When walking across Stokinger Field during the week of November 10, you might see Milton Academy’s football practice brightly lit with gigantic lamps. Ever since the daylight savings time switch, most sports ended practice early. However, football is different—their practice, under the blazing floodlights, doesn't end until the official end time of 5:45 p.m.
As Athletic Director and Boys’ Varsity Basketball Coach Lamar Reddicks noted, lamps are provided as sources of light. But even with the addition of these lights, football practices can’t revert to their pre-daylight savings agenda. Varsity Football Coach Mike Mason stated that they switched around the usual schedule and set “team practices such as offense (throwing the ball) and defense (playing against the pass)” before the sun set, while they “[did] all [their] drill work under the spotlight.” Moreover, for the sake of getting as much practice time with the daylight as possible, they “[changed their] lifting and film schedule to later after practice.” Around this time during all other years, football would usually have only one week of practice left, but, because of their diligent efforts, they, as Mason commented, “made a bowl game this year” and “will spend two weeks in the dark” instead of just one, practicing alongside the glaring lights.
JV Football player Jack McDonell ‘28 credits the lamps, commenting on how “they help… practice.” For JV Football, the end of daylight savings resulted in a change to their Wednesday schedule, causing lifting to be placed before their team practices so that they could train in the daylight. On normal practice days, JV Football ends anytime from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 pm, spending all of their allotted practice time, just like Varsity Football.
However, Mia Gao ‘28 on JV Girls’ Soccer commented on how practice ended early, at around 4:50 p.m. For the past few days, JV Girls’ Soccer practice has consisted of “a lot of the same drills” such as “corner kicks.” For JV Girls’ Soccer, the end of daylight savings caught the players near the end of the season, when they wrapped up the fine-tuning of their skills.
On the other hand, Boys’ Varsity Soccer uses all of their practice time; however, they altered their schedules so that they could spend some time indoors after the sun set. Landon Muzquiz ‘28 notes this change, saying that after practice, the team “[heads] to the RSG to do film sessions almost every practice.” And so, almost every practice, they “spend upwards of 30 minutes watching film and doing lifts in the gym.” Because it is “inconvenient” that their practice sometimes spills into the time of the sky’s darkening, they usually spend their last 30 minutes inside, utilizing as much of their time as they can.
In contrast to all three of these teams, Girls’ Cross Country didn’t have a major change in their schedule. Esme Campbell ‘26 mentions that “[the end of daylight savings] only affected the practices the week of NEPSTAS.” Moreover, the Cross Country team was “already tapering, so [their] practices were shorter anyways.” For a typical practice during the middle of the season, they usually end at 5:45 pm, but the specific end time “depends on how long [their workouts take].” An example of this, says Campbell, is the Friday practice schedule: “Friday is a short pre-meet run, so we end an hour early.” And so, unlike Soccer and Football, the end of daylight savings did not directly affect Cross Country’s time or order of practice.
Even though Football has a bright lamp to illuminate their practices, their practice schedule still shifts. Meanwhile, other sports practice until 5:45 pm despite the ending of daylight saving time, highlighting how all athletes work diligently, even if they don’t have a lot of light. However, Reddicks mentioned how the department is “getting two lamps for both Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer this week [of November 10],” so, soon, you might be able to see another light illuminating the soccer games.