“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens may not have been a high school student athlete, but his iconic words ring true in the fields and courts of our school’s sports teams. Being a student-athlete here is certainly a memorable experience, but the dizzying highs and lows can…
“What’s the point?” “I’m a second semester senior, give me a break.” “This isn’t even on the test. Why should I study it?” “She’s only checking it for completion, so I’m not going to try.” Chances are that you’ve heard some, or maybe even all, of the above phrases in high school thus far. Especially…
Some things never go away. Take nerves, a sensation that every athlete knows and deals with regularly. After three years of running for the varsity cross country and track teams, I thought I would have grown impervious to pre-race nerves. I remember the half-hour car rides to my eighth grade track meets, when I wanted…
Man versus child. At least, that’s the way it felt to me as a freshman running cross country, a 14-year-old boy toeing the line and competing against 18-year-old men with bulging muscles and dense facial hair. At times, I was intimidated by athletes who looked bigger, more experienced and stronger than me. Now as a…
If Penn State is Linebacker U, our school is gaining a reputation as Wide Receiver High. So far in 2018, one of our former players (Trevon Diggs) won the College Football Championship with Alabama, while another former Patriot (Mack Hollins) defeated the NFL’s Patriots in Super Bowl LII as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.…
Athletes, spectators and coaches from all over the world sit unified in the arenas and open air competition spaces in PyeongChang, South Korea. People from countries where political ties are strained stand side by side, watching athletes twirling on the ice and flipping in the air. The 2018 Olympics was a refreshing celebration of human…
Communication is essential to any sports team. But to the occasional spectator, the athletes on the field may appear to be speaking a foreign language. From playcalls to formations to moves to gear, the language of our sports teams is so strange and confusing that it can flummox even the athletes themselves. Sports breathe new…
