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H.S. SPORTS: Local teams working against heat, time crunch


All last week, the area's football teams were acclimating to the heat before the official start of fall practice.

But the other sports teams didn't have that luxury. They had to wait until Monday to take the fields and courts, and boy, did they feel the heat.

"Hmm, how was the first day of practice? You mean, besides hot, hot, hot?" Forbes Road field hockey coach Carol Cline said. "Monday was the worst, but I think I actually minded the heat more (on Tuesday). We're doing all of the precautionary things as far as staying hydrated and seeking shade when we can."

The Cardinals had one thing working to their advantage – the area's District 5 schools don't start school until Aug. 24, so they weren't as strapped for time. That allowed Forbes Road to start practice early in the morning, but even by 10 a.m., Cline said it was hotter than 90 degrees on Monday in Hustontown.

Some teams don't have to deal with the heat, but Chambersburg's volleyball team had other things to worry about. The Trojans, along with Shippensburg and Waynesboro, began school on Wednesday, giving them only two full days of practice. They also selected their final rosters after just the second day.

"It's an adjustment for everybody because we're used to having about two weeks of preseason before school starts," Chambersburg coach Ty Frelin said. "Now you have to try to condense as much as you can into a couple of days, in addition to picking your team."

Frelin said the team was in the gym for nearly six hours on both Monday and Tuesday.

The local tennis teams are also in a time crunch, as they start matches as early as Aug. 25, and they also had to deal with the heat factor.

"The first day was really hot – I think there's still heat coming off my legs," James Buchanan girls tennis coach Terri Beegle said. "Most of the summer, it was OK, and then the first day of practice, it cranked up the heat. I let the girls take water breaks whenever they wanted to, but I didn't see anybody hanging around the cooler."

The Rockets had 21 girls come out for the team, which Beegle called "unusually high." There are eight returners.

Another team with high numbers was Greencastle-Antrim's girls soccer team. Thirty Blue Devils joined the team, including 10 seniors and 16 freshmen. Greencastle is coming off a 2014 season in which it won its first District 3 Class AAA championship, but most of that squad returns.

"Success is a double-edged sword," Blue Devil girls coach Greg Cole said. "It could go two ways for us – we could ride the train and think we don't have to work as hard, but I would hope our girls are smarter than that."

Six of the 10 seniors will be in the starting lineup, and Greencastle has spent the first week getting its large freshman class ready to play at the varsity level.

"We call it 1,000 touches," Cole said. "Whatever it takes, we have to get 1,000 touches in, so we have to do a lot of small ball work. With the exception of Ship and JB, we'll be playing mostly on turf, which our 16 freshman are not used to. We're keeping it to small, quick movements for now."

Greg Best has been taking the same strategy with his Fannett-Metal soccer team. The Tigers have 27 on the roster, including three females.

"We start off with a lot of conditioning and sticking to the fundamentals," Best said. "After Week 1, we'll start to work more on our style of play, but for now, we're sticking to the basics."