Juggling act

By Staff
Staying in shape for three sports is tough work
Hunter Teague, Special to the Enquirer
This is the second in a series of journals taking a close look at the life of a high-school athlete in the summer off-season.
For Priceville senior Hunter Teague, summer isn't about staying in shape for just one sport, but keeping physically fit for three of them.
Teague participates in football, basketball and baseball for the Bulldogs, and his summer is a juggling act between workouts for football, games and practices for basketball and hitting sessions for baseball. The life of a high school athlete is never slow and boring, even during the summer months, as Teague's journal shows:
Friday, May 20
"Today was my last day of school. I don't have to come home next week because it is exam week, and I exempted out of all my exams. I worked out with the football team today. We get a week off after today's workout because we just finished spring training last night in our spring game against West Morgan. After our week off we will start our summer workouts next Monday."
Saturday, May 21
"After lunch today I called up my friends Alex Cannon and Josh Bedwell and asked them if they wanted to go to the river. Alex had to work, so it was just me, Josh, and my dad and brother. We went out on our jet-ski and boat. … After a little while I got off the jet-ski, so I could wake-board. I was a little bit rusty because I haven't done it since last summer. …"
Saturday, June 4
"Today I got up around 11, ate breakfast, and got ready to go to the river. Alex met me and my family at my house and we headed for the river around 12:30. I was pulling the jet-ski and dad pulled the boat. We hung out on the river for a while. … Then Taylor, my brother, and Brittany, my sister, got on the jet-ski and I got on the wake-board. Well, I hit a really good jump and came back for another jump and crashed. The board came off one foot and came around and hit me in the head. Luckily, it didn't knock me unconscious or I might have drowned. My dad came back and picked me up on the boat and I showed him the cut. He got a towel and told mom to apply pressure and she freaked out. She did it though, and we sped back to the boat ramp. … We headed to the emergency room. I called Christen and told her what happened and she said she would meet us there. We got to the hospital and went straight back, and the doctor numbed the cut and cleaned it. He said you could see my skull, and explained to my dad the different layers of scalp it cut through. After that he put 20 staples in my head and I was free to go. …"
Sunday, June 5
"… Today wasn't quite as eventful as yesterday, which is a good thing. I was going to go to church, but I had a splitting headache. Ha ha!
Anyway, I really did have a headache and Christen slept in, so we didn't go. … After (dinner) I went to basketball practice and showed everyone my staples. Needless to say I didn't practice, I just shot the whole time. I will probably be out until the staples come out and that will be about nine more days."
Tuesday, June 7
"… I had basketball practice at 4, then I went to football workouts from 5 to 7. Finally I had basketball practice from 7 to 8. So today was pretty busy just like every other day this summer."
Thursday, June 9
"My dad called me after (noon) and I went to do some more work on that yard we've been working on. This time I harley-raked the dirt. It basically breaks up the chunks of dirt from tilling and levels it out also. After that, I went to football workouts at 5, and had basketball games starting at 6. We won both games, beating West Point and Holly Pond. In between games, I went to baseball workouts and hit some, and then I came back for the next game."
Monday, June 13
(last entry)
"Today I woke up at 7:30, ate breakfast, and got ready for my doctor's appointment at 8:15. I went to get my staples taken out. It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. After the appointment, I went straight to Wallace State because we had four basketball games. We played all morning and into afternoon, winning three of the four games.
We got back around 3 and I had to go work with my dad. I worked until 5 o'clock, and had to stop to go to football workouts from 5 to 7. Then from 7 to 8 we had skill camps, where we went over plays."
Sports editor Justin Schuver contributed to this report.