College freshmen take it to the next level
High school over, top athletes push hard during summer to meet challenge
The summer before their freshman year of college is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for high school graduates. It can be a season of expectation and anxiety. For Framingham High School sports star Kristin Igoe, who graduated in the spring, there is a whole other level of challenge. Few incoming freshmen prepare for their college sports debut in quite the same way.
The former three-sport star runs sprints, lifts weights, performs agility drills, and works on her stick skills as a highly recruited lacrosse player. Her typical summer day is marked by physical challenge.
Igoe was the Globe's Division 1 Girls' Lacrosse Player of the Year this past spring, fueling the Framingham High Flyers' march to their second straight state title. She will attend Boston College on a full scholarship this fall. It's not that she can't relax during this, her final summer before college. It's just that she first has to work out at the most intense pace of her life for a good two hours a day, six days a week.
"It's difficult, but for me, it's all about self-motivation," said Igoe, who routinely trains indoors and out at Framingham High. "I don't want to go to [Boston College] and have the season start and be on the bench and regret not doing more to prepare. I want to give myself the best chance to play. To do that, you have to be motivated to be the best."
Igoe runs both long distances and shorter sprints. She performs bench presses and leg presses, lifts free weights, works on cable extensions and seated rows. She stretches.
All of this comes from the experience of her future coach at Boston College, Bowen Holden, who knows a little something about being in optimum shape to play a Division 1 college sport.
At the end of her high school season, Holden gave Igoe a lifting program. Guidelines for a running program followed earlier this month.
Igoe is not alone in experiencing the extra level of pressure. Denise Beliveau, her celebrated three-sport teammate at Framingham, is headed to the University of New Hampshire on a full basketball scholarship. Beliveau also has been in a rigorous training program all summer. Likewise for former Wayland High football standout Tony Torres, who is prepping for his freshman season at Northeastern University. And Algonquin Regional two-sport standout Dave Teggart, who will kick for the University of Connecticut football team this fall. All are preparing for life as a Division 1 college athlete.
Motivation is important, but so are commitment and discipline.
"When players first get to this level, things really change for them," said Northeastern University football coach Rocky Hager. "All of them, in high school, are probably the best at their position. Here, everyone else is just as good. That makes it so much more important for them to come in early on and be in great condition and be much improved strengthwise."
Igoe had never picked up a lacrosse stick prior to her freshman year at Framingham, but her work ethic as a soccer and basketball player was so apparent to Flyer lacrosse coach Stacey Freida, who referred to it as "unparalleled," that she was recruited to join the varsity squad. She had to work hard, as she had no background in the game. That experience should serve her well as she prepares for college competition.
"Kristin got to this point through her own personal will," said Freida, who has presided over two consecutive state titles and 50 straight wins with Igoe in her charge. This past spring, Igoe had 92 goals and 62 assists in Framingham's title run.
"She flourishes under pressure," Freida said. "Expectations are set for her and she crushes them. She understands the importance of hard work so well that I'm certain she will be able to overcome the challenge of preparing for the college game, just as she is able to overcome every other challenge placed in front of her."
Holden agrees, which is one of the reasons she not only recruited Igoe, but expects a great deal from her as a freshman. The second-year coach, who graduated from Georgetown in 2001 as a three-time All-American and still ranks second on the Hoyas' all-time saves list, experienced much, if not all, of what Igoe is going through.
Holden adapted the workout regimen employed by Igoe and other freshmen from a similar program she used at Georgetown, both as a player and later as an assistant coach. A freshman training routine is different from that issued to the upperclassmen, since freshmen have yet to experience Division 1 play.
According to Holden, 45 minutes to an hour is spent on conditioning work, including sprints such as 200-yard runs and 300-yard shuttles. Following a cool-down stretch, the weight-lifting phase of the day's work out begins. Players are assigned different exercises on different days, working the upper body one day and the lower on another, for example. In addition to the running, stretching, and weight work, Holden expects Igoe to be playing every day, either on a summer club team or training alone against a wall or in the backyard. She has her players working six days a week, four with lifting.
"We want our players to be pushed in order to reach their limits," said Holden, who initially recruited Igoe to play at Georgetown before taking over the BC program prior to last season. "There will be some time in the fall for the new players to adapt to and understand the system. Ultimately, we want them to be in peak shape by January, when we head into the season. When I was a player, the absolute best was demanded of me and my teammates. I expect the same from my players."
Beliveau, preparing for basketball at UNH, described her initial reaction to her summer workout regimen as "so freaked out, I couldn't believe it." She said she spends about 2 1/2 hours daily on her program, distributed evenly between conditioning, lifting, stretching, and playing basketball. She regularly starts out running a mile to warm up, followed by dynamic stretches. Then she lifts weights, spending at least an hour on various weight room activities. After a post-lifting stretch, she goes back to the conditioning, with either a 3-mile run or a set of football-field-length suicide sprints. Finally, she hits the court, doing drills for guards and post players on different days along with some full-court, pick-up scrimmaging.
"Some of the girls on the team mentioned that they wonder what it would be like to be a normal student," said the 6-foot Beliveau, the Globe's 2006-07 Female Athlete of the Year. Earlier this summer, she spent time in Durham, N.H., taking a couple of classes as well as working out with teammates.
"To me, it's like we've been doing it our entire lives. I think we'd be lost without it," she said.
Teggart, a candidate to handle the placekicking duties at UConn this fall, noted that while he's never experienced such conditioning work before, he's "in better shape than ever," thanks to the program.
Torres, who has battled knee tendinitis in the early days of Northeastern's preseason practices while transitioning from running back to cornerback, explained that while following his summer regimen, he felt not only his body taking a beating, but his work ethic as well.
"Mentally, kids are 17 and 18 years old and they're going to compete against people who are now mature adults, and as a result their bodies are not ready for that," said Dr. Brian Busconi, chief of sports medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
A Southborough native who was a two-sport (ice hockey and lacrosse) Division 1 athlete at Harvard, Busconi said preseason training is key to preventing injuries. He referred to the American College of Sports Medicine's opinion that six to eight weeks of training prior to sports participation is appropriate.
Igoe, for her part, looks at the situation in the most pragmatic way she can.
"The way I see it is I just have to give myself the best opportunity," she said. "I want to be able to play as much as I can, as quickly as I can. This is the only way to get to that point. It's a big adjustment, without a doubt. I keep hearing from friends already in college what a big transition it is. I'm a little nervous about how it will turn out, but I'm excited about what I can accomplish if I just keep working hard."
Kristin Igoe
High school: Framingham High
Highlights: The Globe’s Girls’ Lacrosse Player of the Year this past spring,
the senior attack netted 92 goals and 62 assists in the Flyers’ march to their second straight Division 1 state title and second straight 25-0 season.
The future: Will play lacrosse at Boston College on scholarship. 