The work begins long before the season does.

For athletes at Hershey High School, the fall sports season begins with the preseason. Filled with hours of training, coaches whip their athletes in “game shape” during the fall preseason.

Sophomore Katie Cocco, varsity soccer player, said preseason is a very challenging and tiring two weeks but is also beneficial.

For the girls soccer team the preseason was a dramatic change from what the rest of the summer was like, said Cocco.  The team practiced twice a day for two hours each. Morning practices were primarily conditioning with lots of running, and the second practice was to hone the player’s skills with ballwork.

“One of the hardest things we did was the running workouts. They were early in the morning. Since it was still summer, it felt even harder,” Cocco said.

According to girls volleyball coach John Zitko, practices during preseason include more strength and conditioning, whereas regular season practices have a heavy focus on strength. Additionally, Zitko states that doing more conditioning during the summer is crucial since athletes need to get back into shape after a long summer off.

Getting back into shape is one of the benefits to preseason, according to Cocco.

“Everyday was a new workout. The start of preseason is not too bad, but towards the middle the workouts start to get really challenging,” Cocco said, “It is all worth it in the end.”

While Cocco acknowledged the benefits of preseason her teammate, Lynnae Shultz, disagrees. She thinks that preseason is a pointless thing and is not necessary for fall sport athletes.

Shultz said preseason was of little value because it was very strenuous on the body. With practices twice a day after doing a summer of nothing, she said her muscles just got worn out and fatigued. Although some parts of it are beneficial, such as ballwork and scrimmages, the two a day practices and unreasonably hard work does not make a difference in the regular season, she said.

“The point of preseason is to get us back into shape, but you can’t get in shape in just two weeks,” Shultz said.

Carter Christopher, an HHS varsity football player, agrees with Shultz that you can’t get back into shape in just two weeks. Christopher said that for football players, you have things to do all summer long to keep you in shape, not just the two weeks before school starts. They have to go through many weeks of strength training in preparation for the upcoming season.

“Other sports must think they are superstars if they think they can get back into shape in just two weeks.” Christopher said.