While most Trinity students have been at home enjoying their last few weeks of summer vacation, the men and women of TU’s sports teams have been hard at work in preparation for their upcoming seasons. The teams arrived the second week of August and have been waking up bright and early ever since for practices, meetings and workouts with the goal of strengthening the teams, both on an individual level and as a whole.

For the Trinity football team, a typical preseason day starts at 8 a.m. with a breakfast check in order to ensure that the players have a hearty and fulfilling meal to fuel them for their grueling schedule. From there, the players have meetings throughout the day to review film from the most recent practice, correct any mistakes and discuss any ways they can improve and tighten up the plays they ran.

“We are going to implement a new method for reading the offense, which will hopefully be reflected in our defensive production in a positive manner,” said assistant offensive lineman coach Patrick Rhatican.

However, preseason training has not gone as smoothly for the men and women’s soccer teams, as some of the players were not cleared for practice due to the new sickle cell anemia screenings that all athletes are now required to have.

Nevertheless, the players are still training hard on the field with fitness tests and two-hour-long practices that are constantly changing in order to challenge the players in new ways. “Our main objective this year is to become a stronger team and win every game by scoring more goals,” said senior midfielder Yuri Ribeiro.

Ribeiro is eager for his final season as a Trinity University soccer player and feels that he, along with the other senior soccer players, have the important leadership role of demonstrating the team’s main values, gaining the respect of their opponents and scoring as many goals as possible per game for the first-year players.

The women’s volleyball team accomplished a major milestone during their preseason this year when all players passed their fitness tests for the first time, which only demonstrated the team’s hard work and dedication over summer break.

“I think we are going to be a really strong team right from the start, and we’ll only get better throughout the season,” said junior middle back Erin Cusenbary.

Trinity’s cross country team decided to switch up their preseason training this year by traveling to Bastrop, Texas,  for camp in order to improve their endurance levels and prepare for their season, with emphasis placed on the team’s goal of ranking nationally this school year.  The team is also excited to announce the addition of six top recruits to the team.

“I’m excited for the new season and to see how all the new runners add to the team,” said junior Autumn Kervella.

A common thread among all campus teams is that they all hope to win their conference championship this season and advance to the national championships to represent the school.