With spring sports being cancelled and school switching to online learning in March, many students have not been able to get the amount of exercise they need to stay in shape. To help with this issue, the girls soccer team has been completing a series of exercises each day for the last two weeks. Coach Nicole Gorry uploaded a list of exercises for the JV and Varsity teams to complete on Google Classroom.

“The workouts were very well explained and easy to follow but they still challenged me,” senior Laurel Welch said. “They were very helpful and covered just about everything, but I mainly focused on the core exercises.”

Gyms and other sports complexes have closed because of the virus, but most parks have remained open and some workouts can be done from home. However many people find it difficult to have the motivation to get up and exercise. 

“The only downside to doing these exercises is that they have to be done at home and it can be hard to stay focused and have the motivation to do them,” Welch said. “Most of the time I would find myself sitting and doing something unproductive, like watching TV, and I would think about how I would rather spend my day doing something beneficial. This mindset is what helped me get up and complete the exercises, and it even helped me get other things done, like schoolwork.”

The exercises aimed to help the players work on improving their skills, so some of the exercises used a soccer ball and others just focused on building muscle.

“Soccer is about speed, balance, strength and ball handling,” junior Alyssa Price said. “All of the workouts worked hand in hand with one another. They aren’t the same as playing soccer, but they did help me get back in shape.”

The cancellation of spring sports left many student-athletes disappointed, but the soccer team is hoping to come back next year stronger and better. These exercises are just the first step towards making that happen.

By: Audrey Hood, Westwind Staff