While spring sports go through the growling four-month spring season. Fall sports have their own journey to go through during the spring season. Sports such as football, cross country and soccer deal with their own trials to go through to prepare for the fall season.
Recruiting is a big part of the spring season with coaches and assistant coaches traveling to scout players and having visits to Northwestern State University of Louisiana for a tour. With extra time, coaches can travel out of state where in comparison during the season it is mostly in-state athletes.
Women’s soccer head coach Ian Brophy explained how important recruiting is during the spring and how most of the time and his assistant coach spend on recruiting.
“Recruiting is big for us especially in the spring season, I know our assistant coach just got back from Texas recruiting and is getting ready to travel to Florida,” Brophy said. “I know for me traveling is a big thing at least before I was about to have a baby in a couple weeks.”
NSU football head coach Blaine McCorkle discussed how recruiting is not just important about getting players, but also getting the right players both on the field and off the field.
“We are aiming to recruit high IQ level kids to come into our program. Those kids know how to wake up, put their shoes on and work and really show what we are trying to do here,” McCorkle said.
One recurring topic the coaches emphasized is schoolwork and study habits. With the spring season rolling around, players have more time to study without the worry of upcoming games. The coaches are firm believers that the spring season helps student-athletes study and improve in classes.
“Spring is a good season for the players. I said that this is a 365 days a year job, but school and classes are part of that and with extra time our athletes can rest and go home and study more for classes,” coach Dillon Dawson, cross country head coach, said.
McCorkle believes that studying and classes are a factor in not only scouting but judging a player’s commitment to not only the team but for their education and life at NSU.
“Classes are important, and our staff make it known that we have a new study group system that is specific to each player and if a player doesn’t meet our GPA or our study habit standards, we just add more hours for them to study,” McCorkle said. “Our goal is to finish with a GPA of 3.0 and we believe that we have the system for that.”
Less travel in the spring season for the student athletes allows players to focus on some of the most important things like getting a degree and finishing college.
“You know with travel and not much practice it gives players extra time to study and to truly process the information they are getting in classes. Whereas during the season bus rides, staying in hotels and game prep can really drain a player on a day-to-day basis so the spring can be more relaxing for players,” Brophy said.
However, with more relaxing schedules also comes the counting of days players go through in anticipation of the upcoming fall season.
“It can be something that players think about but what makes cross country athletes special is that they are 3 peat athletes meaning some perform in spring tournaments as well so for them they can keep their minds off cross country for a while,” Dawson said.
Brophy shared how some players can show that trigger happy feeling players get when the season is coming up and talks about how sometimes it can be seen in spring practices.
“Yeah, sometimes you see that in our players, and you see energy levels dip in practice and it’s our job to remind players to have a good fall season you need to have good spring season in practices and in workouts so it our job as coaches to keep them focused and tunnel vision on our ultimate goal of winning a championship,” Brophy said.
With spring practices and workouts not taking the whole day for players, Coach Brophy said that some players spend their time bonding.
“You know with extra time you see players bond with team activities or even us a whole team going to hang out as not just players, but as true comrades and that chemistry is so important for the fall season,” Brophy said.
Studying, spring practices and workouts as well as recuperating and relaxing all come to play for fall sports. The steps and routines they implement now will allow athletes to transfer into a fall season mindset full of rush, adrenaline and commitment.
