Going Beyond the Norm

Written by Maggie McGannon

Marston pulls her swim cap over her head, and tightens her goggles on her face. She steps on the block and claps her hands together in anticipation for her relay. “Let’s go Marston,” her teammates say. “You got it!”

As she waits for the breastroker on her relay to finish to the wall, she stands completely concentrated on the race ahead of her. She is swimming the 100 yard butterfly portion of her team’s relay. The breakstroker touches the wall, and she is off. She explodes from the water, swimming like a dolphin down the pool.

What one might not understand when watching this race is that senior Marston Fries has traveled nearly 600 miles for this swim meet. Marston also is missing her senior year WPA dance this weekend. She missed this dance sophomore year and junior year for meets also.

“I’ve had to sacrifice the social scene that high school is all about,” Fries says.

Senior Marston Fries is attending University of Connecticut located in Storrs, CT in the fall to join their division one swim team. She has received an athletic and academic scholarship.

According to many college athletes, college sports require commitment in all aspects of one’s life.

For current college athletes, and future college athletes, the daily sacrifices they must make is a result of their commitment they have made to their sport and teammates. This might include a limited social life and different mindset in comparison to their peers.

“When balancing a sport and academics in college, I have no choice but to be super disciplined,” Hanna Jane Stradinger said.

Stradinger is a freshman running cross-country and track at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

Stradinger runs two-a-day practices, lifts weights, and attends Pilates once a week. The daily exhaustion of her workouts limits her liveliness and willingness to do things with friends.

“I expend so much energy in practice,” Stradinger says. “I just don’t have as much as my friends do when it comes to being social.”

Ross Guignon is a freshman playing DI tennis at Illinois University in Champaign, IL. When going out Friday nights, most of his friends know they will not be returning to their rooms until early hours of the next morning. What Guignon always has lingering in the back of his head, is his 8 a.m. morning practice. Guignon’s coach often reminds him that keeping tennis as his top priority is the key to success.

“Those early morning practices are brutal,” Guignon said. “My coach always expects us to be awake and ready to play at the start of practice.”

On the other hand, Stradinger was not allowed to become a member of a sorority.

“I couldn’t rush and a lot of my friends are in sororities,” Stradinger said. “I miss out whenever they have sorority events.”

Many students like senior Lanie Leek, who does not plan on playing a sport in college, have looked forward to being in a sorority for many years.

“I always hear about my sister’s experiences from her sorority,” Leek said. “I know it will be fun when we can both talk about it together.”

Senior Caroline Nick has also had to make the sacrifice of not being in a sorority. Nick is playing DII basketball at Emporia State Univeristy in the fall. Nick refers to her friends who plan on being in sororities as being “normal” college students. Although this is something she feels like she will be missing out on, she knows she has to make sacrifices to continue playing in college.

“There is not much free time during the basketball season,” Nick said. “And when it is not the season, you’re still conditioning in the weight room so there’s really no break.”

Deciding you want to play a sport in college early results in hard work and discipline all through high school.

“I had to decide that swimming was the sport that I wanted to take to the next level,” Fries said. “I decided that in 7th grade.” Fries attends practice twice-a-day: one practice before school and another one after. She also lifts weights and does aerobic work.

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Unlike most college athletes, Stradinger is thankful she didn’t start running until her freshman year of high school.

“I know this isn’t possible in a lot of sports,” Stradinger said. “But if someone is looking to play collegiately, starting later can really help to prevent burnout.” Stradinger ran varsity cross-country and track all four years of high school.

Senior Mimi Fotopoulos said she wouldn’t change a thing about her high school tennis career up to this point. She feels so lucky to be attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN in the fall to play on the women’s tennis team. The women’s team is ranked top five in the nation.

Hard work is absolutely a main contributor to her success. Fotopoulos trains six days a week and practices three to five hours a day. Although she has managed to stay in a public high school, this has been one of her biggest challenges. She describes her life as being “physically and mentally demanding”.

“Most of my competitors are homeschooled or at full time tennis academies,” Fotopoulos said. “It makes it too hard to stay in a regular classroom.”

Despite the many challenges these athletes face, the ten extra laps at the end of practice or the twenty last free throws have led to their current success as athletes.

As a poem titled “We are Athletes” explains, “People don’t play sports because it’s fun, but they couldn’t imagine their life without it. It’s a part of them, the love/hate relationship. It’s what they live for.”