Conditioning break planned next week
By Donnie A. Lucas
Albany youth who have been participating in summer conditioning will get a week’s break from the training during the week of July 6-9.
Two of the days next week were already desig-nated as “periods of no activity” by the UIL, so local coaches opted to give students in 7-12 a full week off.
“Originally, we said that just the girls would be off the entire week, but now the boys are included,” athletic director Ryder Peacock said. “We will use the time to do some deep cleaning in the weight room, plus we have been going four weeks, and the kids could use a little break.”
The daily sessions will also be halted two weeks later on July 20-23, also because of a couple of blackout dates.
The girls program had already announced that no conditioning would be conducted July 20-23, while the boys would only be off July 20-21.
“The boys coaches will be at coaching school during three days that week, so I think everyone will just take off the entire period,” Peacock said.
The conditioning and sport specific training is typically limited to six weeks during the summer by the UIL, but this summer the time was extended through the first day of two-a-days on Monday, Aug. 3 due to closures because of the COVID-19 virus.
Athletes entering grades 7-12 in August have met for morning strength and conditioning sessions, with afternoon sport specific workouts available on various days according to the sport.
Boys are reporting for workouts from 7:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. on Monday through Thursdays, while sessions for girls are held from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., also on Monday through Thursday mornings.
On the girls side, coach M.J. Reneau reported 20 local girls participating on Monday this week, down a little from the first week.
About 40 boys have been showing up daily for the strength and conditioning sessions.
In addition to conditioning, athletes are allowed to engage in a limited amount of sport-specific training.
The boys are practicing individual skills specific to football on Monday and Wednesday afternoons at 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
The girls finished up an hour of basketball skills on Tuesday, but volleyball sessions will continue at 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
“We have been having about 30 girls show up for volleyball instruction,” Reneau said. “Our numbers are up from last year, and the girls really seem excited about the season.”
The coach said she will hand out registration forms to the Lady Lions team volleyball team camp, which limited to girls in grades 9-12 who plan on playing volleyball in the fall.
The volleyball sessions will be held on Thursday, July 2 and again on July 9, despite the morning session not being scheduled for that date.
The boys will continue to meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. for football training after next week’s off dates. The sport specific training will be held on July 13 and 15 and July 27 and 29.
