‘Twas the season for a ‘different kind of break’

“How was your break?”

It’s the question that everyone asks once the spring semester starts. And the answers are pretty similar. Hung out with family and friends, traveled here or there, visited so-and-so. 

While many may have gone to Florida over the holidays, it probably was to tan and relax — not to swim for four hours a day, “experiencing fatigue and pain,” like men’s swimming and diving junior distance specialist Robert Melsom.

Penn men’s and women’s swimming and diving had a training trip from Dec. 28, 2025 to Jan. 7, 2026 in Stuart, Fla. this year.

“The purpose of the training trip is to push each athlete to their physical limits, preparing them for the rest of the season and the remaining competitions,” Melsom wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Winter break is usually not a time when most Penn students think of pushing themselves “to their physical limits,” but for Penn’s student-athletes, it’s a different story.

Penn men’s and women’s basketball competed throughout the break. Penn men’s basketball played a game on New Year’s Eve and again on Jan. 5, 2026; Penn women’s basketball played a game on Dec. 30, 2025 and again on Jan. 3, 2026. 

While Penn students had roughly three weeks to relax at home or vacation elsewhere, Penn basketball athletes had less than a week to spend time at home, while the swim team had to endure a 10- or 11-day training camp over New Year’s. 

“We had to leave for [a] training trip the 28th [of December] and since I got back [home] the 19th I didn’t have nearly as much time at home as I would like,” Penn women’s swimming and diving senior distance specialist Sydney Bergstrom wrote in a statement to the DP.

Maybe it’s because they have less free time over the break, but the days off from practices and competitions were that much sweeter.

“It’s a short break, but it’s a nice reprieve from just the monotony of the season and being on campus and just getting away and off is nice,” men’s basketball junior center Augustus Gerhart said.

But once those days with family were over, a switch was flipped.

For swim, that meant “two hours of long course training (50 meters) in the morning and two hours of short course training (25 yards) in the afternoon,” senior men’s swimming and diving breaststroke specialist Neo Matsuyama wrote in a statement to the DP.

“There were no recovery practices; each practice was structured for improvement, consisting of pull, kick, technique work, and skills,” Melsom wrote.

“Every other day we would lift for about an hour after morning practice,” Bergstrom wrote. “The practices are all super intense but that is the expectation.”

It was pretty much the same story for basketball. 

Gerhart, women’s basketball junior center Tina Njike, and women’s basketball sophomore forward Gabriella Kelley all conveyed the same sentiment that practice was longer than usual. Just because it was the holiday season didn’t mean that they were allowed to let off any steam.

“The coaches pretty much emphasized getting the year off on the right foot,” Gerhart said. “You want to have an enjoyable New Year’s Eve instead of laying in bed thinking about all the shots that you missed and all of the blown assignments that you had.”

So, the team practiced with purpose and played on New Year’s Eve like they were the main event. Penn athletes ended the year only to welcome the new one with competitiveness and drive. 

Despite the long hours away from home, the teams banded together to find their share of fun and relaxation amid intense competition. It was winter break, after all.

The Penn women’s basketball team went up to the high-rise rooftops to play games and watch the fireworks as Philadelphia welcomed 2026. 

“We had dinner as a team and afterwards went to Wawa for a sweet treat, then returned and played Mafia or Catan,” Melsom wrote about the swim camp. “We also had two afternoons off to enjoy the beach, where we played football and volleyball and enjoyed the Atlantic waves.”

For men’s basketball, Gerhart said, “We watch movies together, play cards, whatever, to keep ourselves from going crazy.”

The team did a “Harry Potter” marathon in years past; this year, it was “Zootopia 2” and horror movies at Cinemark. 

While the swimming and diving team enjoyed their time in Florida, the basketball teams were alone on an empty campus. Although, Njike wrote, “[it’s] nice to be alone in a sense since everything just feels a lot more relaxing,” it also meant that they were on a campus with no open facilities, including dining halls.

“I’m on a meal plan,” Gerhart said. “I shamelessly eat in the dining hall quite a bit as a junior.” And with the dining halls closed and him not being one to cook, “our kitchen is admittedly not the crème de la crème … it’s a little scary.” He used the stipend the team receives for food during break to go out to eat with his teammates.

“Some people have different ways to allocate their funds to eat ramen every day for a week and then go to Ruth[’s] Chris, like buy themselves a steak,” he said, “It’s the Division I staple.”

Other places the team goes out to eat include Tampopo, Taco Taco Mexicano, which according to Gerhart is “fantastic,” Double Knot, and Schmear, with “hot honey bagels” and “wake ’n bacon” being popular choices.

Games were also a popular pastime for the men’s basketball team.

“Some of the guys came over to the house … we play a lot of cards,” Gerhart said. “We have guys that love to play poker and blackjack, obviously for no money … just betting push-ups and street cred.”

But it’s all within the confines of basketball. “Everybody got to bed at a good hour because we’re all pretty exhausted from the game and want to recover well,” he said.

As teams spend time together every winter break, traditions have begun to form, similar to get-togethers non-athletes might engage in around the holidays. 

“Every year, we have a tradition of walking to downtown Stuart to get ice cream and sit by the Pier,” Bergstrom wrote. “This has always been so fun because I get to talk to people on the team I normally don’t train with that much because they swim different events. … Another tradition that started last year was playing the game Mafia every night.”

“Training camp is grueling, but the moments outside the pool make it worth it,” Matsuyama wrote. “Watching fireworks on New Year’s is always a highlight and a memory I look forward to every year.”

From Florida to Philadelphia, Penn athletes band together to celebrate the New Year. Penn gymnastics gets back on campus soon after Christmas, engaging in their own traditions to make the bleak empty campus feel merry and bright.

As Penn gymnastics junior Jackie Tunney wrote in a statement to the DP. “Every year our team does a secret snowflake, similar to secret santa and write funny poems for each other’s partner. For new years the team typically watches the countdown together and each class will go to dinner together in Center City.”

Men’s basketball does Secret Santa every year around Christmas time, although this year, the team has yet to exchange gifts due to logistical difficulties. Rest assured, Gerhart already has his gift prepared: “We can keep you tuned as to what everybody gets.”

But it’s less about the gifts and more about the camaraderie. 

“It’s a very low budget Secret Santa, as you can imagine it would be for college athletes,” he continued. “We are not getting paid, so our Secret Santa budget is like $10 per person … It’s more giggles than anything else.”

On an empty campus, the team really only have each other for “giggles” and fun over break. The team “[tries] to hang out” together through food and games, letting loose as a respite from competition and grueling workouts.

“You can go out in some pretty crazy outfits and no one’s looking at you funky,” Gerhart said. “You can wear a groutfit on Locust and nobody cares … if it’s snowing, you're going to rock boots with some Christmas PJs, which is a little different. But … our team’s pretty stylish and fashionable. So even our bad outfits look presentable.”

The teams find ways to bring a sense of home, even if they were apart from their families.

“It’s definitely hard not being able to see them throughout the year as much as most students are able to,” Kelley wrote. “The team is a second family too, so having a few weeks with lots of free time to hang out and explore the city together was fun.”

So in a way, these athletes spend winter break much like the rest of Penn students, adding in travel and meets. They try new places to eat, watch fireworks, play games, refuse to cook, and wear pajamas all day because it’s break and no one cares.

As Kelley wrote, “It definitely felt like break, just a different type of break than most people experience.”