Practice During Break

‘Tis the season to extra practice

With everyone at home enjoying family time, FHS winter athletes are hard at work

David Jacobs jacobdav000@hsestudents.org

While most students are enjoying their much deserved break aft er a rigorous fi nals week, winter athletes will be competing and practicing throughout the hiatus. Senior swimmer and Purdue commit Kate Mouser, who has been swimming for about 12 years, already has quite the busy schedule with nine practices that add up to 20 hours a week. Mouser swims in the morning before school on Monday, Friday and Saturday, while also having dry-land conditioning Tuesday and Th ursday, on top of having aft ernoon practice fi ve days a week. “We use the gym and weight room during dry-land,” said Mouser. “We focus on building core, back, leg and chest muscles without doing a lot of lift ing. It is a way for us to strengthen our muscles without being in the water.” According to junior basketball player Grant Haworth, fundamentals and conditioning are the focus for third year head coach Garrett Winegar’s practice schedule. “We start off with off ensive drills, defensive drills and get shots up,” said Haworth. “We do denial drills before we scrimmage and go through our off ensive sets. We do lots of sprints and competitions as well.” Th is practice schedule has seemed to work well for the young coach as he boasts a 84% combined win percentage as head and assistant coach which includes back to back Hoosier Crossroads Conference Championships in his fi rst two seasons at FHS. “We play a tournament every year that we have to prepare for,” said Haworth. “Th e practices will normally run a little longer and we are expected to watch more fi lm since we have no school.” Th e Homestead Holiday Tournament, an annual tournament held at Homestead High School, saw the team go undefeated last year. It consists of four games against Mishawaka Marian, Valparaiso and Bishop Dwenger with the fourth opponent to be determined between Dec. 28 and 29. Freshman wrestler Walid Oumammar and the rest of his team will also be preparing for a tournament of their own, the Spartan Classic in Connersville on Dec. 29 and 30. “With Th anksgiving break, we only had one day off ,” said Oumammar. “So, that gives me an idea of what it will look like for winter break. It is going to

Junior Forward/Center. Grant Haworth, poses during the basketball media day photoshoot. Photo courtesy of Grant Haworth.

Christmas list graphic made by David Jacobs.

be a struggle with no school and just practice, but we will get that extra work in.” The extra work that was implemented into the practice structure by fifth year head coach Frank Ingalls has seemed to work well so far. The wrestling team has surrendered just 42 points through two meets and have put up 115 points of their own for an average team margin of victory of 36.5 on their way to a 2-0 start. Although they do not partake in any winter tournaments like basketball and wrestling, the swim team amps up their practice intensity heavily. “During winter break, our practice hours will most likely stay the same, if anything they might become longer,” said Mouser. “Winter training is really hard though, we switch the pool to the long course and our workouts are very challenging.” The standard 25 meter/82 foot pool converting to a 50 meter/164 foot pool could put quite the mental toll on any swimmer. However, this adaptation to winter practices has led to a 36 girls meet win streak that dates back to the 2015-16 season and includes six straight girls conference championships. “The long course helps me mentally,” said Mouser. “I gain confidence from the tough practices and end up feeling more prepared for the meets I have after the new year.”

Freshman wrestler, Walid Oumammar, gets the pin in his JV opener vs Noblesville on Nov. 16. Photo by David Jacobs.

Senior swimmer, Kate Mouser, breaks through the surface of the water during a 100m freestyle race. Photo courtesy of Kate Mouser.