While the spring sport season has yet to begin, senior leaders in the boys baseball, girls soccer and boys lacrosse programs have taken initiative during the winter months to prepare their teams for in-season success.

“The offseason program is a great way to set the tone for the year,” baseball senior leader Nadav Sered-Schoenberg explains. “We have built a culture of working hard in the offseason which has lead to a lot of success in season.”

The optional baseball workouts are run by seniors and focus on building strength, speed, agility and baseball skills. The six senior leaders — Matthew Barbato, Fletcher Brown, Adam Geibel, Charlie Gruner, Will Lucas, and Nadav Sered-Schoenberg — facilitate all workouts with support from other players and coaches.

“The leaders are doing a fantastic job setting the overall tone for the program. Our offseason work was set forth by Coach Freeland and we really just try to maintain his expectation of always overachieving, getting better,” JV head coach Chris D’Amato says. “I feel like our leaders set that expectation for the younger guys and carry on his ‘I’m Third’ mentality.”

Freeland’s “I’m Third” mentality is to put others before yourself. He brought this mentality to the program which shows in the selflessness of the workout leaders.

The girls soccer program is also putting in work in the offseason. The team offers four workouts a week, ranging from lifting and conditioning to actual game play. Team captains Meg Rogan and Ruby Siegel lead the workouts themselves and while this winter’s program is similar to that of previous years, they have worked to make improvements.

“In the past, the workouts have just consisted of the varsity returners but this year we are really working to get the younger girls involved,” Rogan says. “This helps create really good relationships program wide.”

The senior midfielder hopes this comradery will aid her team in reaching their sizable goals this spring.

“We’re definitely trying to win state,” Rogan explains. “That’s been the goal since I was on the team as a sophomore. We have gotten close but I think that we, as a program, have to really use these workouts to build team chemistry and keep our focus.”

Boys lacrosse found itself in an unusual situation this offseason, with no definite coach in place for next season. But the team would not let the predicament get in the way of their winter captains’ practices. Once a week in the field house, captains Quinn Farragher, Joey Fitzgerald, Jacob Griffin and Isaiah Ricketts lead an optional practice focusing on stick skills, passing and catching and ball movement.

“We work on these skills so that we can get to know each other as a team which will help us going into the season,” senior captain Jacob Griffin explains. “Obviously we will have a new coach, so hopefully it’ll help that we have been together for a little bit.”

The varsity roster is loaded with talent this year as three senior players have committed to playing college lacrosse at top tier programs. This talent alone gives Griffin and the rest of the team high hopes for the approaching season.

“A big goal is to win the conference this year, but we also need to help the new coaches implement a culture for Evanston lacrosse for the future,” Griffin adds.