Women’s lacrosse to begin new training
The 2015 season is going to be different for the women’s lacrosse team at Utah State University.
The club ended fall practices on Nov. 17, due to the early snowfall and cold weather.
“The snow really creates a problem for us,” said Emily Krupa, a sophomore midfielder for Utah State. “We usually practice on the Legacy Fields, but once it snows, we can’t practice there anymore.”
According to Krupa, the cold and snow will continue to be an issue for the team in the spring. She said the team is forced to practice on asphalt, in the George Nelson Fieldhouse or rent the Stan Laub Building, which costs $90 per hour.
Come spring semester, the Aggies will be starting a new training regimen just for lacrosse instead of having the captains run training.
“We’re going to be in a lot better shape in the spring,” said Weslie Hatch, a midfielder and one of the captains for Utah State. “Once we’re on the field, stick skills and playing as a team will come so much faster.”
In the spring the Aggies will condition indoors with trainers who teach the CrossFit program at the university. They will meet at least two times a week and focus on four categories. The team will train specifically for strength and agility as well as speed and endurance.
“We’ll have trainers instead of being in charge of it ourselves,” said Kaitlin Peterson, a captain for USU. “It should be more disciplined and give us an advantage once we’re out on the field.”
According to Hatch, the idea came from the CrossFit instructors.
“I was in CrossFit, and the trainers said they wanted to work more with club sports,” she said. “Coach didn’t think CrossFit would be the right program for the team, so the instructors came up with a separate program for us.”
The new program will be more physically demanding than what the players have done in the past, but they are expecting it to pay off.
“All the suffering and getting stronger will be together,” Hatch said. “So much growing together off the field will make us better on the field.”
— kalen.s.taylor@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @kalen_taylor