Pauls Valley —
The intensity is about to go way up for Pauls Valley's high school athletes thanks to a program meant to better prepare them for competitive sports and even life after athletics.
Although many of the guidelines are still coming together, a program on the starting line is focused on “athletic excellence” and changing the mindset of Panther athletes and the PV athletic program as a whole.
The way to do that is change the way things are done for the PV student-athletes in grade nine through 12 who choose to participate in competitive sports.
When not involved in a season for their chosen sports Panther athletes will take part in some much tougher training designed to better prepare them for that time when they do face an opponent on the field or court.
“We want to get the students enrolled in athletics to be better prepared to compete,” Superintendent Bobby Russell said.
“We have students good enough athletically to compete with anyone,” he said.
“What we want to enhance is that natural athletic ability and improve mental toughness so they can compete at the level of their natural abilities.”
The idea is fairly simple — when the student-athlete Panthers aren't in the middle of a competitive sports season they will be required to go through a regime of more intense offseason training with such activities as long distance running, lifting weights, agility training and swimming.
As an example athletes not involved in football, softball or cross country during the fall will participate in this offseason program overseen by coaches not involved in a sport at that time.
The training program will then transition in a similar way during the winter and spring sports seasons.
“It's no longer offseason. Everything's preseason,” Russell said.
“We no longer call it an offseason. Everything now is a preseason leading up to making you better until your season comes around,” he said.
“If you haven't completed your preseason in an efficient manner you may not be able to move forward with the season for your sport.”
According to Russell, the hope is the increased intensity will help with the students' work ethic not only in sports but any endeavor they choose to tackle.
Put simply the focus is to better prepare students for competitive sports and life after they take the athletic uniforms off.
“We want our athletes quicker, stronger, have better endurance and become mentally tough,” Russell said.
“We hope to build some pride and help these students be more successful in whatever sport they compete in.”
Although some parts of the program have already started, the superintendent said the overall guidelines of the program still being formulated by coaches and administrators.
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