If you stopped by American Legion Field this week you might have seen Seymour baseball players hauling tires around the outfield or playing dodgeball.

Those were two of the many activities that head coach Jeremy Richey and the coaching staff had the players participate in as part of the Victory Field Challenge.

Richey is beginning his fifth season as head coach of the Owls, and he has had them do the Challenge prior to each season.

“We get a little better at it every year,” he said. “We come up with different ideas. It’s just to put our kids in a little bit of adversity, a little bit of toughness to see how they respond to it. We put them on teams because they typically perform better when it’s for somebody else.

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“We kind of mix it up because that makes the picking of the teams even tougher. You put a bunch of fast kids on your team, outside you’re going to do pretty well, but in the weight room you may not.”

Senior middle infielder Bryce Carpenter said, “I just like how it brings us together as a team and gets everyone competing.”

The seniors were the team captains, and each team had up to eight players on their team.

All the players lifted weights Monday. They did bench press, squat, pushups and pullups, and did each for one minute.

After participating in the tire relay where each player carried a tire from one foul line to the other foul line.

“It was a little tiring,” Carpenter said. “I carried it around my waist. There was less stress that way. Some players elected to carry tires over their shoulders.”

Events on Wednesday included dodgeball and a tug-o-war. On Thursday, they did the Gator push relay, big tire flip, and today, everyone was to take part in an obstacle course.

The players also did activities each day that tested their mental toughness.

“Probably the best thing I enjoy is the team bonding together and working together, and the team chemistry,” junior Tyler Bloom said. “We got some good lifts. It hurts a little bit once you get into the end of the lifting. You get a little sore and tired but you’ve just got to fight through it.”

Bloom said most of the players lift throughout the season as part of their weight class.

“My favorite lift is probably bench,” he said. “My personal best was 200. I want to get 225 by the time the year ends. This is pretty fun. I can’t wait for batting practice.”

Richey drew inspiration for the Challenge from colleges.

“Colleges do this — It’s called the ‘Omaha Challenge’ because of the College World Series being played in Omaha, Nebraska,” Richey said. “We got the idea from that and over the years we’ve kind of changed some things, and put different exercises in there that kind of makes it look physical and mental, and the kids respond real well to that.

“We want to mix that up. The point is not to kill them. The point is to make it really difficult, and to see them respond to that. A lot of our mental stuff takes place at the end of the day. They do all this running and they get tired, and then we’re going to make them think at the end.”

Richey said the Challenges represents the game and season.

“As they get to the end of the season, their bodies are worn down, they’re a little tired from playing a lot, and that’s when it matters the most,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure the mind is right. It’s a really cool thing that the kids have embraced, and it is tough.

“Every year it’s came down to the last activity for us to see who the winner is going to be. The teams are pretty evenly match, so it’s not decided by Wednesday.”