This past month, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Jill Wojcik started a survey in correspondence with Head Softball Coach Renae Beauchman and the Softball Team to track athletes’ health to improve their training regimen. 

For 30 days, many members of the softball team came to Wojcik daily to log their heart rates, sleep patterns, eating habits, weight, competitive willingness, and training willingness. 

Wojcik said, “We are looking for patterns so we can find out when kids are getting sick, and when the female athletes are on their periods, so we can adapt training to how they are feeling that day.”

For example, “If someone is sick and they can’t breathe properly, they can’t do circuit training or endurance because their lungs will close faster, or their nose will get stuffed up easier, so we will have to do more light-weight, high reps, low-sets,” Wojcik said.

The survey starts with the softball team because girls, with their menstrual cycles, have more variables in the study than boys do. When girls are menstruating every month, Wojcik said, “They will gain weight when they carry more water and feel fatigued more often. Boys will be tired because they stayed up all night or studied for a test.”

Captain Chase Behar said, “It was inefficient because it was easy to forget to fill out, but the intentions and outcomes were good.”

Sophomore Ella Carter said, ”I’m so glad that softball got to be the first to take this survey, as it’s been super interesting seeing the changes in our energy levels and eating habits over the course of this month.”

Down the line, Wojcik will work with the football team and hopes to extend the project to other teams and conduct the project for a longer period of time. For now, this new training program should boost athletes’ performance in the gym and on the field to help them grow to be better athletes overall.