Arriving at school an hour and a half before the first-period bell, Pali baseball player Yonah Cohen makes his way to the batting cage to prepare for his upcoming season. He returns to the field for fifth period and doesn’t arrive home until 6 p.m.
Cohen said he is not the only player dedicating hours to baseball each day. During the competitive season, all players must attend three to four hours of practice daily. Morning practices are optional, but after-school and fifth-period practices are mandatory and often consist of scrimmages, weight-lifting, and throwing and hitting drills.
Cohen said he wakes up every morning at five, prepares for school and then drives to the gym to complete a 40-minute workout prior to arriving at school at 7 a.m. for batting practice. During fifth period, Cohen practices with his team, which consists of workouts, scrimmages and field cleanups. He finishes his day with another team workout known as “arm care” in which players work on their throwing motion from the end of school until 4:45 p.m.
Throughout the pre-season, players on the team are not required to attend practice. However, junior baseball player Roman Hawk said that despite the pre-season practice being optional, players are expected to participate.
“[The practice] is for our benefit, we put in a lot of work and it shows in our performance,” he said.
In addition to after school practices, all baseball team members enroll in a fifth-period team sports class. By doing so, players are able to extend their practice hours and can continue to train after the period ends.
Even though the practices are time-consuming, they help him to be more disciplined, Cohen said.
“Being under so much pressure [has] really helped me get better at time management,” Cohen added. “When I don’t have baseball, I do nothing for three hours and then have to rush to do my homework late at night.”
In addition to the mandatory practice hours, California Interscholastic Federation regulations render students ineligible to play on the team if their grade-point average dips below 2.0, or a C average.
Pali Baseball Head Coach Mike Voelkel emphasized that although having a winning team is important, getting good grades needs to be prioritized.
“Academics comes first for my players, and I make sure they are on top of their work,” Voelkel said. “If their academics are falling behind, they have to go get help until they are caught up.”
Cohen said that despite the responsibility it takes to be on the team, the experience is worthwhile.
“Being on the team is a struggle,” he added, “but you get to have really close friendships with people on the team who you will never forget.”
