Inside The Rock

Mountaineer football fans and House United family, welcome to “Inside the Rock.” A behind-the-scenes blog on the App State football program. My name is Trey Schaneville, and I am a graduate transfer kicker for your very own App State football program. “Inside the Rock” will give Appalachian State Football fans the opportunity to see the football program like never before; through the lens of a current player.

Thanks to the generosity and support of App State alumni, the Yosef Club, and House United; my teammates and I are able to earn a world-class education while playing a sport that we love in front of the best fans in the country. Continue your support by visiting houseunitedsports.com, where 20% of your purchases will be given to support the student-athletes you read about in this blog.

For my very first blog post, I am excited to give the fans an inside-look on the grind, that is, fall camp.

“It’s Different up Here on the Mountain”

As a first year player here at App State, I couldn’t be more pumped to get to work and to join a football program with such a rich history of winning. In our very first team meeting of the football season, on the afternoon of August 3rd, a coach said to me, “It’s different up here on the Mountain”, and boy did he mean it. One of the guys I met on the first day of fall camp puts it like this, “You really can’t explain it until you’re up here and you experience it… we’re different, we do things differently than anyone else in the country, and we work harder than
anyone else in the country.”

And that, we do. Coming from a Division 2 program in Melbourne, Florida, I have been around a
lot of hard-working guys that love the game of football. However, this is different. When I walk into this new facility every day, I can tell I am surrounded by teammates that are here to give everything they got in order to carry on the tradition of winning at App State Football.

Keeping that tradition alive does not come easy, especially during fall camp. It requires constant focus from sunrise to sunset; everything from team meetings, to strength and conditioning training, to practice, to treatment/rehab. Staying locked-in through all of that is definitely a difficult task, but we know that is what it takes to build a winning culture. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve figured out ways to keep ourselves sane throughout the day; like taking power naps in between meetings, holding quick ping-pong tournaments, or playing a round of corn-hole. But, for the most part, football is our main focus and we have to stay locked-in.

Due to the nature of fall camp, our bodies take a beating. Granted, mine takes a little less than the rest of the guys… as my only job is to kick a football, rather than running around and trying to tackle 200 pound running backs or block a 300 pound lineman. Regardless, fall camp takes a toll on all of our bodies, and we must take our recovery and treatment seriously. Luckily for us, we have a great nutrition and athletic training staff that makes sure we have everything we need in order to continue performing at a high level. Whether that’s supplying us with vitamins and supplements every day or performing acupuncture on our sore muscles, the athletic training / nutrition staff keep us feeling fresh (well, at least as fresh as possible) throughout camp.

I have come to realize that an underrated recovery tool is, simply, sleep. Sleeping 8-9 hours a night is not only important for recharging your brain, but is huge for muscle recovery. Thankfully, I easily get 8-9 hours of sleep every night during fall camp, mainly because I pass out the moment I touch my bed; and then I get to wake up and do it all over again…

It takes a different mindset and level of commitment to do what we do. It takes a different attitude and level of toughness to create a winning culture. It takes a different group of men to accomplish something special. But, as the saying goes, “it’s different up here on the mountain.”

On to East Carolina!

New “Inside the Rock” blogs will be posted weekly, so be sure to subscribe to House United to be notified when a new post is released!

Use the discount code ‘Inside The Rock’ and receive 10% off your next purchase at houseunitedsports.com.