Every athlete knows how painful preseason can be. From drowning in your own sweat to burning the soles of your feet on the hot turf all day. No matter how hard you train, preseason will never be easy. It's built to push you past your limits to become the best athlete you can be. As the week goes on and you don't think you can run one more fitness test, that's the hardest obstacle to overcome-Your mind. Once you convince your mind that you can finish that timed mile as fast as you can, or push through that beep test, or hold that plank just 30 more seconds THEN you will be a successful athlete. The whole winning aspect of the sport doesn't just miraculously happen by stepping on the field. Winning happens based on the amount of work you put in before the first whistle blows. Preseason is where it starts and here's the stages you'll go through during the journey.

Stage One: Excitement

You'll roll up on campus so excited to see all your friends again or a freshmen who's just excited for college in general that you forget you have to run a bunch of fitness test in the morning.

Stage Two: Fear

The first morning comes around and it's time to run the test. You've ran it so many times in the summer and yet you're still standing there ready to sh*t your pants.

Stage Three: Hunger

You were so nervous about the preseason that you forgot to eat breakfast and now that practice 1 is down you're ready to feast! But don't eat too much cause you have another practice in a couple hours.

Stage Five: Exhaustion

In this stage your body is just dead. There's not an ounce of energy in your body to even walk up the stairs to your dorm.

Stage Six: PAIN

The worst part about preseason is the physical pain. You walk around campus like a newborn giraffe trying to walk for the first time.

Stage Seven: Determination

This is mental stage. The part of preseason where your body just wants to quit on but you must beat your mind to get past the pain.

Stage Eight: Happiness

You're happy for many reasons. You're happy cause hell week (or weeks) is finally over. You're happy because it made it through it all. And most importantly, you're happy with the results. Now that you've made it through preseason it's now time to battle it out on the field.