As the new year approaches LTHS Football is deep into off season. The Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Freshman Teams are all working on their strength and conditioning. The football players split into two teams during the first day of off season in November based on their maxes for different types of weight lifting.

The Gold Team is compiled of mostly younger players, and they lift a little less weight as compared to the Green Team. The Green Team lifts a bit more, and is made up of most of the older players. The teams do a variety of different exercises, but their weekly schedule is different and they do different activities on different days.

 There are types of days they shuffle through. They use a variety of weights, doing squats or bench press in the weight room and power clean and deadlift in the turf room. On Fridays, both Gold and Green Team have competition day, where they play games and make teams to work out and practice as a group.

One of the specific activities they do is called a ‘Gut Check’, where the players take one lap around the track. The lap is timed, and they have to sprint the entire time. The teams do this every day except Friday.

On Fridays, one of the games they play is called ‘Who You With’. The players randomly choose sides, and then are told to play a game of some type. The losing team does sprints, and they usually play about five different games in a session.

Occasionally, as a punishment, the coaches assigns the players a number of frog jumps, which exercise multiple muscles at once.

The players don’t touch a football or run plays until April. This is also when scouts from college come to watch promising players to see if they want to give them scholarships.

The off season is a stressful but promising time for the players, where they work on the strength they’ll need for the rest of the season.

“It’s painful,” Says Chase Montelongo, a member of the Green Team, “but it’s needed for us to get better as teammates and people.”