Local Girls Prepare for Fall Sports Season All Summer

Carley and Cassidy Guida are typical teenagers: They aren’t amped to wake up at 6 a.m. for weekly hour-long work outs at in Water Mill, but, they do it anyway.

It’s a drill that makes the dreaded pre-season period a little less scary, said the girls' mother, Diane Guida, who teaches biology at and coaches girls’ junior varsity basketball. In June, Guida asked Joao Monteiro, Core’s fitness training manager, and trainer Craig Priestly to craft a weekly strength training program for the girls.

Since then, Carley and Cassidy have been waking up early and committing to stretching and strength training at the gym, housed in a converted barn on Deerfield Road. At one late August session, the girls alternated between pull ups (helped along by Priestly), repetitions on the row machine and squats on a flexible surface, plus other technical training.

Both Guida girls are three-sport athletes, playing basketball in the winter and running track in the spring. Carley runs cross country in the fall, and Cassidy plays soccer this upcoming season. Carley broke county records in track last year, a feat she hopes to accomplish again in the coming months. The girls also hope to win in their basketball league this year.

“We made it to the playoffs last year,” Cassidy said.

The training the girls have had all summer will help them reach their athletic goals this year. Monteiro, a former volleyball player in Brazil, said that long breaks from a sport let muscles slide out of shape. Playing volleyball, he felt his body was only at its peak shape at the end of the season.

It’s a feeling Core’s training will help the girls avoid. Guida said Southampton schools do not have any programs for athletes to stay in shape over the summer, other than pre-season, which began two weeks ago.

Besides their intense Core Dynamics workouts, Carley and Cassidy have been running and playing basketball this summer.

The Guida sisters are usually joined at Core Dynamics with another athlete, Erika Gulija, Guida said.

When the girls first started training at Core Dynamics, Monteiro and Priestly evaluated their strength, Guida said. In late August, Priestly was still taking notes on how Cassidy and Carley did in their routines.

He said even though the girls are skilled runners, they have to cross train to prevent injury.

“Running day-in and day-out causes injuries,” said Priestly, a former professional rugby player from Australia. He said knee injuries are common in young girls. “But, you can stop them by teaching the right techniques and strengthening the core muscles.”

Priestly had the girls traversing a small workout room in lunges, a key move to strengthen the knee.

“My friends think I’m crazy,” Cassidy said about the early-morning routines. “But I’m getting stronger and better for next year.”