{"id":9892,"date":"2014-10-27T11:34:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T16:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=9892"},"modified":"2014-10-27T11:34:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T16:34:45","slug":"phs-athletes-compete-on-a-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=9892","title":{"rendered":"PHS Athletes Compete on a Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Plymouth High School football team, ‘The Rockies,’ play against Warsaw Community High School’s football team. On September 5, 2014, The Rockies won 41 to 6. Photo by Jordan Kelly<\/p><\/div>\n

By Emory Smith<\/em><\/p>\n

Athletes at PHS have earned an excellent reputation by working hard before, during, and after competitions.<\/p>\n

The actions completed the night before a competition are consequential. Sophomore Cross Country Runner Jordan Morrow said, \u201cThe night before we might have a team dinner.\u201d Fellow teammate, Senior Kennedy Schnieders elaborated, \u201cI make sure to get a lot of rest and eat a good dinner. It is important to keep your body in good health in order to perform. Usually on the night before a big meet the whole team has a pasta dinner to carbo-load and relax.\u201d Senior Football Player Jacob Lafree said, \u201cI get some sleep, eat some carbs, drink some water, get off my feet. That just helps you rest up and have your body be at its full potential. The football team has a walk through practice to nail some final things down and to build up confidence, then we go get the job done.\u201d Junior Tennis Player Nate Knapp advises other athletes to \u201calways drink a lot of water and make sure you eat right, and get the right amount of sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

As these athletes have mentioned, tailoring your food intake goes hand-in-hand with competition. Sophomore Cross Country Runner Alex Rostron said, \u201cI eat pasta which makes me run fasta.\u201d Knapp said he eats \u201cveggies…noodles or starches.\u201d Lafree said, \u201c[I eat] some carbs and protein to put my body in peak physical condition.\u201d Schnieders said, \u201cI usually have pasta and fruit the night before. Healthy foods and foods heavy in carbohydrates are key sources of energy for your body during a run. During the day of a meet, I try to eat a large breakfast so that I have enough energy to run well.\u201d \u00a0Athletes\u2019 diets play a central role in their competition days.<\/p>\n

Right before their competition, whether that be a race, game, meet, or match, PHS athletes have their own rituals. Morrow said, \u201cWe think about how much running stinks, and then we stretch. Sometimes we use el ba\u00f1o.\u201d Rostron said, \u201cI put on my lucky purple socks and I drink a Red Bull.\u201d Knapp said, \u201c[I try to] focus and usually eat something small. I try to drink a lot of water and a Gatorade.\u201d Lafree also prioritizes becoming \u201cmentally prepared.\u201d Schneiders said, \u201cJust prior to running a race, our team first goes for a warmup run and then goes through our calisthenics routine, which is meant to stretch out our legs and prepare us to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Plymouth<\/a>

Plymouth’s boys cross country team relaxes after running at Regionals. For most of the team, this was their last race of the season. Photo contributed by Zaccheus Hutchings.<\/p><\/div>\n

After all of the practicing, thinking, and rituals, the thoughts that race through an athlete\u2019s mind can shape their performance. Morrow said that he thinks about how he \u201cjust hates running.\u201d Along the same lines, Rostron said, \u201cI think about how much I want to stop running.\u201d On a positive hand, Knapp said that he \u201cthinks about winning.\u201d Instead of himself, Lafree has an artist\u2019s work in his head. He said, \u201cI have Epic Sax Guy playing on loop in my head, it gets me in a nice groove.\u201d Schnieders said, \u201cWhile running I try to focus on what I visualized myself accomplishing during the race. This helps me keep myself internally motivated and prepared for how I must react to what other runners do during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the competition, a number of athletes seem to shut down while others do not. Morrow and Rostron are in the first camp. Morrow joked, \u201c[I] go jump into traffic because we all just figured out running stinks.\u201d Rostron said, \u201cI contemplate getting a permanent wheelchair.\u201d However, Knapp said, \u201c[I] make sure I replenish what I lost in the match, like sodium and water, and we all do the same usually.\u201d Lafree said, \u201cWe celebrate a good win and go get some sleep.\u201d Schnieders said, \u201cPost-race, our team goes for a cool down jog to get the lactic acid out of our muscles and alleviate any soreness.\u201d<\/p>\n

From eating, to thinking, to warming up, athletes at PHS conduct themselves with purpose to succeed on competition days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emory Smith Athletes at PHS have earned an excellent reputation by working hard before, during, and after competitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":9969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-9892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-school-news","tag-october-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9892"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10012,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9892\/revisions\/10012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}