OPINION

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By Izzy Lee

At Collegiate, student athletes begin their spring season two weeks before spring break and then halt their progress to leave for spring break, which typically falls during the first full week of March. According to the 2022-2023 Collegiate Family Handbook, specific spring varsity teams have a total of five days where they can have practice at the beginning or end of the break, while other teams take the full 11 days off. This spring, girls and boys lacrosse, baseball, and softball shortened spring break to hold practices and games. Meanwhile, other spring sports, like golf, girls soccer, and track, take the entirety of the break off. Even though it is impossible to please every athlete and coach, the topic of coming home early from spring break elicits a variety of opinions. 

As a player on the girls varsity lacrosse team and a friend of people on other teams, I hear various opinions. Athletes who want to enjoy their break don’t want to come home early. If practices have to happen over spring break, one suggestion is that the practices happen at the beginning of the break, rather than the end, which is common now. Another suggestion would even be to start the spring season completely after the break, so you don’t have an awkward break in the middle of the preseason.

Athletic Director Andrew Stanley says spring break practices have been an ongoing discussion for many years. It is up to the coach and the team’s “needs and desires” to play in competitions over the break, and the coaches of spring teams decide if they hold practices or competitions over break. Stanley emphasizes that spring break practices are “optional, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t important.” Specific teams—lacrosse, baseball, and softball—have created the expectation, historically, that every player should be in attendance. 

When asked why we don’t start the spring season after spring break, Stanley responded that “spring season is already one of the shortest seasons of the year, and we want to be competitive and earn seeding within league and state tournaments.”

The girls lacrosse team returned on Thursday, March 9, after being released for spring break the previous Friday, March 3. We were given a total of seven days of break away from school and lacrosse, which was generous compared to previous years on the team. Over the course of those seven days, we had to maintain our fitness and compete in a workout challenge against our coaches. Our coaches created this challenge, as we were expected to exercise over our vacation so we didn’t lose the fitness progress we made before the break. When we returned, we participated in two-a-day practices on March 9 and 10 to prepare for our Saturday tournament on March 11. We even had retired Navy Seal Team members train with us on one of our two-a-day practices to build endurance and strengthen team bonds. 

I personally love having practices over spring break. Although I may be biased, as my life practically revolves around sports, and I thrive off of having a strict schedule. I believe having practices over break avoids the possibility of losing team progress. I find spending the majority of my day with my teammates and going through mentally tough practices brings us closer as a group and creates a winning mentality.

Claiborne Dillard (‘23), a member of the girls’ lacrosse team, believes the current protocol for coming back early should remain the same: “Although it is tough to return from vacation early, it would be hard to take so many days off and still expect to play at the team’s full potential. I definitely think players should have at least five days of break, but they could be required to come back for the second half of spring break.” Some of the players on the girls lacrosse team agree with her opinion, as it would be even harder to come back to the sport with such an extensive break. 

Savannah Clarke, a new addition to the girls lacrosse team coaching staff, states, ”As a former athlete, I understand that we have the urge to get a ‘break’ from the constant grind of practices and school. However, as bad as we might want that time away, it is only going to hurt the team’s progress in the long run.” She believes taking that long break is detrimental to a sport like lacrosse, as stick skills and fitness are essential to a team’s success. It’s the same concept for team chemistry. After not working together on the field for a certain period of time, you go back to square one of being a team that just started playing together. Clarke is confident that “In the bigger picture, coming back from break a few days early will help us stand apart from other teams down the road.“ Other teams don’t get the same opportunity to come back together earlier in the break and are forced to take the time off. 

Depending on the sport, each team has a different date they need to return by. For example, the Collegiate varsity baseball team returned a day earlier than us, on March 8, to start practices. Varsity catcher Will Slater (‘24), says, “I actually enjoy it, because I’m more of a homebody, and I enjoy routine and am ready to start playing games.” The boys lacrosse team restarted practices earlier than any other sport, on Tuesday, March 7, with only four days off. The early return was in preparation for their first scrimmage on that Thursday, March 9. 

Stanley explained that it is a coaches’ decision not to have practices during the break, and that the decision is sports-dependent. Golf, for example, does not have two matches a week, and the track team has fewer meets than other teams have games, so their seasons can sacrifice an 11-day break and still have a certain amount of competitions. 

Featured image courtesy of Collegiate School.