For the typical student around the U.S., summer is a nice break from school and everything else in the world. But for a high school athlete, summer is a constant grind of practices, lifting, and games to improve your ability in a certain sport.

Almost every sport at Greeley West has some sort of summer activity. The basketball team practices or lifts almost every day and competes in tournaments on the weekends. The tennis team has practices twice a week and plays matches on Monday. The baseball team competes in the Legion A elite league and usually ends up playing more than 40 games throughout the summer. The list goes on and on with activities that the sports team put on during the summer.

Next weekend, the football team will join a seven other schools at the UNC football camp after two-a-day practices. The volleyball team has already begun its offseason workouts with open gyms.  Finally, the cross country team will begin training on June 1.

“Summer is a very important time to me because it gives me the best chance to improve because you gain consistency. With summer games every day for baseball I get the chance to work out of slumps and improve every day,” said junior Trey Flores.

For some teams, summer games and practices are like a tryout before the school season.  When you participate in summer sports, it gives the coaches more time to evaluate your skills and if you have a rough day at tryouts, the coaches already know your skill set.

Participating in summer sports can be a major key to having success in high school sports.  Find your sport’s coaches to make sure you’re caught up on the offseason schedule.