Will Hoogendyk IV, Campus Carrier sports editor

With Christmas Break coming up, Berry students are looking forward to a rest from regular class schedules and from the typical routines of a busy school year. For athletes who participate in spring sports, however, the grind never stops: even in the four weeks back at home. For athletes who play spring sports like lacrosse, beach volleyball and track and field, it is necessary for them to maintain their training schedules so they can be prepared for their upcoming seasons.

Grace Mau, a sophomore on the beach volleyball team has spent the fall training alongside the court volleyball team to stay in shape throughout the fall semester.

“We all lift together but we have different in season and out of season lifts,” Mau said. “We’ll do the same type of exercises, [and] we do everything in the same vicinity, but we don’t do the necessarily the exact same thing.”

The volleyball program at Berry consists of both the indoor court and outdoor beach teams, but many girls compete in both. Those who only play on the beach team spend the fall lifting heavier weights than girls who play court because their bodies have more time to recover. While participating on the beach volleyball team is not required for all court players, most of them choose to do both because of the differences they have. Mau is one of four girls who are beach only and this affects their training during the fall.

Mau first started playing court volleyball six years ago as it’s more widely offered where she lives in Virginia but enjoys beach for how it improves her overall volleyball skills.

“I went out to beach to improve my vertical [and] get better at passing,” Mau said. “I realized I can play a sport where I contribute way more, [and I] don’t get subbed out. It’s just two on two, so you’re constantly playing, and you feel you like you impact the game a lot more.”

Because beach volleyball offers different skillsets to traditional court volleyball, coach Caitlyn Moriarty requires the court team to practice in the sand one day a week during the fall. This helps with their conditioning as sand takes much more stamina to play on.

Nick Enright, a track and field athlete at Berry, will also be conditioning over the break to stay in shape for the spring season which starts with a weekend meet at Samford University on Jan. 17-18. Enright has already been lifting this fall and will continue to ramp up his training as the season approaches.

“My training and workouts in the spring will be more intense compared to the fall due to us being in season,” Enright said. “I mainly train for pole vault with the pole vault event group but occasionally follow the jumpers training plan when I am needed to long jump.”

Like Enright, Mau’s training will gradually increase in difficulty as the beach season gets nearer. Mau and the other beach volleyball players will be conditioning and training to prepare for their ‘Beach Bootcamp’ in January. What sounds like a hit television show, is in fact an intense period of training right when the team comes back from break to help the girls adjust to playing in the sand.

“The first two weeks of January we do really intense drills,” Mau said. “A lot of conditioning incorporated with drills because typically our practice isn’t a bunch of conditioning, it’s just a lot of playing. But [our coaches] want us to get ready for our sand legs because they don’t move as fast in the sand once [we] come back.”

Enright’s training will also intensify as he transitions into the spring semester, starting with a training regimen over Christmas Break from his coach.

“I will continue to follow my coach’s lifting and running plan as closely as I can while over winter break,” Enright said. “We get a set training plan, but a few days a week will be a workout on your own day meaning we can do our own workout or a recovery day depending on how sore we are.”

Enright has been doing track and field for seven and a half years, three of which have been for the Vikings. The junior from Newnan, GA is part of a men’s track and field team that is going for its fourth straight SAA championship in a row this season. Along with defending their title, Enright is excited to travel with the team to overnight meets across the country. The men’s team itinerary includes trips to Florida and Ilinois this year with potential trips to New York and Ohio for the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Track and Field championships respectively. Mau and the beach team are coming off of a runner-up finish last year and will try to replicate their success starting Jan. 17 with their first match of the season. The team only graduated one senior last season and recruited five new freshmen for the 2025 season.