5:30 am– The sky is pitch black and the air is cold and silent. The streets are empty, and the only living things in sight are deer and raccoons that scurry away the moment headlights reflect in their eyes.  The only light to be seen is from the moon, and from the clunky glass windows of the natatorium as the athletes slide into the icy water of the outdoor pool. 

High school morning practice is something almost every student-athlete has to do from the time they’re freshman to when they graduate. Most would say they dread it, but some rare individuals find a sense of enjoyment in a morning workout. However, regardless of their feelings, those early practices are key to their success.

Freshman, Camille Kamradt, gave some insight as to what a typical morning practice looks like for her and the Girls’ Water Polo team. 

“Usually for the field players, we do a lot of swim sets, and the goalies get their own lane to do treading and stuff,” said Kamradt. 

As a freshman, mornings can be very hard, especially when it involves getting in a cold pool. 

“I dreaded it a little bit, but after the first one you get into a routine,” Kamradt said. “It’s still sometimes hard to get up in the mornings, and that really affects how practice feels that day.”

The more time athletes have to adjust to the grueling routine, the easier it gets.

”I mean, nobody really wants to get up in the mornings,” explains Sophia Hoffman a junior. “ I feel like without it we wouldn’t be half as good as we are in both sports, and you feel better about yourself after doing it.”

Some sports at TWHS don’t have any morning workouts, some lift, and some run, but no matter what they do to improve, it is always a hard process. Despite that, the work is worth the reward of success at the end of the season.

“If you want to be the best, then you have to put in the extra work, and winning at the end of the season makes everything feel so much better,” said Hoffman.