is undoubtedly an important building block for any young child about to enter or that is making his/her way through school as reading comprehension plays a major part in nearly every course.
However let it not be thought that the many benefits of reading are not only for the very young. The National Literacy Trust maintains that increased parental activity, along with a strong regiment of literature, remains one of the strongest sources of academic success even at the age of 16. And not only is reading vital to our youth, both the very small and those on the verge of legal maturity, but it is critical as well for adults to read, and read often.
Research by Cornell University indicates that adults who read for pleasure are, "Many more times more likely than those who don't to visit museums and
attend concerts, and almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work" Cornell goes on to add, "That Readers are active participants in the world around them, and that is the best kind of person to be" At any rate, the evidence seems clear enough to hold the worlds of author Margaret Fuller true, "Today a reader; tomorrow a leader"