By Colin Tran, Staff Writer
Daily practices, nerve-racking competitions, and endless amounts of hard work but multiply that by two.
Many students at First Flight participate in sports, but some students find themselves stuck between two due to overlapping seasons. Whether it’s school sports or travel teams, these athletes’ schedules are packed with practices, competitions, and workouts. Keeping up with two sports at the same time can be seen as a challenge but these athletes find a way to manage it.
If it’s scoring a layup on the basketball court or clearing the field with the lacrosse team, senior Bella Schweitzer does it all.
“The best thing about playing basketball and lacrosse is it gets me in shape and motivates me to get all my stuff done,” Schweitzer said.
Although Schweitzer loves putting in the hard work for her teams, juggling school, work, and sports can be difficult at times.
“The most difficult thing about playing two sports at the same time is remembering when practices start and remembering to get all my equipment and clothes,” Schweitzer said. “But playing sports keeps me on a schedule so I can plan out my whole week.”
Junior Colin Byard runs miles around Dare County with the cross country team and tears up the field playing soccer. Byard went in depth about how he enjoys playing soccer with the OBX Storm team but keeps up with cross country to get stronger and stay in shape.
“Running cross country helps me gain better stamina and endurance when it comes to soccer,” Byard said. “The hardest thing about running and playing soccer is staying in shape for both because both of the sports are very different and working on staying fit can be challenging.”
Three years alongside the OBX Storm team and kick starting her soccer career with FFHS, sophomore Ava Norko puts in most of her week to train to become the best defense player she can be. Along with blocking goals and juggling soccer balls, Norko also trains with Dae-Yang Taekwondo for martial arts.
“The hardest thing about balancing two sports is choosing what events you want to go to,” Norko explained. “For instance, I had a soccer tournament the same weekend as my taekwondo tournament. It was a difficult choice for me to make because I love both sports.”
Norko went on and explained how working on powerful kicks in taekwondo benefits her in soccer when playing defense and makes her more aggressive on the field.
“I like doing both sports because I can let my aggression and stress out in both of them,” Norko said. “They both give me a different sense of accomplishment.”
Norko is not the only one training at the Dae-Yang Taekwondo studio, sophomore Connor Rock trains for hours each week where he focuses on balance and strength. Rock’s skills from taekwondo help keep him on his feet when getting pushed on the field with the First Flight Football team.
“They both benefit each other. It’s sort of like cross-training because taekwondo helps with my balance and the distribution of weight throughout your body,” Rock explained. “In football, you need to be able to balance when you are getting pushed around when you’re running your route.”
From practicing with the football team from 3- 5 p.m. then training at the taekwondo studio for an hour, Rock keeps pushing through all the hard workouts with the big picture and goals in mind.
“What keeps me motivated is the push to do better than I was before in both sports. It’s sometimes really hard not to drop taekwondo at some points but I remember that the lower ranks look up to me and how I inspire them to do great at taekwondo,” Rock said. “What keeps me motivated to not drop football is that it has always been a dream of mine to play contact football and I got the chance in 8th grade and I don’t want that dream to go to waste.”
Sophomore Colin Tran can be reached at [email protected].
