Burnet athletes enjoy productive June
CAPTION: Football head coach Ben Speer helps with the proper form in doing a squat during a Bulldogs’ weightlifting session. Staff photos by Jennifer Fierro
The Burnet Consolidated Independent School District athletic department is taking a well-earned week off after spending the month of June getting stronger, faster and more agile.
Athletic director Grant Freeman, who is starting his second summer at the helm, commended his student-athletes for not shying away from the work and the challenges their coaches set before them. And, he added, as the year turns to the month of July, that work becomes more crucial.
“I used to have a saying when I was a head football coach,” he said. “Your July will tell what your December is or your November is, especially for those fall sports. What you do in July will tell if you’re going to be picking up stuff or picking up equipment or still playing in November or December, and I really think that’s the case. I think what you do during that time defines what you’re going to do at the end of your season, and it’s just a big deal. And I think if you have a bad July, you’re probably going to have a bad November or December. If you have a good July, you’re probably going to have a good November or December.”
While most of the athletic camps happened in June, other camps that are scheduled for July are strategically put there because of the time of year those sports are in season. The football and volleyball camps are July 27-29, while swim camp is July 29-31.
Incoming freshmen should attend these camps because they are an introduction to the skills, drills and other tidbits of information the sophomores, juniors and seniors are already performing. Freeman noted the camps also provide other benefits, too.
“We want to make sure that our kids are ready to go and being around their teammates,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest thing for us – it’s being around your teammates and starting to gel and starting to work through some of those things. You can see who’s going to take a leadership role, who’s going to be a follower, who can play, who can kind of facilitate. Those roles start to define themselves. And really it’s funny if you watch the kids, they kind of define those roles for themselves. Based on what happens in the month of July and into August, they flesh themselves out in that manner.”
There’s an acknowledgement the work continues even though the reward, which is playing in a contest, is still weeks away. And the athletic director noted he wants his athletes to find the balance between preparing and having fun.
“I think the biggest thing for July is for all of our athletes really just maintaining and going and being kids,” he said. “Being a kid is enjoying your summer, your time off, but really it’s about not losing what you have because we’ll ramp those kids back up come August. But if you’re ramping them up from an empty gas tank, it’s a little bit harder than from about midway. So we want those kids to maintain and to be there so we know everything’s going well with them, to be around their teammates to work out together, and really to then just go be kids and enjoy your summer. But if you’re gone that entire time and there’s nothing there, you’re having to put an entire tank of gas back in that thing and that’s not as easy to get them back to top speed.”
CAPTION: Cooper Evans performs a deadlift.
