Athletes doing it all at Silver Creek High School

On a crisp fall day, students spill into the locker rooms at Silver Creek High School, and then quickly get to practice. Cross-country runners walk to the track, football players hustle to the weight room, volleyball players warm up in the gym, soccer players grab their cleats, and swimmers make their way to the pool. Laughing, sweating, and yelling, they all work hard until they are sore, tired, and ready to go home. But for some students, practice doesn’t end there.

Elijah Charlton (9th) is a cross-country athlete who is also on the wrestling team. Though wrestling is technically a winter sport, there are several weeks of overlap in which Charlton quickly goes from cross-country practice straight to the gym for wrestling matches.

Surprisingly, the workload from participating in three other clubs and these two sports doesn’t stress him. “There’s always time,” Charlton said. “You can always make time to just get down and do it, all of it at once.”

Charlton acknowledges that he does have to miss either a practice or a meeting occasionally, but because he is so consistent, his coaches and fellow athletes are supportive of him doing multiple sports.

“They know that I’ve got other things that I like to do too, and I don’t belong just to one thing,” Charlton said.

Mica Friedly (10th) is a swim, cross country, and track athlete here at Creek, and she finds ways to manage her heavy workload. Friedly is in Raptor Tech, which adds another layer of academic rigor.

“For me, it’s the monthly [Raptor Tech] meetings [that contribute the most to stress],” Friedly said. “Sometimes I have to miss practice for a monthly meeting.”

Friedly also acknowledges that only prioritizing one thing at a time is important when managing her time.

“At some point, you have to pick and choose what school work you have to do, or just what to prioritize,” Friedly says.

Luckily, it appears that the coaches and other athletes are very understanding when regarding multiple sport athletes. Pat Decamillis, Athletic Director at Silver Creek High School, agrees that the coaching staff is very good at being flexible.

“I’ll say this, all of our programs do their best to share their athletes,” Decamillis said.

Though the Coaches are understanding, both Friedly and Charlton think that the atmospheres between their separate sports are very different.

“The community between Swim and Cross Country is much stronger because [unlike] track [they are smaller groups],” Friedly said. “You just don’t know anybody [when the team is big].”

Charlton agrees, saying that wrestling has more of a community aspect due to its self-improvement montage. On the other hand, “wrestling has been more competitive,” Charlton said.

Overall, athletes who choose to do multiple sports know that it is an extensive commitment, but look forward to participating in each of them.

“Sports just make me happy in general. And then, [when] I go home, I’m [a] happy tired,” Friedly said.