Spring sports season has quickly descended upon Rockhurst, with six teams now practicing in earnest. Between baseball, golf, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and lacrosse, more Hawklet teams compete in spring than any other season. The beginning of springtime athletics is preceded by weeks of preseason training, speculation among friends, and bubbling excitement for the pursuit of state and city titles. Then, a week before practices, Feb. 24 through March 2, it grinds to a screeching halt.
This is dead week: a nine-day cease in athlete access to school coaches, facilities, and organized practices mandated by the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA). It’s intended to give athletes a break before they jump into a season full of practices and competitions.
With several coaches providing extensive support to their out-of-season athletes, such as weight plans and informal practices, dead week also provides a unique opportunity for players to be responsible for their own work.
For a majority of spring athletes, dead week was exactly that: dead. Golf, tennis, volleyball and baseball athletes reported an absence of team activity during the dead period.
The lack of team activities didn’t necessarily mean guys weren’t working, however. Junior baseball player Quinn Condon, in the absence of B-day morning practices, made use of his club facility to lift, take batting practice and throw bullpen sessions.
“We’re working,” Condon, whose club team features a host of other Rockhurst juniors, said.
Like Condon, other athletes, such as junior volleyball player Declan Deady, looked outside of their team for dead week preparation. Deady told Prep News that he and most of the other players simply lifted and hit on their own.
Golf and tennis players were also largely left to their own devices, working at various tennis facilities and golf courses throughout the Kansas City region.
On the other end of the spectrum, track and field athletes remained largely organized throughout dead week. Senior sprinter Brayden Worstell was encouraged by one of the coaches, Ryan McAnany, to lead underclassmen through dead week workouts. This included everything from sprint intervals to weights.
“As a senior, it’s kind of an expectation I’ve had that’s been instilled for me by the coaches,” Worstell said. “So, I kind of knew that it was my job now to help the younger classmen like I was helped from the older classmen when I was young.”
The track team’s distance squad also met daily off-campus to put in the miles. Led by seniors Henry Acorn, Kai Somasegaran and Zack Zumwalt, the distance contingent, who have been meeting nearly every day since December, barely skipped a beat.
Worstell believes the dead week training will be beneficial for the team’s wide variety of athletes as they transition into regular season practices.
“The dead week training helped, and you can kind of see the people who did not show up on dead week to train with us,” Worstell said. “They’re not super behind, but they are behind in the sense that they don’t have as much routine since they didn’t get that extra work in.”
Only one of Rockhurst’s spring sports, lacrosse, is not sponsored by MSHSAA, and does not have to observe dead week. While other sports were forced to sever athlete-coach contact, the defending city champions had cleats on the turf. Tryouts ran from Monday through Thursday of the dead period. By the time other teams could begin their tryouts, lax rosters had already been set.
With dead week now passed, athletes can now fully embrace the grind of spring sports, as the fourth and final quarter of the academic year draws near. Those interested in watching the Hawklets’ hard work pay off can find schedules at GoHawklets.com.
