The Amador Valley football team has released their schedule for the spring and summer, including games, practices, and team events. With Spring Ball weeks from May 15 to 26 and Summer Ball throughout the summer break, the team gets prepared for the upcoming season. 

“We’re gonna be practicing all summer long. We’ll be practicing Monday through Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. With football, there’s a safety concern. If you are not in the weight room, you are not physically ready and you’ll not be in shape to be able to play football. So those things are super important to us,” said varsity head coach Daniel Jones. 

The commitment for practice in the weight room and on the field helps athletes physically prepare for the fall season in facing heat and the amount of energy needed to perform well. 

“Practicing during the summer heat helps us adapt to the temperature in the following season and makes a better conditioned team. It is also more technique focused. We are training in the weight room four times a week helping us get stronger,” said varsity football player Keaton Lai (‘24).

The team will also keep their traditional events outside of football to help the team bond with one another between the old and new players. Goals for the offseason outside of skill development are improving team chemistry and relationships.

“Every Wednesday night during the season, we’ll do what we call Pasta Feed, where the whole team will get together and we’ll share the meal together. That’s something we do every week during summer,” said Jones. 

Spring Ball is a two-week period in May. The practices during the Spring Ball are typically used for coaches to shape the team for the future season with adjustments made throughout the summer training. 

“In Spring Ball, we get a good idea of how our varsity team is going to look and how many numbers we are gonna have on our varsity and junior varsity team. We get all of our offense and defense team installed during those two weeks. So it’s really just like a prep leading into the summer for us,” said Jones. 

The team hopes their efforts put into the spring and summer gets pays off and leads to victories against their opponents. Players and coaches look forward to seeing the team earn a spot in the playoffs. 

“We are playing a bunch of games next season, having a great season and winning the league is always our number one goal. I would say the most important one to me is the first home game because that’s where everyone comes out. For every season, we are all excited for the game against Foothill,” said varsity football player Aarav Kapadia (’24).