AUGUSTA — The scene was one of organized chaos for the first day of spring sports at Cony High School. And thanks to the rain that arrived early Monday afternoon, it echoed in school gymnasiums, hallways, locker and weight rooms across central Maine.
While the girls lacrosse team gathered around coach Gretchen Livingston in the gym, track and field prospects sat around coach Jon Millett and his assistant coaches, Shawn Totman and Bruce Cooper, as they wrapped up their team’s first practice in the hallway outside. A few feet from them, members of the softball coaching staff waited outside the gym for the girls lacrosse team to exit and move their practice into the hallway, while members of the boys lacrosse team milled about waiting for coach Chad Foye to arrive and start handing out equipment.
Within minutes, girls lacrosse left the gym and broke up into groups by class, with one group sliding seamlessly into the space vacated by the track team to start leg exercises as the softball team filed into the gym and more boys lacrosse players joined the scrum. Through some doors and down a corridors leading to the locker and weight rooms, another group of girls lacrosse players worked on rope ladder footwork drills while a line formed outside of an office where Livingston was handing out equipment to her players.
The commotion continued well after sunset, with the baseball team eventually trickling in to fill in any openings left once the girls lacrosse team wrapped up its session.
“This is year 11, so yeah, we’re used to it,” Livingston said between drills as new assistant coach Cassie Diplock, who played four years for Livingston and at St. Joseph’s College, kept a close eye on the workout. “The girls have been great. We’ve got 36 players coming out, which is one of the largest numbers we’ve had. We’ve got a lot of young players that need to learn the ropes — 11 freshmen, 10 sophomores — and then eight seniors and seven juniors. Those two classes already know the drill, but getting everybody to work together as a group is what this is.”
With the Rams’ first play date scheduled for Saturday on the turf field at Morse High School, Livingston knew there was no time to waste, establishing “routines, expectations, and then defense, defense, defense.” Veterans such as goalie Lizzy Dennison and defender Abigail Silsby play an important role in getting everyone on the same page.
“We’re trying to get down the fundamentals and the stick work and start working on the team bond,” Dennison said.
“It’s really critical to our season to work on the fundamentals and getting back in shape,” Silsby said. “I’m excited to be in this position. Our team is looking really good.”
Track and field doesn’t require any defense, but Millett and his staff did talk routines and expectations to their athletes.
“The first day sets the tone for the entire season,” Millett said. “It’s arguably the most important day that we have all season.”
Among the points of emphasis — paying attention to and preparing for the weather. They warned that injuries are more likely in preseason, and athletes who aren’t dressed and equipped for the weather conditions put themselves at even greater risk.
“They know they have to be prepared for inside practice on the bad days and outside practice on the good days and to have the appropriate equipment with them. Staying warm is very important. Cold can cause injuries very quickly,” Millett said.
Baseball and softball got a head start on the other spring sports as pitchers and catchers started getting in shape last week, with full squad practices starting Monday. Regardless of the sport, though, coaches start the physical aspects of practice out slowly.
“Not everyone gets out and runs before the season starts,” said senior Andrew Levesque, a distance and relay runner for the Rams. “Today was just some light stretching and some dynamics stuff, followed by lifting.”
Millett told his athletes to anticipate being very sore for the next few days. Bryant York, a junior middle distance runner, hoped he mitigated the pain at least a little bit.
“Usually, what I do is just a couple of runs within a couple of days before so the shock of the running isn’t too bad,” he said.
The tedium of practicing indoors could get bad if the weather doesn’t cooperate much before April 14, when games, meets and tennis matches start to count. It just doesn’t feel like spring season until the spaces are wide open fields instead of confining corridors and gyms.
“For me, being a goalie, (being outside means) having the actual cage instead of a makeshift one,” Dennison said. “That just makes it more exciting because things start getting real.”
“That’s the hardest part about spring. We tend not to get on our field until April vacation or the week after, when the regular season starts,” Livingston said. “Thankfully, there isn’t any snow on the field, so hopefully we can move that up a couple of weeks?”
Like all spring sports coaches in Maine, Livingston’s optimism when it comes to the weather only goes so far.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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