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For Rockford-area multisport athletes, rest and recovery can be all in the mind

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For Rockford-area multisport athletes, rest and recovery can be all in the mind

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Even after decades of doing it, kids and coaches are still working out the best ways to quickly transition from one sport to another.

Or even if there is a best way.

It’s all pretty much predicated on how much time off an athlete gets. Or doesn’t get. And, individual preference.

Sometimes — mainly when your team is good and goes deep into the postseason — it can be a fast transition, making everything that much tougher. For most.

“The biggest thing is that everybody needs a little different amount of time to get ready, but they still need at least a little bit. Usually,” Byron boys basketball coach Matt Huels said. “We sure know; we have to deal with it a lot.”

Byron’s football team made the state championship game in four out of the last five years ahead of 2024 and the semifinals for six straight years. That’s kept Huels waiting for some of his stars in the past, and those stars pretty good at transitioning fast.

“The biggest break that I take all year is after football, usually just because I need like a week to rest my body,” said Byron fullback and linebacker Caden Considine, who also plays basketball and baseball. “But you get pretty good and making the turnaround quickly. At this point, it’s all routine.”

What’s the best way?

So what’s the most important thing about the transition from football to basketball? What’s the best way to adapt to wrestling after football season? Or from volleyball or flag football to hoops?

There are so many sports opportunities, and plenty of athletes who are going from one sport to the next, without much of a break.

Is there a right way or wrong way? Or at least a better way?

The consensus: It all depends on your time off.

And everybody is different.

ALL your football coverage, right here: Playoff time: Rockford area’s complete coverage from the 2024 high school football season

Everybody is different!

“As soon as I am done with volleyball, I am ready for the next sport,” said Kianna Degner, a Pecatonica volleyball and basketball standout. “It’s a totally different mindset and environment, but I am ready as soon as I step foot on the court … It’s just getting into the basketball mindset.”

Her teammate on both courts has a slightly different take on it.

“I take a couple of days off to regroup and get ready for basketball,” Elaina Rager said. “It all gets easier because I have grown physically and mentally, but harder because there is more pressure that comes with being older.”

As with Considine, most seem to like a little time off when jumping from one sport to another. Coaches take that into account, and try and give them the time they need.

“It’s not easy switching gears like that, but you have to be patient and give yourself some time,” said Guilford’s All-State quarterback Aishah Smith. Smith also plays basketball in the winter and may play soccer in the spring. “This time I had like one day. I could have used a little more time off for my body, but not for my mind. I was ready to go again.”

And every situation is different

When teams are knocked out of the postseason quickly, there is often not an issue. That can give an athlete an extra few weeks, even a month, to recharge.

“It’s still been pretty quick, even though we didn’t do as well as we wanted,” said East’s Eddy Esguerra, who played football, and is now wrestling. He will also throw on the E-Rabs’ track and field team in the spring. “It keeps me busy, though, and I like that it keeps changing, and it gives me different things to focus on.”

The 6-foot-1, 282-pound Esguerra was a lineman for the East football team that went 3-6 and missed out on the playoffs. But he jumped right onto the wrestling mat as soon as he could anyway.

Considine, Esguerra and Smith are all examples of three-sport athletes. But with the success that his Byron football and basketball teams have had recently ― the basketball squad placed third at state last year ― Considine has had less time off than maybe anybody around.

But that’s been OK with him.

“I don’t want much time. I get bored stiff,” said Considine, the son of Super Bowl champ Sean Considine, who is an assistant football coach at Byron. “I have to be doing something, so I don’t want a lot of down time. Really, when I’m off, I can’t take it anymore.

“I just want to get back out there.”

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.

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