Time to get serious about Linfield athletics (not like we weren’t all along), but things reached a fever pitch on Thursday when close to 300 student-athletes report to campus to begin training.
Football, soccer, cross country and volleyball teams all arrive early in the day for a gauntlet of check-in stations. Those stops include securing housing, checking out equipment, meeting with coaches, having their photographs taken for the sports info guy, filling out NCAA paperwork, shopping the Nike and AQx equipment stores, and on and on. It’s enough to wear anyone out before they even get dressed down for the first practice.
Teams settle into their regular practice routines on Friday with the first competitions coming Aug. 29 when the volleyball and cross country programs make their season debuts. For those squads, time is precious. There’s not much time to get to know new teammates, learn the team philosophy and show their coaches they deserve playing time.
This much we know: Every coach is competitive and expects their teams to raise their levels of performance from the previous season. Which ones live up to expectations (and which ones don’t) will be determined in the weeks and months to come.
