By: Terrence Carter & Brooks Blackburn

While in college, students always wonder what student athletes do during their offseason. Do they train all offseason? Do they just worry about classes and forget about their sport? While students think many things about athletes and their offseason, the athletes are actually training hard.

For Bradley University’s men’s soccer team, there are a lot of things that each member does in their offseason. Some of them get regular jobs to earn some money and some get internships to better their chances of getting a job after school. A few of them also play on semi pro soccer teams. This helps them stay in shape and help them perfect their craft for the next season. Although they do all these things, they also have a to really crack down on school work. Trying to balance all of things during the offseason can be hard, but they also have a stipulation they must follow from their coach. According to Jha’lon Johnson, a senior forward on the soccer team, “Our coach gives us offseason workouts to do over the summer”. These workouts require them to workout at least four to five times a week. With these assigned workouts, some also do personal workout sessions to focus on certain things they want to improve on. While the workouts can be intense sometimes, they’re usually light work and not as hard as practices during the season. While the offseason is light, the hard part is the possible shift in team culture.

Team culture for college teams is something that is always changing. New guys coming such as freshman or transfers from different colleges are a struggle sometimes. According to Walid Kherat, a senior defender, “The team does its best to just smoothly integrate the newcomer into our team as quickly as possible”. The team will use practices to help, but they also do stuff off the field to get closer. They have team bonding times for just the players like going to different events or just simply hanging out with each other on campus. With offseason being so long, the team also uses this time to focus on certain things to get better for next season.

Bradley’s soccer team record wasn’t the best last season. Their record was 8-5-4. They lacked in certain areas of the game like their physicality and organization on the field. Jha’lon Johnson say, “we have been more focused in the weight room to try and improve our strength and have been more focused on video to be more organized and see where problems may have arisen”. Teams were much more physical than them and the team got worn out toward the end of the season. With them hitting the weight room, they are hoping that they can all become more physically stronger and transition it to the field. Their video film sessions have helped them identify some key components they lacked with their organization and team chemistry on the field. While their offseason is long and busy, they are hoping that these workouts and team video sessions will help them get better for next season.