For Dos Pueblos High School athletes, the season is a time to grow in their careers, but the offseason is just as important to their success.
During this time, many athletes play other sports, but some, like Caleb Gupta (12), a boys varsity basketball player builds muscle in the gym as well.
“I do a lot of lifting because the offseason is the time where you can put on muscle and not have constant practice every day, which makes it harder to recover,” said Caleb Gupta.
Ruby Streatfeild (11), a girls’ varsity soccer, track and field, and flag football player, loves to play other sports but enjoys practicing her main sport, flag football, in the offseason.
“Well, specifically for flag football in the offseason, I practice catching the ball, or I’m training to possibly be the quarterback, so I’ve been throwing the ball around a lot,” Streatfeild said. “So it’s more like upper body workouts, or just movements with my hands to help me stay in shape and be able to catch the ball, whereas track and soccer are more lower body, legs, getting in shape and building my change of direction.”
Both Alma Basave (11), a girls varsity lacrosse, soccer, and flag football player, and Atton Hayes (11), a boys varsity track and field and soccer player, enjoy running to stay fit in their off-season.
“I go on a lot of runs. I feel like running is a big thing, so I like to do a lot of runs. And I like to go with my friends to UCSB, and we go … play pickup games,” Basave said. “We do something fun that includes soccer and includes exercising so that we stay in shape, and we still build the connection with people.”
On the other hand, Hayes prefers running on a track with his teammates over running on a natural path.
“I like to do 400-meter track practice with my track teammate Kellan Cotter,” Hayes said, “He always makes me faster, and I enjoy practicing with anyone that will push me to get better and push me to my limits.”
Jordan Caratachea (11), a boys varsity basketball player, took on a leadership role on the team this year and wants to improve his leadership skills in the offseason.
“I would say I learned how to take a leadership role … and what I’ll need to do for next year … [to] really help my team to be successful and better people overall,” Caratachea said.
Several DPHS athletes use the off-season to complete their goals of playing a sport in college.
“My dream or goal is to make it to division one flag football, which I think [would] be awesome,” Streatfeild said. “Right now there’s only three or four NCAA division one teams out there, so I just really hope by my senior year that there’ll be more opportunities for me to play.”
Basave shares a similar goal in wanting to play a sport at a higher level.
“For the future, I’m not fully sure yet. I would like to play soccer in college, though that might not happen,” Basave said. “It is something that I’m looking into and something I’m looking forward to, and if it does happen, that’s just like a very good experience for me and my future.”
For Hayes, he is working hard in the offseason to try to play multiple different sports after graduation.
“My goal is probably to play soccer in college or potentially run track at the college level,” Hayes said.
Additionally, Caratachea said he thinks he can play at the college level.
“I want to play at a college level at some point in my career,” Caratachea said. “I think getting to the college level is where I set my goals.”
Gupta said that injuries damaged his four-year basketball career but still hopes to continue playing basketball on a less serious level.
“I hope to do intramurals wherever I go for college. If I go to a bigger university, that usually means that it’s more serious. And then there are people who very well could play at the collegiate level [but] they’re just not recruited,” Gupta said. “So I look forward to doing that and then as I recover from my medial patella injury. I currently have physical therapy twice a week, and because of that, that’s been most of my offseason training.”
