Winning six consecutive Mid-American Conference season titles and four MAC Tournaments will not cause the Falcon women’s basketball team to rest on their laurels during the summer.

With limits set by the NCAA on the amount of player-coach interaction during the summer, the team and staff use the period as an opportunity to look inward at the strengths and weaknesses of the program.

Coach Curt Miller said the team ends the year by evaluating the season, setting goals for the next one and narrowing down things each player needs to work on individually during the summer.

“Coaching is a year-round job,” Miller said. “Though we can’t work on a day-to-day basis with the team, we can’t find enough hours in the day to do the things we need to do.”

Chief among the tasks is keeping the team in shape for the upcoming season. While the full roster (including the new recruits) does not come to campus until the beginning of the second summer session, every player is given an exercise regimen to follow.

Aaron Hillmann, the University’s Director of Strength and Conditioning, said that six players are in town right now and work out regularly at the Sebo Center.

The players on campus schedule their workouts at the Sebo Center while those at home are given packets of workouts to follow every day. Guard Jessica Slagle said the regimens detail everything from lifting routines, running exercises and diet improvements. Slagle added that she and the other current on-campus players work out about four times a week.

“The strength program does a fantastic job gearing our workouts toward stuff that we’re going to use in the games,” Slagle said. “I think that you can see how successful our strength program has been with us through our success on the court. It’s been a tremendous help.”

Hillmann said that workouts tend to be general in nature, especially toward the beginning of summer. Exercises are largely geared toward protecting the body from injury during the season, with many total-body workouts.

“Taking a holistic approach to training … minimizes all kinds of things,” Hillmann said. “That’s why the training we do, especially in the weight room, is all general. The specific [training] comes in the conditioning [and] running program.”

When the remainder of the team returns to campus, general conditioning is relegated to two days a week, with more basketball specific exercises on the other 2-3 days, Hillmann said.

In the last month before the practices begin, the players are put through court-agility workouts that replicate the physical experience of an actual game, complete with a basketball court, sneakers, and sideline chairs. Hillmann emphasized the toll that a time-out can take on a basketball player’s body, as players have to sit down and stand abruptly during the game with no time for a warm-up.

When the players are not training with the strength and conditioning staff, it is expected by the coaches that they spend time playing “pick-up” basketball on their own time.

“I’m a big believer in getting shooting repetitions in, so we hope in the summer time that our kids are living in the gym getting shots in and working on their game,” Miller said.

While the physical training is rigorous during the summer, the period allows the players to work on their personal and professional chemistry.

“The summer is a great time to work on the family, as we like to call it,” Slagle said.

The dynamic on the team will face some changes after the graduation of seniors Tara Breske, Tamika Nurse, Sarah Clapper and Laura Bugher.

“Certainly, it’s a big loss,” Miller said. “They are experienced veterans, leaders and champions.”

The departure of the seniors does nothing to dampen the team’s optimism for the next season, with Miller and Slagle noting that a group of enthusiastic upperclassmen are willing to step up and lead the team, with Miller equating the dynamic to that of “a committee.”

“I think you’re going to see that core group pick up a lot of the responsibility in terms of leadership both on and off the court,” Miller said.

While the coaching staff is not able to directly coach the team during the summer, it visits other campuses to discuss basketball with other college coaches and professional coaches to improve its approach to the game. It also makes an effort to get recruits to come visit the campus in May and June, a period where the staff is not permitted to recruit off-campus.

“We are currently going through (evaluation) almost on a daily basis as a coaching staff,” Miller said.

Slagle said that she enjoys the autonomy the summer offers in terms of workouts, but also said that the coaches offer guidance during the regular season that makes things a bit easier.

“It’s half and half,” Slagle said.

More than anything else, there is a confidence that is driving the team to keep its work ethic high through the summer.

“I’m expecting big things,” Slagle said. “I think we have a lot of potential and we’ve got big shoes to fill from last year.”

Hillmann agrees with this, noting that the effects of training are most apparent on experienced teams with the benefit of time spent in the program.

“This is another veteran team that Curt is going to roll out there on the floor,” Hillmann said.