Competition at the Division 1 level requires heart, dedication and a drive for success.

For evidence of this, look no further than the ISU soccer team.

The Cyclone soccer team, as well as a number of other athletic teams, have a much more involved work routine than what shows up on the practice field and in games. The athletes are required to complete a certain amount of training and keep up with their coursework if they want to be able to perform on the field for their team.

This conditioning often starts before the rest of the student body is even awake.

The soccer team divides into two groups and are in the weight room at the Lied Athletic Recreation Center as early as 6:30 a.m.

This is something that senior midfielder Casey Bothwell has become accustomed to over the past few years in the program. Bothwell has even come to enjoy the team workout environment.

“It’s hard to wake up in the morning, especially after a long night of studying or a hard workout, but you just get used to it,” Bothwell said. “I love the atmosphere in there. It’s intense, but you know you have to get it done.”

Bothwell admits that as a freshman it took some getting used to. She is now, however, in a position to instill the work ethic in the younger players that what they do on the field will affect what they do off of it.

“It’s the stuff we put in now that will help us later on,” Bothwell said. “This is the strength building program that we need to compete in the Big 12. We’re not the biggest team in the Big 12, but if we can hold off defenders and compete physically, it really goes a long way for us. I just tell freshman that every freshman goes through it and it eventually just becomes part of your schedule. You go to sleep earlier and you wake up earlier.”

Strength and conditioning coach Andrew Moser has two key goals for the players when they enter the program. Those are improving their overall performance and keeping the players healthy. In order to do this, the athletes need to learn how to go about making these workouts part of their bodily routine.

“To compete at a Division 1 level, you have to be strong, you have to be in shape and you have to be conditioned,” Moser said.

The Cyclones have reasons for training at the hours they do. One reason is to avoid any 8 a.m. class conflicts that any players may have, The other reason is to keep weight training and conditioning, which they have in the middle of the afternoon and into the early evening, separate from each other. This allows the players to not get too fatigued.”

The soccer team’s weight room exercises focus mainly on maintaining and improving lower body strength and strengthening the body’s core.

The core comprises of the body’s upper and lower abdominal muscles as well as the back muscles.

“Having a strong core will allow the body to have better balance and posture,” Moser said.

They have two different types of workouts that they do on different days of the week, One day is comprised of more weight training while a different day focuses on what they call a “circuit” workout.

“The more weight focused workout focuses on certain parts of the body,” Moser said. “Where as the circuit workout is a total body workout that gets the heart rate up and allows them to work on their flexibility and torso muscles.”

When the team is done with the weight room and the afternoon practice, its time to hit the books and then the pillow. The soccer players have a required amount of study hall hours they have to meet based on their GPA. Bothwell has four while most freshman players are required to log eight study hall hours.

Team members feel that while they don’t have much time for a “student life” outside of school and soccer, that thought doesn’t occupy them for long.

“You always see everyone and you think, yeah, it would be nice to not have to do anything for a day, but a week of it and I would be sick of it. I don’t know what I would do with my time,” said freshman defender Megan Long.

For Bothwell, it’s her drive and love for the game that makes it easier to deal with the workload.

“It’s a lot of work,” Bothwell said. “It keeps people wondering where my life outside of school and soccer is and its there, but not there at the same time. It really has been hard work and there have been times where I questioned whether I can do this or not, but I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”