My day this semester usually starts with a morning lift/ or run depending on what day of the week it is. It is nice to start the day like that, but I can't lie can be very hard to roll out of bed every morning. After I finish my workout, I head to 2,3 classes during the day. My classes have been interesting this year. I don't have exams, but have multiple projects and papers due. This has been quite the work load this year. When I get done with my class at 3:15 I end up doing two things. The first one would be heading to work at the event staff(Drake University) or at Brenton Skating Plaza(Downtown Des Moines). I usually work about 4-6 hours a night. The second option I might do is head to the training room for some therapy. This is a great time to let my body recover by using electric stim and ice. It's key to keep your body healthy to prevail during the winter workouts. After work or therapy, I usually have one or two homework assignments due the next day. Time management is key to being a student-athlete. You have to be prepared before the week starts.
Thanks for reading,
Pat cashmore #30
Hello again, we are now in another week of Drake football off-season training. I want to talk a little about what my daily struggle is like as it may be a little bit different than most of the other players. On December 8th, I had a major shoulder surgery and every day, I have to take steps towards getting 100% healthy again. I have gotten almost all of my range of motion in my arm which is a great feeling but I still have to keep working hard. As of last week, I was cleared to do all the running our team has been doing which was the best news I had in a long time. You don't really realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to run until you can't do it. So three times every week, I spend an hour in the training room stretching my shoulder and building muscle. On top of physical therapy, I am taking 15 credit hours in the school of business and public administration. Mondays and Wednesdays I have 4 classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 1 class which is nice but I spend most of my free time doing work for my other classes. I am also working 17 hours every week at Office Max. I am obviously not trying to make a career out of my job there but it is really nice to have a few extra dollars in my pocket. Every Thursday, I attend a Bible study group with a couple of the other guys on the team and Coach Nicolet and I really enjoy the things we talk about. Coach Nicolet is my new position coach and it is nice to get to know him on a more personal level. So I do have a pretty busy schedule but it forces me to be on top of everything which will help me out later on down the road.
I truly appreciate everyone reading this blog and hope our insight is something that people enjoy. Every day we get closer to our trip to Africa and winning another Pioneer Football League Championship for the Bulldog nation!
Thanks,
Jim Nelson #13
Depending on the day of the week I am either up in the early morning for one of our winter workouts at 6am or I am up early and getting ready for class. Tuesdays and Thursdays, our running days, always seem to get me revved up for the day. Even if I am up before the sun and striking out into the bitter Des Moines winter, wind biting my face as I make the spurt between the locker rooms (Bell Center) and Gym building (Knapp Center). Our team laces up their shoes and lines up into our groups and works from the low intensity walking stretch to a couple of accelerations before we move to speed and agility work. Which would usually consist of quick foot-latters and hurdles of some kind. This is where I would break off from the group with the defensive line and linebacker groups and we progress through sprint cycles across the indoor track and then move to “sled-pulls” to further work our running strength and form. But we have been known to work in the occasional plate cycle, beat tractor tires with sledgehammers, or cone drills. From here our positions meet to practice position specific work, for me it will probably involve hand movements, steps and install with our new defensive coordinator’s system. After all of this is done for the week we typically close out the week with a little team competition. Last Thursdays big competition was dodge ball. With football workouts over for the day, I get home quickly to shower, my roommate, another football player makes about a dozen eggs tossing in some ham and onion and I am off to class. I will go and hear lectures about statistics and drift off and doodle in my notebook from time to time but my teacher cracks the corny jokes that match my sense of humor so he maintains my attention enough for me to learn a bit about psychology before I move to the lab, for that same psych class. A weekly quiz and some homework review later I am home. Just off campus with my roommates watching TV and eating. I scarf down a quick lunch and go to position meetings for more install. Then find my way back home for some reading for class until our house’s favorite night of TV hits the screen. (Thursday) New episodes on NBC, from 30 Rock, to the Office, to Parks and Rec, and topping off the night with Outsourced about a fellow Kansas native. It can get crowded with friends and girlfriends piling in to watch but this is my favorite night of the week. We take a couple perverbial jabs at each other during commercials, I receive the brunt of the jokes as I am the least capable of defending myself with quick whit or snappy comebacks but it is all in good fun. The night closes with many of us going back to out rooms for homework or to spend time with our significant others but some of us remain to close the night with some sports center or another couple sitcom episodes of other various guilty pleasures. I will retire, usually last, having gone through an eighteen hour day, and I will linger, grab a snack and head to bed. Contemplate the greater meanings to life or more likely dwell on why I didn’t go to bed sooner but I every time I wake up the next day and want to go back to sleep, I still smile and think, “ it was definitely worth it.”
Eugene “EJ” Walter 97
A day in the life of me is boring. Mostly it consist of class, workout, homework, repeat. No real struggle besides getting work handed in on time, unless of course if you count as reaching new levels on video games with my roommates. That's why this trip is a much needed one. One a mental level it can add some excitement to life of us average college student/athletes.
Denzel Ray
Day in the life
When you think of college kids, you always think of them sleeping in, skipping class, playing video games and eating junk food. However...When you live a day in the life of a Bulldog, things are quite a bit different! Everyday I am waking up no later than 7am. Whether it's for our 6am workouts or an 8am class, I am seen as an early bird flying around campus. The day continues on with going to classes, football lifting, work and eating my 3 core meals. So what's so different from being a college student and being a Bulldog Fball player?...Sacrifice! We all as a team make certain sacrifices in our social or school lives for one thing only- that Championship Ring. "Want to skip class and sleep in?" "Why you studying 3 days before your test? Screw that, come over and game" "Books? Let's have some beers". We hear these things every day. It comes down to what matters more for me and my team? Eating junk food, oversleeping and alchol would hurt my body. Skipping class and homework assignments hurt my grades. All of this adds up to not only affecting me, but it affects our team. Which is one little thing that would hurt our chances to become champions. We make little sacrifices each and every day because we have one goal in mind...It doesn't bother me, because I enjoy it and the real joy is going to come at the end. When all of those little things actually meant something. Is it worth it to have one night of fun?...Or to have a memory that lasts a LIFETIME? That's a day in a life for a Bulldog.
Cameron Good, #4
