Growing up, many children are put into sports, activities and hobbies before they even reach kindergarten. It may become a safe space for some while others it begins to take up their whole life to a point their relying on it for validation and a future.

High School is when coaches and your peers often start to become more committed to their sport. Students spend time trying out, finding new friends, committing, and training more often so they are able to reach their full potential while others only think of it as a hobby.

This year, Peyton Miller (’28) tried out for her first year on the softball team. Throughout the past few months she’s found that it’s been a lot more work than what she had thought. 

“It’s a lot harder now to manage my time because I have to spend a lot of it playing sports while also being in school,” Miller said. 

The average time for a student to be participating in sports is ten to fifteen hours every week. School days at AHS are six and a half hours so both together are around ten hours everyday.

Many student athletes decide to leave sports they have done in the past so they can focus on what’s most important in their life. Participating in the volleyball team this year, Phoebe Potong (’28) has been in track, soccer, and cross country but the recent stress in class has made her decide doing one sport is best. 

“I can’t do my work right after school now so I’m usually behind in classes, but it also pushes me to do better in school because if I have a bad grade I can’t play my sport,” Potong said.

Though this has put a lot of pressure on Potong, she says it’s all for the sport she loves most.

“It’s a lot more important being in a highschool sport now, middle school was a lot easier and now I have to work harder because people at colleges are looking at us,” Potong said.

As a multisport athlete, Kai Janssen (’27) also has had to get used to her family and coaches watching her fail and succeed. Jensen says she has been able to figure out how to balance her emotions.

“I love all the sports I play even though I have both bad and good days and I’ve learned now that I have to just focus on myself rather than everybody else to have a good season,” Janssen said.