Throughout the years high school athletes have been working hard in hot summer months, lifting weights, improving endurance, strength, and speed, and working their way toward implementation of the coaches directing their athletes and the use of the their particular sport’s ball in late-summer practices. True practice time always came in mid to late August as a sign the regular season was just around the corner.

This year, Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference rule changes allowed for coaches to work with their athletes during a pair of two-hour long sessions per week starting the week of June 24 and running through August 9, excluding the July 4 week — with balls in play. This gave coaches the opportunity to have a dozen two-hour sessions with players, and did not include strength, conditioning, or agility training.

Newtown High School Football Coach Dan Farina and company have enjoyed the opportunity to get ahead while being careful to avoid burnout.

“It’s been a good change,” said Farina, adding that the advantage is that teams do not have to scramble to get caught up in a short time of just a couple weeks before the first game.

Teams are able to build their practice base sooner, and be closer to game-ready mode with some time to spare.

“I think it’s going to help everyone. At the same time, they need to be kids,” said Farina, adding that he considered pushing his players with five-day-a-week practice/workout summer sessions each morning but opted to limit it to four days, each for a few morning hours.

A potential downside of the added hands-on time is a risk of sports-playing burnout for those athletes, especially those also playing other sports during the summer, Farina said. Of course, getting the most out of them and preparing them all the while not running them overly-ragged has always been a juggling act for coaches. The football players push themselves in the weight room almost from the time the fall campaign ends right on through the summer months. They go hard in summer workouts on the Blue & Gold Stadium turf to prepare to battle on Friday nights.

“We lift pretty hard. They just need time to have their bodies heal,” Farina said.

Doug Michlovitz, athletic trainer at NHS, said anytime coaches get to work with players it’s a positive as long as precautions are taken.

“You need to make sure there is enough recovery time,” Michlovitz noted. “The key is finding the balance between improving skill levels and having enough recovery time to avoid injuries.”

An emphasis has been put on skill work during these add-on sessions, Newtown High School Athletic Director Matt Memoli said. Memoli added that coaches have done a good job to make use of this opportunity while taking the necessary precautions.

“They’re all looking out for the student-athlete,” Memoli said.

Another piece to the new-look sports training puzzle is the logistics. It has been a bit tricky finding time and spaces for all of the school sports teams as well as town recreation programs to use the fields and courts in town.

“I give a lot of credit to our athletic department and our AD, Matt Memoli. He put together a schedule of suggested days for team workouts to avoid conflicts and coaches competing for athletes. He held a coaches meeting to explain the CIAC rules change and the suggested schedule,” Newtown High Boys’ Basketball Coach Matt Murphy said.

During some mornings at Blue & Gold Stadium the football team could be seen using one half of the field while the field hockey girls ran skill-based drills on the other.

“I think our coaches did a really good job of working together and sharing student-athletes and sharing spaces,” Memoli added. “Overall, it’s a great thing — a positive thing. I think it’s beneficial for the teams and for the student-athletes too.”

Field hockey captain Reese Lischuk said the rule change allows for teams to be better established sooner, which helps bring the athletes together to form a bond well in advance of the regular season.

“There is less time taken to form the team and more time taken to get the skills the coaches need us to get in,” Lischuk added.

With the use of footballs so early in preseason, Farina has dropped some workout time slots to keep giving the athletes one morning off. But this has been done without sacrificing the weight training he believes the team members need — thanks to the fundraising of the program booster club there is new equipment in the weight room. Now there are nine weight lifting racks, which makes for a good ratio to keep the 60-or-so athletes busy without prolonged waiting time, Farina said.

“We’re excited. I think we’ve done a really good job in the weight room and in the offseason,” the coach added. “They know what it takes, they know how to work. I think we’re trending in the right direction.”

Although the first players you might think of being impacted by use of footballs for more of the preseason are the quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs, any additional game-play scenarios put in place are going to help the defense as well, especially in the case of the Nighthawks, who lost nine starters to graduation from the defensive side of the ball.

Football defensive end and captain C.J. St Louis said the use of footballs and coaching in play so early on helps with footwork and understanding defensive assignments. Fellow captain Marco D’Amico said the summer practice time, including camps the team members attend, make for a nice bonding opportunity.

“It helps us get a jump on the season,” football captain Ayden Paulos said.

And this is particularly important for teams going through changes such as the football team with Dave Chervansky taking over duties as offensive coordinator.

“With a new offensive coordinator we’d be at such a disadvantage to other teams because we put in an entirely new playbook,” football captain James Hartigan said.

Thanks to the added time Hartigan and his teammates can get up to speed and everyone can get on the same page with terminology under the direction of Chervansky, a longtime coach at St Joseph High in Trumbull, who is implementing more of a spread offense than the Hawks relied on last fall. Chervansky noted that more repetitions help the players get game ready.

The quarterbacks vying for playing time are senior Ryan Schoffstall, junior Marcus Gerace, and sophomore Nick Stockwell. All of the QBs are looking good and impressing coaches as the summer preparation season unfolds, the NHS coaches said.

The boys’ soccer team will have a combination of new and returning faces but will have to find a some players to step up after the graduation of some of its top scorers in the past couple of seasons.

“It’s nice for us to get a little bit of a head start,” said Matt Cotto, an assistant coach with the boys’ soccer program, adding that the hope is for the hard work in the summer to pay off in the fall when the regular season unfolds.

Cotto said getting the players together for brief practice sessions allows them to get to know each other and set the standard for the season early on.

While there is a carryover from summer into fall this training can also benefit sports teams who compete in winter and spring.

“When we learned of the potential CIAC rule change we reached out to our returning players to see if they were interested in summer skills sessions. The resounding answer was yes,” NHS Boys’ Basketball Coach Matt Murphy said. “They seemed very excited to have the opportunity to come together as a program and work out together.

“I thought it was a great opportunity for us to work with our players. Our sessions were mostly skills-based — working on fundamental skills and some team concepts, both offensive and defensive. The boys’ basketball program made every attempt to make sure that parents and players knew what our schedule was going to be for the summer and that these workouts were not mandatory. If a player had a summer job, vacation, college visits, or any other conflict, no problem,” Murphy added. “We asked them to communicate with us if they were not able to attend. We have been very pleased with the turnout all summer long. The kids have been very committed and their time and effort this summer will be on display during the winter.

“The ability to get in the gym and work out together is great, regardless of fall or winter season. It allowed us to teach and really focus on skill development while bringing the kids in the program together, which is great for chemistry,” Murphy said.

There are spring sports teams, such as lacrosse, making use of the added practice times but for some sports teams it does not necessarily make sense to utilize the summer sessions. Just ask NHS Softball Coach Megan Goyda.

“Softball is so demanding over the summer with travel ball and the girls travel so much for tournaments so it’s really not worth it,” Goyda pointed out.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.