Getting back in shape with Gatorade REPLAY.
by Adam Fleischer / @Adamxxl
Sometimes, if I don’t play ball for just a week or two, I feel a lost when I get back on the court. It’s like I’ve gotta shake the dust off when I step back out there.
I’ve been out of high school for half a decade and am in nowhere near the shape I was in during my peak. Having practice everyday, multiple games per week and knowing I had to fight for my minutes kept me in shape and on my toes.
But I’d love to get back to that top form and get out on the floor with my teammates to see if our chemistry still had the necessary elements and to take on an old rival.
In the last few years, Gatorade has introduced REPLAY, a series that gives a lucky few high school teams a chance to do just that. Now in its third season, the series gives teams a chance to replay a notable game from their teen years. But it’s not simply the high school teams that are replaying these games—it’s the actually players from the games, now 10 or more years out of high school.
In the first two installments, Gatorade helped rehash an Ohio football rivalry and a Michigan hockey game. Now, for its latest season, REPLAY is taking it to the hardwood.
Later this week, the Bloom Township Trojans and the Brother Rice Crusaders—two schools on Chicago’s South Side—will be replaying a game from the state basketball playoffs in 2000. The story goes that a buzzer-beating tip in gave Bloom a nail-biting victory. Problem was, the roar of the crowd drowned out the sound of the buzzer, and there is some controversy as to whether or not the shot should have been counted.
Well, now both sides get a chance to put any questions to rest, once and for all.
In order to get in game shape, the players on each squad went through a rigorous eight-week training program—as did those who competed in Season 1’s battle on the gridiron and Season 2’s hockey game. The regimen was developed by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute and is serious enough to, with relative quickness, whip grown men—often with families, jobs, and visibly different body types than when they played the initial contest—into real game shape.
And, on top of demanding workout and nutrition programs, and as if the event wasn’t a big enough deal in the area already, the guys will have All-NBA First Teamers to help their resurrection. Dwight Howard will be roaming the sidelines as a guest coach for Brother Rice, while Chi-town native Dwyane Wade will be holding things down for Bloom.
That may be the coolest aspect of this whole thing for the players, but not for someone like me (that’s not a shot, Dwyane and Dwight). Nah. It’s the fact that Gatorade just recently made the various workout regimens that the players have gone through available online so you or I can follow along. They’ve got videos demonstrating the exercises as well as other tips about form and nutrition.
For some, the more general workouts that they offer may be the best option. For others, it may be the fact that you can download the full Season 3 workouts that Bloom and Brother Rice are followed to prepare for the game.
I consider myself in that latter half. So excuse me while I download the program and head outside on this beautiful New York City end of summer day to, once again, shake some of that dust off.
The rematch is already sold out, but can be seen live online on the official REPLAY site.
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