During the winter months at DePaul College Prep, many spring and fall teams work in the weight room to get prepared for their upcoming seasons. Since the weather is much too cold, teams utilize the weight room as a primary space for their preseason training. Primarily led by Coach Michael Passarella and Coach Ricardo Cotto, the weightlifting program after school involves many DePaul Prep athletes.

So why is weightlifting so beneficial for our DePaul Prep athletes? Weightlifting comes with many benefits. According to senior varsity football and baseball player  Shane Leonard, , “No matter who you are or how much you are lifting there are always physical and mental benefits you will pull from the activity.” 

Weightlifting can also be used as a means for injury prevention, says three time varsity lacrosse captain and senior Danica Barkley. She stated, “Lifting also helps prevent athletes from injury during the season by strengthening their muscles.”

Cotto, a coach of some of the weightlifting classes here at DePaul Prep remarked on the importance of weightlifting in sports as well, “For sports specifically, I think the benefit is injury prevention first and foremost and then just maximizing your genetic potential to perform to the best of your abilities in your field of play or court.  It keeps you safe, keeps you healthy, and helps you to perform to the best of your ability.”

The size of the weight room and number of people in it has been a concern for students here at DePaul Prep.  However, Leonard, a frequent user of the weight room considered this and said, “Throughout my time playing sports at DePaul [Prep] there have been very few times where I felt like there was only one weight room for 1,000 people. The coaches are great at lining up schedules so that we can work and not have to worry about anything else.”

However, when Barkley was asked about the same topic, she remarked, “there’s enough time slots of each team to lift but at times it’s packed, therefore you cannot always get a good workout in. Also due to the small space, for lacrosse, only varsity can use the weight room.”

On another note, the intensity of weightlifting shifts from season to season. Off season and in season lifting involve two very different mentalities.

In season lifting focuses on maintaining, says Cotto. Saying, “Most students that are in season,  their focus more is on maintaining what you did in off season, it shifts to help you maintain and continue to perform at a high level without being injured.”

However, off season lifting is very different. Cotto remarks, “Off season: let’s build power, let’s build speed, let’s build mobility, let’s build explosiveness. The sole focus is getting bigger, faster, and stronger”. This puts athletes in a good position to begin the season.

When asked about in season vs. off season lifting, Leonard said, “For football our in season workouts are less frequent but they are still intense. Every morning after a game we come in and do a recovery lift, which is always a life saver after getting banged up the night before.”

Barkley, regarding the lacrosse team said, “For lacrosse, we use the weight room during off season to prepare and prep our bodies before the season starts. Off season we continue to build our bodies to be prepared for our season. During the season, we don’t use the weight room and use the outside field.”

So teams may not be lifting both in season and off but one thing remains true, the majority of teams here at DePaul Prep off season lift in order to prepare for their upcoming season.