By Clara Atwell, Associate Business Editor
Students find opportunities to challenge themselves at the high school, whether it’s through academics, clubs, sports or all three. Some are pushing themselves to the limit by playing on multiple sports teams at once — all while managing a demanding academic workload.
Senior Katherine Andrus, who has been to national and state championships for the triple and long jump repeatedly, competes for the Flying AJ’s (a year-round U.S. track and field team) while participating in school soccer and track and field. It was on the AJ’s team that she discovered the triple jump, and she quickly fell in love with it alongside her teammates — whom she now considers family.
“It’s such a hard task that when you perfect it, you feel successful,” Andrus said. “When I’m in the air, and I know it’s a good jump, [I] can’t help but smile. It’s so mental and taxing on your body, but when you hit a good jump, it makes it all worth it. It makes you love it.”
Andrus has practice four times a week, three of which are after her school practices. She usually catches the 8:25 p.m. ferry home on these days. During the indoor winter season, she only has about three meets, while in the summer leading up to the Junior Olympics, she has them about once a week.
“It [gets] really hard to keep up with my school work; it’s not easy to do homework on-the-go,” Andrus said.
Sports have been a part of freshman Aidan McCann’s life for as long as he can remember. He has played on multiple basketball and soccer teams throughout his years as an athlete, but is primarily playing baseball.
“It’s something I can win at, [and] I started playing [baseball] really young, so I feel very comfortable on the field,” McCann said.
For the past three years, he’s been playing for the select team City Baseball year-round, and Northwest Elite. More recently, he has joined the high school team. His athletic schedule on top of school keeps him constantly busy, but to him, being able to frequently play the sport he loves outweighs the huge time commitment.
Sophomore Mia Knight joined South Sound Volleyball this year after she finished the high school volleyball season. This is her first year playing on a club volleyball team. However, she played on a select softball team from seventh grade up until last August. Currently she is also playing school softball.
South Sound Volleyball has practices two days a week after softball, and on these days she goes straight to volleyball after school practice. This makes her rely on packing snacks for dinner because she catches the 9:30 p.m. boat home.
“The worst parts are not sleeping as much [as I would like] and not eating full meals. The best part is when we get a good win,” Knight said.
Although Knight loves volleyball as a sport and the opportunity this club team gives her to get off the island and meet new people, she finds herself disliking the program and the amount of time it takes up.
“I definitely think I’m crazy,” Knight said. “I don’t know why I got myself into this. Sometimes I hate it, and sometimes I like it.”
You may call them crazy, but these three athletes have somehow managed to fit the things they love into their already busy high school schedules.