Following long, championship winning seasons, many athletes are going to choose to celebrate the ending of their season in a variety of ways. Some may celebrate, but the majority of the most successful athletes prefer to get right to work again. Often, how an athlete celebrates success shows why they were successful in the first place.

After winning a Super Bowl ring, along with the tradition of taking a trip to Disney World, athletes will celebrate by receiving a large bonus and surely enjoy a parade through the city they are representing. With teams not formally meeting again until late May, this leaves an entire 3 months that the athletes are not suffering the brutality of rigorous team training and instead spending the time doing what they would like to. With all this free time the question arises: what do the athletes do with their newfound time?

Many NFL athletes decide it is better for them to get right back to work and choose to not spend their break as a break entirely. Athletes such as Super Bowl L champion Emmanuel Sanders understand the importance of not waiting too long to begin work on winning their next ring. “We’re up here, we’re working hard, and we’re thinking about the next one,” Sanders shares, concerning the Broncos’ approach to their post-Super Bowl victorious season. Sanders was well aware of the “new target they had on their back”, but also wanted to make sure the rest of the Broncos were going to be ready to take the next season by storm along with being as motivated and ready as possible.

Even with a Super Bowl ring being out of reach for current Battlefield students, this concept still applies to many school programs. The Battlefield Girls Varsity Soccer team, having reached the landmark of 3 consecutive state titles this past season, is a prime example of this.

Four year team member and George Mason soccer commit Emma Lee speaks on behalf of the girls soccer team this year. “The reason I believe we have been so successful in past seasons is our work ethic and attitude the team takes into each new season,” says Lee. Lee goes on to say, “Since our players all have teams outside of the school’s program, everyone is getting continuous work and keeping up with their game. There is not much time for a break for us, and we hope it leads to even another ring this year. We all have high hopes for the upcoming season.”

While the Battlefield wrestling team may have not won a state ring this past season, their overall success and other titles earned would certainly qualify them as having had a successful 2015-2016 season that they look to improve on this year.

Junior wrestler Turner Manning shares his thoughts on what they hope to achieve this post-season. “Regional champions was good last year, but not good enough. We are currently ranked as the top 6A team in the state, likely a result of our heavy off-season training everyone has been doing,” shares Manning. “When we finished as regional champions last year, we made it our goal to come out the next season a step higher as state champions. We hope having went right back to work in the off-season will pay off.”

Celebrating is a healthy treat, but should be short lasted. Take it from these successful athletes, such as Super Bowl champions and three-time state champions, that as soon as they had achieved their goal, they looked toward what is next instead of what has already happened. The attitude to continue looking ahead even following success is what sets the good apart from the great, and plays a major role in why these teams have done as well as they have.