Between designing championship rings and T-shirts, organizing and directing summer workouts and planning the logistics of the regular season, it's rare that a coaching staff can completely relax during the summer.

"That's one thing that's certainly been a factor in coaching," Broadneck football coach Jeff Herrick said. "In order to be competitive, you have to do things year round. All coaches - if you want to be competitive - you're going to have to make plans in the offseason to be successful."

Herrick and defensive coordinator Rob Harris, like every football coach in Anne Arundel County, spend much of their time in the weight room. Broadneck players are encouraged to participate in 90-minute weight-lifting regiments two and three times a week to keep their conditioning up for the regular season.

The sessions are voluntary for the players, and it's that way for the coaches, too. But if you want to be successful during the season, sacrifices must be made, which is something Herrick bought into when he took over the program in 1988.

"It's definitely beneficial to your program," he said.

The Bruins ranked second in the county both in scoring and in defense during an 8-2 regular-season run last year. Only Arundel, the Class 4A runner-ups, scored more points (344) than Broadneck's 301, and Old Mill held opponents to 10.7 points a game, ahead of the Bruins' 11.7.

Herrick attributes much of the team's success its constant work in the offseason.

"The week after the state finals, we started preparing for next season, making practice schedules, tryouts, looking at fund-raisers," Chesapeake softball coach Don Ellenberger said. "We wanted to get that stuff out of the way so it wasn't holding us back at the beginning of next season. It keeps me going."

Ellenberger, currently designing his teams' championship ring after leading the Cougars to their second consecutive state title, spends much of his time during the summer monitoring his players.

Chesapeake's softball players, many of whom are one-sport athletes, join teams around the area to keep in shape and refine their skills. Cougars junior varsity coach Joe Thomas, an 11-year veteran, heads the Lake Shore 18-and-under team, which contains some of the area's best players - many from Chesapeake.

Ellenberger makes sure he stays in contact with Thomas as the two, along with the rest of the staff, plan for a run at a third title over regular breakfast meetings.

"I'll go out to Bachman (Sports Complex) or Randazzo (Park) to watch kids play during the summer when the Severna Park Hornets or Maryland Wagners or Lake Shore are playing," Ellenberger said. "For me, it's not an all-consuming kind of summer thing. But you do take the time to work out on how you can get better."

Lillian Shelton, Severna Park's field hockey coach and owner of 17 state titles, does most of her preparation for the season during the summer. She puts together packets containing the responsibilities, rules, schedules and the teams' regular procedures to hand out to players when they report for the first day of tryouts on Aug. 16.

Each summer, Shelton designs a senior T-shirt to give her girls something personal to take with them once they leave the program. She also meets with any incoming freshman to try to prepare them for what to expect when they step onto the field.

Contrary to many of her peers, Shelton prefers not to work directly with her players for much of the summer. She believes too much time directing her athletes will turn them off to the sport and disrupt Severna Park's historic level of success.

"There's a lot for me to do without seeing them," Shelton said. "Everything needs to be changed from year to year because of the numbers of kids coming in. … I don't do a year-round program. I don't want the kids to get burned out. I've seen it in other sports."

Instead, she encourages her girls to get involved with lacrosse, kickboxing and yoga classes - anything to keep them in playing shape and come back ready to win a fourth straight state championship.

That, however, does change for a month each summer. Shelton and her players instruct a four-week field hockey camp for children ages 7 and up to get the community involved with the sport and, perhaps, train the future classes of championship Falcons.

"The players at the high school are the coaches," said Shelton, who insists on treating her players, particularly the upperclassman, as equals. "They're very good role models, very dedicated to what they're doing. They do a really good job teaching the kids skills and technical aspects they've learned."

Herrick and his coaches run a week-long football camp at Broadneck, which begins on Aug. 4. The camp is open to students from Grades 6 through 9, and it not only gives the coaches a chance to look at the incoming freshman players, but also an opportunity to get their chemistry back.

Herrick uses those four hours a day as an extension to the tryouts.

"We're lucky because at Broadneck because we have a camp for younger kids," he said. "That's when I make time to meet with our coaches. We try to orient that camp the same way we do during that season. We spend a lot of time looking at what we're going to do with strategy and the players."

Brian Konik, the boys' basketball coach at St. Mary's, just finished guiding his Saints to a 5-6 record in the 16-team Merrill Lynch Summer Basketball League. He regularly takes his players to overnight camps at Navy. They also travel to Pennsylvania to play in the Keystone State Games in addition to workouts twice a week for strength and conditioning and involvement in summer leagues.

Konik spends several hours making contacts with coaches to provide his players with a place to play after high school.

Just last year, Nick Groce, an incoming senior, committed to play basketball with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and recent graduate Josh Morgan-Green signed with Division II Southern New Hampshire, following an injury-plagued senior season with the Saints.

"Summer is busier for a basketball coach," Konik said. "If you're running a high school program with the intention of placing kids in college, you have the added responsibility of contacting college and Amateur Athletic Union coaches to get those kids the opportunities."

All the work done in the offseason is voluntary. The paychecks, Herrick said, stop coming once the last game is finished. If a program is going to keep pace with its competition, the coaching staff has to lead the charge.

Shelton, who's won state titles in four decades, will begin her 33rd season with the Falcons. Over that time, she's learned to take a few moments for herself. She broke away for a trip to New Orleans last summer. But when she returned, it was right back to work.

"I do get my vacations," Shelton said. "I just do my things on the side. I've got a lot of people doing a lot of work for me, so it makes my job a lot of easier. But I don't think anybody else knows everything I do."

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mpeters@capitalgazette.com