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Social distancing with sports conditioning at Honesdale High School

Athletes in our area are finding ways to stay in shape hoping their seasons will be able to resume in short order.

HONESDALE, Pa. — Honesdale high SCHOOL sports are inactive while schools are closed, but Paul Russick, the football team's new head coach is trying to get creative with working out to keep his players in shape and motivated, so he took to social media with a challenge.

"Whoever can get the most creative with their workout, I'll give them a t-shirt when we get back to school. Whoever has the most 'likes' and it kind of just took on a life of its own," Russick said.

The post went up on Monday to encourage anyone in the school district to show their routine and kids began sharing their videos immediately.

"I have everything from students chopping wood, I had someone running after chickens in their backyard. I had a student that was pushing mom or dad's truck in the driveway."

That student was Jakob Burlein, a junior at Honesdale and a member of the football team.

"I think coach putting this out there really put us ahead of the curve in a way because we're doing all this good, at-home training and we're not missing out on too much."

Even Coach Russick got in on the action with his dog, any way to help build that team bond, even if it's not in person.

"Kind of gets them to know me a little better as well as the kids, you know, my first year teaching in the district so they're seeing me do some crazy things in hopes of maybe that brings out stuff with them," Russick said.

"A lot of people will say, 'oh, I don't have the equipment, or I can do it,' but a workout program like this where you're just using whatever you have allows you to get rid of that excuse, so you kind of have to do it. Otherwise, you're just cheating yourself," Burlein said.

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