Bob Purcell has a pet peeve.

“I had two daughters who played sports,” said Purcell, the head coach at Amity since 2009. “It was always a pet peeve of mine that high school girls are weak. They don’t train. They play year round and they think that is getting in shape. It’s not.”

Since taking over the Spartans’ program, Purcell has implemented various strength training and conditioning exercises. Purcell believes it’s important for his players to be in the best physical shape possible.

“First thing when I got here we did weight training,” Purcell said. “The girls like it. For some of the girls, this is the first time they are lifting weights so you see the gains really quickly and they get excited by it. Some girls continue with it throughout the year. Some of them don’t, but then we come back the next year and do it all over again.”

The off-season training began in January after the student-athletes returned from winter vacation.

Here’s what Amity did:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Weight lifting

Tuesday, Thursday
Agility and conditioning

“During agility and conditioning,” Purcell said, “we do sprints, hurdles, ladders, and martial arts punching and kicking to make it fun.”

Purcell said he put together a training program based on a combination of what is used at UConn, Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac.

“The girls need to play half a year and then they need to rest and train the other half of the year,” Purcell said. “When they get to college that’s the first thing they do, they’re in the weight room. Girls don’t lift weights. They really should. They’re upper bodies are really weak. This team is pretty strong. We have about five or six girls who can squat over 225 pounds. It was a good off-season. When some of the girls hit, you can see the power coming through.”

Senior catcher Jen Post says during the conditioning portion they do running, hill work and sprints. As for the martial arts?

“We stand in lines and practice high-kicking and we would chant,” Post said. “Not really chant, but ‘hiyahs’”. It was fun.”

Post believes there are benefits to the training routines Amity did during the preseason.

“With softball you’re prone to a lot of injuries because you’re not moving around too much in the field,” Post said. “If you do something wrong you can easily get hurt. It’s good to be stronger and have better endurance.”

Despite playing one of the more physical positions on the field, Post said she followed the same program as the other players.

“I won’t say there’s anything different I did,” Post said. “I probably focused a little more on my legs so they’re stronger and I can last through all seven innings. I pretty much did the same routines as the other girls.”