While the common Piedmonter shrugs off his Halloween decorations in preparation for Christmas, athletes who participate in both fall and winter sports shake off their off-season rust to get ready for an entirely different seasonal change.
Unfortunately, this change is not an easy one. Women’s varsity soccer coach Dan Chubbock said that his sport is the only one that has not experienced any scheduling conflicts; all of the other winter sports teams have some degree of mismatch with fall sports.
The two seasons often conflict during NCS playoffs, which creates a period of time in which the athletes in question are technically active in two sports at once.
Senior Joey Moyer set aside all thoughts of basketball while his football team contended for playoffs. His basketball tryouts happened during the week of Nov. 10, the first week of football playoffs. The football team, which finished 10-0 in the regular season, went three rounds into playoffs.
“It was hard to get into a groove in basketball since I had weeks, maybe even a month less of practice time, which depended on how deep we got into the playoffs,” Moyer said.
He said that the early season rust is not much of a factor in determining the coaches’ evaluations of him.
“I was on varsity for basketball last year, so Coach Lav already has an idea of what I can do,” Moyer said. “I have been told they do take rustiness into account.”
To Moyer, it is just a matter of getting back in rhythm.
“I’ve been playing basketball for the majority of my life so once I get back into a groove it’s easy for me to play my best,” Moyer said.
Moyer is the only fall sport athlete on the varsity basketball roster. The most impactful scheduling conflicts occur in the spring with baseball, where three varsity basketball players are also committed.
Varsity basketball coach Chris Lavdiotis says that he encourages athletes to participate in crossover sports like baseball and lacrosse so they do not burn out by focusing all of their energy in one sport; however, he realizes that it is difficult to get them to catch up.
“There are lots to process on offense, defense and special game situations,” Lavdiotis said. “In addition, the players’ skill work is behind and they require extra repetitions in ball handling, shooting, passing and footwork in order to recover to become game-ready.”
He said that he is understanding of the setbacks his athletes experience and that he judges his players primarily by their “effort, work ethic, attitude, willingness to sacrifice for the team, skills and production.”
Few cross-country runners, only three that cross-country coach Jeanine Holmlund knows of, are affected by scheduling conflicts. She said that she encourages her athletes to be active in other sports that are not in contention with cross-country.
However, she said that she prefers them to be in cross-country practice, especially in the context of upcoming meets.
“This applies to all their activities, not just winter sports,” Holmlund said. “How they choose to spend their time will indicate their seriousness about their running.”
Freshman Kate Gross-Whitaker, who plays for Highlanders Club Soccer from spring to fall, faces the conflict of deciding whether or not to try out in the spring, knowing that it will eventually conflict with cross-country in the fall.
Last year during the beginning of the soccer season, she was still doing cross-country, going between practices and barely squeezing in homework along the way.
“I ended up doing back-to-back practices on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I got really good about scheduling when I did homework and activities around that,” Gross-Whitaker said.
The life of a multi-sport athlete can be grueling and relentless.
Dedicated yard decorators may tear their hair out over the miles of tangled Christmas lights they sift through every year.
But it is not the knotted lights and intertwined practice schedules that make it rewarding: it is lighting up a neighborhood. It means creating memories with fellow athletes.
