Spikers working on offseason in the preseason

The regular season doesn't start until January, but the Penn State men's volleyball team is already preparing for the postseason.

The Nittany Lions are in the midst of what some would consider the hardest part of a team's year -- conditioning. Preseason training is the often-ignored part of the year which frequently lays the foundation for a team's success or failure.

"This is definitely the tough part of the year," Penn State middle blocker Sergio Pampena said. "There isn't too much fun involved here, you don't get to play much. You pretty much are just trying to get back in shape after the summer."

- Penn State middle blocker Sergio Pampena

As the Lions prepare to make another run for the final four, their training and conditioning takes on many different forms.

Weightlifting and strength training are daily activities, but it is the conditioning outside the weight room that can be the most painful part of the preseason.

It can be grueling and monotonous. Sometimes it means running laps at the track, while other days it could mean running the bleachers at Beaver Stadium.

"Conditioning is never a lot fun, it's a lot of hard work," said Chip Harrison, Penn State's strength training coach. "But you can do conditioning in a lot of different ways. If it is done right, it won't always seem like work. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."

For the men's volleyball team, sugar comes in the form of ultimate basketball -- a sort of no-holds-barred version of hoops played with a volleyball. Playing shirts and skins, with little-to-no rules, the Lions compete almost nonstop for an hour.

"When we play games like that, it takes your mind off of what you are doing," Pampena said. "Other times, when we're just running, that's when it's really rough. The competition makes it almost fun."

While the conditioning helps prepare their bodies for the upcoming season, it also provides time for the team to bond and new recruits to ease into the system.

"This is when the team figures each other out, this is when roles are defined," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "One of the best things I can see is when a freshman might extend a hand to a senior and help him up off the court. Things like that say a lot."

This could be a tough season for the Lions. All-Americans Jason Kepner and Ivan Contreras graduated, leaving the team with two major holes to fill. So far, the players have been up to the challenge.

"Everybody this year is going full force," Pampena said. "The positions aren't really filled yet, so you have to show it during conditioning and in the weight room."

The team will start a series of intrasquad scrimmages next week to begin preparing for a preseason tournament in Rochester during the first week of November. However, until January rolls around, all the Lions really have to look forward to is more training and conditioning.

"Down the line it will be worth it," Pampena said. "If you get to the final four and if you win the national championship, you won't think about how hard the conditioning was, you'll just think about how great winning is."