Monday, August 24, 1998
Bruins shape up to begin season
TEAMS: Summer practice for fall sports athletes includes everything from hard workouts to camping trips
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
Before a season can begin, there has to be practice. For the fall sports at UCLA, preparation for the upcoming season has begun.
Most athletes keep in shape with their own conditioning drills for the summer, but the serious workouts begin about three weeks before the season opener.
Because of the difference in academic schedules of UCLA's quarter system and most other schools' semester system, student athletes often start full-scale practices two months before they will take their first class.
Football's preseason training kicked off Saturday while the men's water polo team starts today. Athletes of other sports have been training for a week or two.
For the ones whose season's started earlier, it's been a lot of drilling, weightlifting and overdosing of sun.
"We're pushing every practice to get to the next level," UCLA senior soccer player Louise Lieberman said.
Both the men's and women's soccer teams started practicing Aug. 15 and spent four hours on the field plus weight training each day.
"It gets tough after awhile because our bodies don't get much rest," said Lieberman, "It's every day, twice a day, and we only get one day off a week."
Fresh is the theme for women's soccer this season. The team has a new head coach, Todd Saldana, and a handful of freshmen. Everyone got together for the first time for summer practice and had a taste of the team's freshness.
"Because there are a lot of new people, we're working on getting everyone involved and keeping the confidence level high," sophomore Karissa Hampton said, "Our coach isn't putting too much work on us. It's just right as far as what he demands of us on the field."
For those that followed the recommended individual workouts during off-season, summer training can be a whole lot easier. For those who haven't, it's another story.
"Their attitude when coming back depends on how much work they've done during the summer," said UCLA men's cross country head coach Bob Larsen, "If they worked out hard they're anxious to get going. And they kind of want to punish those guys who didn't do a lot of work by running a little harder."
The men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Mammoth Tuesday for their annual training camp. For 10 days, they'll train double days in an altitude which makes breathing, let alone running, more difficult.
"Camp is one of their hardest times," Larsen said, "They'll challenge themselves pretty well up there with the high volume, pretty high intensity training."
Workouts may be challenging, but that's exactly how the athletes like it, according to the women's cross country head coach Eric Peterson.
"They love to run like that," Peterson said, "When you sit them down and ask them two or three things they aren't going to miss during the day, one will be running. It's exhausting, but it's also rewarding."
The cross country teams aren't the only ones going to camp. In fact, the women's volleyball team already went camping on a Malibu ranch two weekends ago, not necessarily to train but to build team spirit and unity.
"We went rock climbing, horseback riding and slept under the stars," incoming freshman Angela Eckmier said, "We all came back more fired up and together since that weekend. You think you know everyone by looks but that weekend, we got to see everyone's heart."
With about half the team being freshmen and practically no seniority, the women's volleyball team, similar to the women's soccer team, is emphasizing building and bonding as well as all the technicality of training.
Head coach Andy Banachowski remembers the when the team first got together to train - freshmen and all.
"There was a lot of nervousness and enthusiasm because it was all new to the freshmen and they didn't know what was going on," Banachowski said, "It was actually a refreshing start to see all the new faces in the gym. Now they all are working really well together."
Every team starts with a clean slate, and all are anticipating a great season as they start preseason practice. Even as training gets tougher, these enthusiastic athletes come back for more.JUSTIN WARREN
Karissa Hampton (left) and Larisa Kiremidjian practice on the IM field this summer.