Shoving his parkas and swim caps into the back of his closet, sophomore Jerrick Yong forgoes his gear as his offseason begins. Replacing hours of strenuous practices with hours of mobile games, Yong values his offseason as a time to de-stress.
One of the many beneficial factors of the offseason is that it allows athletes to maintain their state of mind.Yong said frequent practices during the swim season can leave him overwhelmed.
“So when the offseason comes, I like the time to de-stress and do things I like,” he said.
But for some athletes, the opposite is true. Kiara Fossati, who is a member of the girls freshman volleyball team, said the offseason leaves her longing for the game.
“I like going to tournaments and seeing my friends from old teams,” Fossati said. “And I think offseason is just when I don’t get to see them, so it’s not that fun for me.”
For others, like sophomore Luke Dymmel, a member of the boys varsity lacrosse team, offseason is the prime time for development. It’s a time to improve and train in order to get ahead of the competition.
“I listened to this book when I was about 9 or 10 (that) talked about separation season,” Dymmel said. “The best part is to get ahead of the competition. You just feel like you’re making so much more progress during the offseason.”
He said he spends his offseason devoted to lacrosse.
“I actually play for a travel team called ADVNC,” Dymmel said. “We go to Colorado, we go down south, (to) Southern California … We go just all over the place, and we play against other teams nationally. When I’m not doing that, I’m outside. I’m shooting around. I’m hitting the wall.”
Senior Dominic Hernandez, though, spends the offseason of one sport with a different Paly team.
“I’m a two sport athlete, so I do football and lacrosse,” Hernandez said. “During the football offseason, I’ll be doing lacrosse, which really helps me with football because it can get me faster (and) helps coordinate my eyes and my hands.”
Senior Marley Shumaker, who is on girls varsity volleyball, uses her off season to spend time on something she doesn’t have time for during the season.
“I’ll go around all of Palo Alto and even other cities just to try new food,” Shumaker said. “My favorite is any Asian cuisine. I absolutely love sushi.”
While she treats herself to food around the Bay Area, Shumaker also takes time to work out in order to stay in shape for the upcoming season.
“During the summer, I was definitely doing workouts every single day, every morning,” Shumaker said. “I think it’s really important to do some simple workouts to strengthen my legs because I’m a libero. My legs are very important. I want to get into doing more cardio, so (I can work) on my reaction time and agility.”
Sophomore Nico Resmini, a boys varsity volleyball player, also works out during his offseason.
“During the offseason, most of my free time is used for training, because you have to stay fit before the season.” Resmini said. “Especially for volleyball, I do lots of heavy lifting during the offseason. That’s when you build your strength in your muscles, and then during the season is when you build fast twitch in your muscles. So plyometrics and more exercise like that.”
Some athletes use their time to explore different facets of their sport. Fossati said she takes her time off to dive into beach volleyball.
“Beach (volleyball) is more for the side; I just do it for fun,” Fossati said. “I find a random beach partner, and then we play beach together. Even though we usually don’t win the beach tournaments, it’s still really fun.”
Resmini said he values this off period as a time to reflect and improve.
“I think the offseason is a time to reflect on who you are as an athlete and what makes you good at what you’re good at in your sport,” Resmini said. “Each athlete is different and unique and has their own skills in their sport, so if you can think about what those are, you can focus on those things and become even better at those things. (You can) focus on the things that you’re not so good at and start improving on those too.”