For university student-athletes, the summer months can be a massive change of pace, moving from multiple practices and games a week, to managing their own training. Each athlete decides their off-season and Kathleen Boyle and Celine Sterckel approach the time off in different ways.
Last February, St. Thomas University’s women’s volleyball team lost in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) semi-finals to the Holland Hurricanes, which Boyle states was unexpected.
“After losing like that at a point when we didn’t think we would, I needed a minute,” said Boyle.
In the summer of 2022, Boyle was going into her first year with STU and training for the Canada Games as well. She said she didn’t take a break from volleyball for two years straight. The hard work paid off, as Boyle was named an ACAA First Team All-Star and the team’s Rookie of the Year.
“I wanted to because it was obviously my first year going to play for a university team. I was like, I don’t care if I’m tired,” she said. “‘I want to be good.’”
This year, however, she saw the summer as a chance to reset, taking time off in the spring months and getting back into training and open gyms in July and August. Though she played beach volleyball and went to the gym, she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders compared to her first year.
“I just wanted to take my mind off of things and just reset,” she said.
Boyle added that the university schedule was a lot more draining than her schedule in high school, where they would practice twice a week. At STU, she practices every day, does yoga, participates in team workouts and mental performance activities.
“It mentally drained me from school, too, because I was like … ‘I have to focus on volleyball,’” she said.
Boyle said she hopes to ease up on herself after the added self pressure accumulated throughout the year coming into this season.
“I don’t want to do that to myself this year because I think that it really affected not just my volleyball life but everything outside of it.”
For Celine Sterckel, the off-season can’t be short enough. In her second year, she tore her ACL, MCL and broke both her femur and tibia. She was told she may not play basketball ever again. When she got back onto the court last year, she said it was nerve-wracking, but exciting.
Coming into her first year, her off-season was difficult as gyms were closed due to the pandemic. The coach sent at-home workouts. Between her second and third years, she was only able to workout her upper body while she did physiotherapy for her injury. This summer, Sterckel played as much basketball as she could.
“I lifted almost six days a week and then I was scrimmaging with the Crandall men’s [basketball] team two or three times a week,” said Sterckel. “Then doing some skill work and then also getting my conditioning as well.”
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While finding university-level women to play with is hard during the summer months, when everyone moves home, Sterckel enjoyed playing with the men’s team.
“They’re really accepting,” she said.
The experience added to her game as she said the men’s game is a lot faster and “they jump on everything.”
When her 2022-23 season completed, Sterckel only took a few days off.
“I get told I need to take breaks,” said Sterckel. “I don’t like taking breaks because for me, I just want to get better every single day.”
She looks forward to having a full season of basketball, in a university career that has been marred by situations beyond her control.
“I’m very thankful that every day I do get to play basketball.”
