Morning Practices a Fixture of Football Program

Walking down JFK St. away from the bustle of Harvard Square, one will eventually cross Memorial Drive and reach the Charles River.

The Larz Anderson Bridge spans the width of the Charles. It marks the divide between Cambridge and Allston, but for Harvard football players, it marks a different divide.

Crossing this bridge in the dark is almost an everyday task for the Harvard football team. The players pass by Weld Boathouse, leaving their academic responsibilities behind for a while and preparing for the daily grind of morning workouts. The first whistle of their day sounds before the sun rises and the last after it sets.

Between 6:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. players hurry from workouts to class to practice, attempting to fit in time for a large lunch and various naps. Afterwards, between dinner and showering, homework still awaits.

“Shoot it’s tough, because you stay up until like 2 o’clock in the morning doing a p-set and then you have to wake up at like 5:30,” said sophomore wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley. “A lot of guys will be sleeping on the bus or the shuttle as we get to the locker room.”

While the actual lift starts at 6:30, players’ days begin much earlier.

“Once we get into the locker room and the weight room, we’re focused on getting better,” Shelton-Mosley said. “But up until that point we’re pretty tired and just looking forward to when the lift is done.”

In season, players lift in the morning on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and the team splits itself into “cards.” The advanced card is made up of athletes who are getting to see a lot of time on the field and lifts only on Tuesday and Sundays, with Sunday being a recovery lift. The cards below that are reserved for athletes who haven’t been playing and are working towards starting positions. These players lift all three days.

“This is because the goal is just to maintain what we’ve acquired through the offseason,” said senior defensive tackle Doug Webb. “Whereas we’re trying to build up the other developmental pairs who aren’t getting reps on the field throughout the season.”

In addition to the workouts are the actual practices, which have been in the afternoon for the last 23 years.

“One hundred percent of the practices, the meetings, start at three o’clock and the practice starts at four,” coach Tim Murphy said. “The kids have a very specific schedule for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It’s identical so they can set their schedule to it.”

For the players and coaches, these afternoon practices extend into the early evening. Following the three o’clock meetings are 24 five-minute practice periods, and by the time the team huddles up after the twenty-fourth block, it is usually well past 6 p.m.

“We certainly try to get out by six everyday,” Murphy said. “Whether it’s 6:05 or 6:10 by the time you huddle and talk a little bit. Occasionally it’s five or ten minutes longer.”

While the Harvard football team exclusively holds its in-season practices in the afternoon, several local teams, including Boston College, hold morning practices. Morning practices are better logistically, but they can leave players drained for the rest of the day.

“[Morning practices are] something you do have to think about just because there are a fair number of players that do miss practice or miss meetings, which certainly makes it challenging to have afternoon practices,” Murphy said. “But we just felt more comfortable having the ability to get the kids as much rest as we can in season, and meet with them prior to practice, which would be very challenging if you’re having a six a.m. practice.”

That’s just the in-season schedule. Out of season, players engage in a much heavier workout schedule, only then they attempt to gain weight rather than just maintain it. Following the season, winter lifts are held for an hour and 15 minutes in the mornings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. During the spring, the team holds 12 spring practices. Working three days a week for four weeks, these practices begin at 6:30 in the morning.

“We were the first ones to even have workouts in the morning,” Murphy said. “I think the bottom line is that it guarantees you’ll have your whole team. It’s just really challenging to try to run a practice if you’ve got anybody, or several players, missing because they have class conflicts. So that can be challenging in terms of getting them enough repetitions, getting everybody in sync.”

The most difficult part for the athletes isn’t so much waking up early to workout. Rather, it’s maintaining the rigorous schedule of a Division I athlete while trying to simultaneously excel at an Ivy League academic institution.

“I think the biggest thing is that you get to sleep early enough on the day before and on Monday,” sophomore linebacker Anthony Camargo said. “Also, after the lift and everything, you’re going to be exhausted so you’ve got to make sure you get a good breakfast.”

Harvard’s class schedule helps a bit. Since there are few courses that meet at 8 a.m., players can finish their workout in time to grab a nap before class.

“Most classes here don’t really start until after eight o’clock,” Camargo said. “If you get showered and ready and get back to breakfast, you can get maybe a 30 to 45-minute nap before class. If I don’t get that little nap in, I’ll be nodding off throughout the day, and it’s extremely hard going on five to four hours of sleep depending on what time you fell asleep the night before.”

As it turns out, naps become a key source of refreshment for the players throughout the day. That, and careful planning, are the keys for staying on top of their work.

“If you have lift that day and practice, you’ve got to find the time to nap in between meals and class—otherwise you’re going to have a tough practice,” Webb said. “Just knowing the obligations you’re going to have... and then making the right choices so that you don’t put yourself in a bad position where you have three things due on top of football.

“Obviously if you have buddies that are in similar courses, you guys can game plan and try to figure out how to best organize your time and schedule,” Webb added.

Yet between essays, problem sets, exams and sleep deprivation, the players refuse to let their workload distract them from being successful, on the field or in the classroom.

“We do our best to get sleep, but it’s hard with all the homework, papers, and tests that we have,” Camargo said. “But when we come out here we try to put everything that is affecting us on that side of the river in the back of our mind. If we’re tired and we’re sore or whatever, we just try to get as excited as we can and as pumped up as we can.”