"Preseason last year we decided we have 3 weeks or 21 days before or 1st game and it get a little redundant because we are inside most of the time and we thought what can we do to break things up?" explains Alleman head coach Jerry Burkhead.
The answer-- yoga.
"It was a chuckle. Coach was like we're gonna do yoga and we were like what?" joked Luke Trondson.
"1st thing that went through my mind was just kind of a confusion I guess you could say. You kinda picture yoga as something a bunch of ladies do," admitted Brendan Hird.
"They looked at me like like I was joking. I said no I'm serious and it's the real deal," explains Burkhead.
And it didn't take long for their tune to change.
"He just told us to into it with an open mind and I don't think we did that and when we came in it was harder than we thought," admitted Trondson. "It's still harder than we thought. "
Seeing was believng for the Pioneers, who discovered they weren't alone.
"Once you start looking into it you see that all the professional sports teams are doing it. They say it works and it definitely helps," said Hird.
"I think younger kids started to realize that. The coaches start to recognize that and said this could be pretty decent. We stretch but are we doing it right?" explains Cathy David.
98% of yoga is mental, the Pioneers learning life lessons along the way.
And that mentality translates directly to the field
"After losing by 10 runs to a very good Galesburg team we had to bounce back and I'd say yoga had helped us a lot. She teaches us to let go a lot. We let go and in game 2 we were more ready to play," explains Trondson
