Whether you play at a big D1 school or are living the D3 reality, being a college athlete is intense and occasionally stressful but we wouldn’t trade our experience or teammates for the world. For me, the most stressful part of college athletics is the pre-preseason anxiety: will I be in good enough shape to make it through and pass my fitness tests? Will there be a freshman that comes in and takes my spot? These are questions I ask myself almost daily when the countdown to preseason begins. If you’re like me, then you have probably gone through all these emotions and stages when you realize preseason is less than two weeks away.

1. Everyday you wake up and acknowledge how many days you have until preseason.

Another day, another workout. You try to stick to your workout packet but at some point you toss it out the window. When there’s about two weeks left of your summer, you wonder why in the world you ever trusted your own workouts and fear preseason fitness sessions.

2. All you do is workout but somehow it won’t be enough when fitness tests start.

No matter how hard or often you train, at a certain point before preseason you feel that none of this will matter. With work in the summer and classes during the year, you can’t simulate three-a-days and will inevitably be tired and sore your first week.

3.You start to train so much, you sleep in your gear.

Shin guards are essential for a good night’s sleep when preseason is looming. In the end, if you are fit enough to play a game it is your skills that will matter. Everyone around you is starting to get annoyed by the amount of times you’ve asked them to play pick up with you.

4. Preseason hydration starts at least five days before heading back.

"Hey mom can you pick up an extra case of water and about 20 Gatorades?” Coach will kill you if you’re not pounding Nalgenes, so why not get a head start?

5. ...And so do the in-season eating habits.

Carbs on carbs on carbs because you’ll run it off later. Every year just before preseason, you decide this is the year that you clean up your eating but once you play that first night game and don’t get back until 11 there’s nothing you want less than a salad.

6. Coach sends out the preseason schedule and you throw up in your mouth.

“If I don’t make it, tell my mom I love her.” There’s truly nothing like having 15 sessions in five days, especially in the heat of late August, while all your NARP friends are moving in and going out every night.

7. The thought of being back with your teammates makes it all better.

Preseason is a hectic and intense time both physically and emotionally, but the thought of being back on the field with your rich homie quans makes it a little bit less dreadful. Locker room dance parties and late night lib seshes (#studentcomesfirst) have made your teammates your friends and you can’t wait to be back at again with the white cleats.