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TEAM BONDING
There are many different ways for a team to prepare
for its upcoming season, and the evidence is scattered
across Virginia's historic Grounds.
Some ways are obvious — scrimmaging, lifting
weights and running — but several programs prepare
with unusual challenges or competitions in the pre-
season. A few even do so away from campus before the
routine of the regular-season practice schedule sets in.
One squad that prepares in such a way is the wres-
tling team, which travels to Humpback Rocks in the
Blue Ridge Mountains (a very tough, one-mile climb)
for several conditioning runs before the season begins.
The squad makes a couple of runs halfway up, then
takes two trips all the way to the top, according to
two-time All-American Nick Sulzer. On the final one,
the team waits for everyone to finish at the top for a
final preseason talk.
"It just reveals the long journey and difficult trek that
is to come in wrestling," Sulzer said. "It's almost the light
at the end of the tunnel, just as the NCAA Tournament
in March is at the end of a long, uphill climb. Meta-
PREPARATION
Mitchell Frank, the 2014 ACC Men's Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year, noted that Virginia's
Athletics Academic Affairs Office has helped him stay on track academically and improved his
time management skills.
