By: Jamal Smith 
Sports editor

It is 8:00 a.m. at the start of the week on a cold and brisk 39 degree morning. As the sun begins to expose itself onto the horizon through the ominous grey clouds, the football team is arriving for morning workouts in the weight room below the stadium at McArthur Field.

As the players walk through the heavy steel doors, they are greeted by their strength and conditioning coach, Cori Metzgar.

Although the football season wrapped up over three months ago, the Wolves are already working hard in preparation for the upcoming season.

The life of a student athlete is a difficult one with year-round training, including making sacrifices that regular students don’t have to make.

“[The football team] has workouts four days a week and conditioning two days in the mornings,” said tight ends coach Jason Slowey. “They are up at 6:30 in the morning.”

Sacrificing their time and sleep is nothing compared to the hard work that each player puts in.

“The offseason for us is a pretty intense time,” said coach Metzgar. “We have eight hours a week to train the guys. We train on mobility, flexibility, prehab work, conditioning, agilities, biometrics, strength, and power work in the weight room.”

“The goal coming from eight weeks off from the season is to get them ready for spring ball, but also, to put on mass and add strength and power, especially for the younger kids,” added Metzgar. “For the older kids, it’s about developing their speed and power.”

“We spend three hours a week out on the turf doing speed and conditioning work, and we spend about five hours a week in the weight room consisting of an hour of stretching, mobility and prehab work, and four hours of lifting,” continued Metzgar.

The heavy offseason routine provides every player an opportunity to improve the things that they need to work on in order to gain a bigger role before next season begins. Some players want to gain muscle mass while others want to increase their agility.

Sophomore defensive lineman Casey Gates sees the offseason as an opportunity to achieve his personal goals.

“More than anything with me being a football player, I want to gain mass, muscle and power, but especially with coach Metzgar’s contribution, I’m really looking to increase my athletic abilities as well as my overall skill work,” said Gates.

“Playing at this level requires more than just physical strength because everyone has that at our level, so you really have to work on all skills to be the best football player that you can be,” said Gates.

Last season was filled with highs and lows. After dropping three of their first five games at the start of the season, the Wolves caught fire and won their next six games, including a 24-22 victory over the No. 6 ranked team in Division-II ball, Northern Alabama.

The upset victory propelled the Wolves into playoff contention, and a victory in their last game against the GNAC’s top team, Humboldt State University, would have made Western the GNAC Champions and given them an automatic Division-II playoff berth.

Unfortunately, the Humboldt State Jacks defeated the Wolves 29-13 and the season ended on a sour note.

That loss has stuck in the back of the mind of every player and has provided motivation for improvement.

“Our mindset now is to stay dedicated and hungry because last season we had achievements, but we weren’t able to accomplish all of our goals,” added Gates. “Because we were able to achieve some of our goals but not all of them, we are really working hard.”

Vince Lombardi once said, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

The Wolves hope that with hard work and dedication, next year will be the year Western can win the GNAC.