Feature: Facing a double team

Free time is a hard concept to define. People fill their free time with events and activities that they personally enjoy. When atheletes pledge a large portion of their schedules to a sport, they not only commit themselves to aspects of the sport that they enjoy, but they also commit themselves to situations that many people would find unworthy of their free time, such as early morning practices and games.

Dedicating oneself to a sports season means peeling the warm covers off on a cold morning, finishing every workout stronger than you started and representing Princeton with as much strength and energy as the black- and orange-attired fans cheering you on from the sidelines. This mentality applies to every athlete in every season, but multi-sport athletes do it twice as much as their teammates.

Sophomore Steve Harrington, a squash and baseball player, elaborates on the schedule of these athletes.

“[We] travel a lot on weekends, but that comes with the territory. [We] also have to be on campus for fall break, some of winter break, Intersession, and ... spring break,” Harrington said.

The amount of time multi-season athletes have for themselves is frighteningly little, but the situation is not completely dreadful. Harrington acknowledged that breaks are something he has “miss[ed] out on.”

“[But] it’s enjoyable to be around my teams without having schoolwork and classes lingering over me,” Harrington said.

Harrington pointed out that one of the drawbacks to participating on multiple teams is that “there is no time to recover.”

Junior Ivan Charbonneau, football player and track runner, reiterated this point. “I don’t really give my body much of a break between the seasons,” Charbonneau said.

Their training is relentless and also varies considerably by season, as senior Matt Callahan, soccer and squash player, pointed out.

“The sports are very different and practices are structured differently,” Callahan said.

“Football is much more focused on lateral, explosive movements in a short area, whereas track requires sustained, high-speed movements over a longer distance,” Charbonneau said. Targeted muscle groups change significantly between seasons, as do the frequency of visits to the gym.

Adjustments are made not only in weight rooms and on practice fields, but also work their way into athletes’ diets.

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“To play a higher level of squash, I have to get my weight down 10–15 pounds from where it is normally,” Harrington said. “I try to eat smart, and once the season is over, I ... eat a ton of food to gain a lot of my weight back for strength during the baseball season.”

Charbonneau takes more of a laissez-faire approach to his diet. “I eat as much as I can all of the time,” Charbonneau said.

Meanwhile, Callahan’s mealtime attitude is a happy medium. “I always try to get a balanced meal,” Callahan said.

As far as free gear is concerned, Harrington mentioned, “[He now has] a good amount of Nike shorts, but that’s it.”

If regular athletes are adaptable, these athletes are evolutionary. Some people who run the mile participate in an 800m race. Some centers occasionally take a shot from the three-point line. But very few athletes can transcend the boundaries of one sport and excel at another.