Rebuilding happens all the time in professional sports. Teams make trades, focus on drafting and shakeup lineups when things aren’t going well.

Arguably the most significant rise this season has been the way the Columbus Blue Jackets in the National Hockey League have taken the league by storm. After finishing 27th in the 30-team league last season, they got off to a slow start in October, but have since strung together 13 consecutive wins to move into first place in the NHL.

A lot of it has come down to smart trades and staying healthy, which has been a problem in recent years. Most importantly, though, a lot of key players stuck to an offseason conditioning regiment that has done wonders for the team’s speed.

They wanted to be better.

At the high school level, though, teams and programs don’t have the option to go out sign new players or make trades. They can’t even recruit. There’s a pool of talent in a school’s area, and that’s all they get.

So, as some of Washington’s teams enter a rebuilding phase, that attitude becomes so much more important. There’s got to be a dedication in the weight room during the offseason. Athletes have to be attentive and driven during practices.

A lack of those attributes was apparent during this past football season. The Pam Pack defense shutout Kinston for 40 minutes, but the offense couldn’t piece together a scoring drive. It let a winnable game against Plymouth slip away. Then, when a playoff berth was on the line, the team fell apart in the final two weeks of its campaign.

Schools have plenty of multi-sport athletes at the 1-A and 2-A levels. That dedication — or lack thereof — can carry over from one sport to another. Time and effort will be the recipe for Washington to rise to football prominence again, and it could carry over to other sports that have been struggling.