Imagine waking up before the crack of dawn, crawling out of bed, and making your way to the weight room before most students have even opened their eyes.

That’s what the football team does every Tuesday and Thursday.

“We call it fourth quarter lifting or Morning Maniacs. In football there are four quarters: fourth quarter is late in the game [and] you have to come up big. [The name] works out well because we are in the fourth quarter of the school year [too],” Aaron Towne, football coach, said. “It’s [also] called Morning Maniacs just because I think you’ve got to be a maniac to come in the morning, wake up at five o’clock, get here, and be ready to go.”

With a goal to prepare for the next season, the boys also get to spend time together as a team during this time.

“It’s a team bonding thing, it’s unity, and it’s all of the guys you will be bleeding and sweating with during the off season, summer, and during the games. This is where you start establishing those relationships,” Towne said. “The kids want to be a part of the group, [and] they want to establish those relationships so we have a very high percentage of our kids getting in there.  The coaches, including myself, are [upstairs with them, but] we just basically keep time. The kids that have been there through three years of it are definitely the ones that are taking the leadership roles.”

As the players workout together, they are “pushing each other to get better each day,” according to Jack Sanborn, junior middle linebacker.

“It starts at six on the dot. First we’ll do workouts, and then after that we’ll do competition stations where you’ll be put into a team and compete against another. It’s a lot of energy jumping around and everything,” Sanborn said. “You’re not required [to go], but really to our team it almost feels mandatory.”

Though it “feels mandatory,” Sanborn claims he enjoys going and knows it will benefit the team come October.

“As a team if we want to be good come fall then [we’re] going to have to put work in during the off season, and that’s the reason behind [Morning Maniacs],” Sanborn said. “If we want to win football games come fall time then right now, in fourth quarter and spring, we have to put the work in to achieve that. I feel like it builds that mental toughness. You’re not going to want to wake up at five in the morning every Tuesday and Thursday to go workout and sometimes you will be tired.”

In addition to working hard and staying motivated, Sanborn also believes that enjoying yourself is important.
“We put the work in and we work as hard as we can, but we also have fun. I think that’s also a key to it because you’re going to have fun during the season [after] winning games, but in order to do that we have to put the work in now,” Sanborn said. “I think you want to have that mixture of [working] as hard as you can so we can achieve our goals come season time [while] at the same time have as much fun as you can. You want to enjoy each and every moment that comes into the football season.”