By: Sarah Guralnick and Karis Sun
Overlake students excel in numerous activities. Overlakers have stellar performances in academic and extracurricular events. Often, these are school-related, receiving lots of recognition, and it is also important to acknowledge our many out of school athletes who excel in their unique sports. Like any sport, out of school athletes require plentiful time to perfect their skills. Participating in sports outside of school, like in school sports, is a balance that must be perfected.
Tor Johnston: Downhill Mountain Bike Racing
Tor participates in downhill mountain bike racing. During his freshman and sophomore years, he rode about 8-10 hours a week, similar to the time commitment of Overlake sports. Though it may not appear that way, peer relationships are a critical component to mountain biking. Tor’s favorite aspect of downhill riding is the relationships riders form with each other. The competitors help each other pre-race and motivate each other despite racing them the next day. Although the sport is competitive, Tor shares it is “one of the most supportive environments” as everyone wants their peers to “progress and improve.” “It’s a fast, technical, dangerous sport and each competitor just wants all the other racers to make it down the hill safely.” During junior year, Tor notes, he typically rides on the weekend as he has much less time. Tor only misses school when a race requires it. However, he will occasionally skip his last class of the day to get extra training in. He notes that “it’s hard to find time to ride and train in the winter when it gets dark an hour after school gets out, since most spots are 30-45 minutes away.”
Sydney Barr: Varsity Women’s Crew Team
Sydney Barr participates in the Varsity Women’s Crew Team at the Sammamish Rowing Association. Crew is an intense, time-consuming sport, and she practices about 15-18 hours a week – 3 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Sydney enjoys how rowing requires both mental and physical exertions. She notes, “my favorite thing about rowing is its ability to push me past my limits and show me what I’m capable of.” This lesson is important in athletics as well as real life. The tight-knit, supportive rowing community is another one of Sydney’s favorite aspects of rowing. Training trips and out of state races cause Sydney to miss around 3-4 days of school a year. In addition to this, Sydney notes that participating in such a “physically intense and time-consuming” sport has improved her time management skills. Because of her vigorous rowing schedule, Sydney is “more productive and efficient with her schoolwork and other responsibilities.” In addition to teaching her resilience, perseverance, leadership, and teamwork, Sydney also mentions that at times, her schedule requires her to make scarifies, demonstrating the critical life skills being a student-athlete teaches you. Sydney’s successful rowing career led her and her team to compete at the Northwest Regional Championships and to qualify for the US Rowing National Championships. Sydney’s hard work and determination led to her recruitment to row at Tufts University in the fall.
Keith Hunter: Track and Field
You may know Keith Hunter for his outstanding cross country results, but in the off season he also participates in Track and Field at Franklin High School. Besides Keith’s love for running, Keith loves socializing with teammates. His favorite track workouts are 400m repeats and tempo runs. Keith runs the 800m and 1600m events. Practices are around 11 hours a week, again, similar to in-school athletic commitments. Keith is able to manage Overlake’s workload well on weekdays, but meet days add an increased challenge at times. Track meets go long, getting home around 8-9pm, giving little time to complete schoolwork and get adequate rest. The long night is worth it though, sometimes resulting in 1st place finishes.
Chloe Kim: Climbing
Chloe Kim is a competitive climber who competes nationally at various tournaments. One of her biggest accomplishments was team trials, a large competition where they pick people for the United States climbing team which was surreal for Chloe to experience. She spends about 15-20 hours during the weekend when she has tournaments such as these and has a busy and tight schedule throughout these tournaments. Training wise, Chloe trains on average 20-25 hours per week. Chloe’s favorite part about climbing, is travelling, and experiencing new places, and gaining a new outlook from these new areas every time she has a competition. Chloe also has an impressive Instagram with videos of her many competitions and practices, with a network of over 22 thousand followers. You can check her out @chloeclimbs on Instagram.
Vansea Barnett: Swimming
As a driven swimmer, Vansea spends a lot of her time in the water, splashing her way to a record held for two years for state in her age division. As a seventh grader at Overlake, Vansea finds it is hard to balance school and her sport, as she spends about 12 hours practicing a week. Even though swimming comes with its time and dedication, Vansea finds that Swimming has provided her so many life-long friendships.
Talia Willson: Track
Talia runs track at the Bellevue Highschool, a 3A high school, mainly running the half-mile and the mile. She spends about 10-12 hours per week at the track, equivalent to the Overlake time commitment. One of her proudest accomplishments, was qualifying for Kingcos which is a district meet, containing 3A’s stiff competition. Talia’s favorite part about track is meeting a diverse group of people outside of Overlake’s student body. Talia’s time commitment results in a sacrifice of schoolwork and missed classes. She misses about one class every 2 weeks in season to attend races. Even though it is hard for her to balance school and running track at a different school, Talia loves the thrill and exhilaration of her sport.
Kristen Hwang: Equestrian
Kristen is a competitive equestrian, and a dual athlete playing basketball during Overlake Season. She spends about 12-14 hours per week training, and as a dedicated athlete, misses school about once a month for her tournaments. Kristen prides herself in averaging top three around 5 classes per competition and is ranked nationally third in the 15-17 age division. One of her proudest accomplishments happened last year, when Kristen qualified for an equitation, a division within the competition where the rider is judged. Kristen’s favorite part about riding is the excitement that comes along with the sport, and the fun community that comes with being an equestrian.
Karis Sun: Squash
My name is Karis Sun, one of the writers of this article! I have been playing competitive squash for about 5 years now, reaching my highest ranking this past year: 49 in the United States, and ranked number 2 in state for the division GU17. Squash has been an opportunity like none other, providing me a way to see so many diverse locations from travelling to tournaments, meeting new people across the globe, and by teaching me how individuality can also lead to teamwork and collaboration. One of my most memorable experiences was participating in the US open, where some of the best junior players internationally played at the Arlen Specter Center. Seeing dedicated players all over the globe that came together in one place, was surreal. On average I spend 2 hours a day 5 times a week training at the courts. Like other outside of school athletes from Overlake, I travel for tournament’s quite often, about once a month, causing me to miss school often.
Any athlete understands what sacrifice means: to lose time for homework, miss school, no time for studying for tests, and lack of socialization for their sport. The athletic department at Overlake does an amazing job of celebrating athletes who play for Overlake teams, whether it’s at announcements where wins and losses are both congratulated, excused absences, numerous events to send of teams to nationals, and many more celebratory and supportive customs.
However, seeing the support accessible for inside of school athletes, outside of school athletes may feel underrepresented. The common belief that outside of school athletes are separate from Overlake is more than false, as these athletes represent themselves as an Owl every time they compete. They uphold all the Owl values through their tournaments and competitions, enacting sportsmanship to represent our school in positive light just like the athletes within Overlake do. Additionally, they spend the same amount of time and sacrifice towards their sport and miss days of school. Yet support and light shined upon outside of school athletes lacks within our school. Early dismissals and absences are a complicated process for outside of school athletes, there is yet to be an announcement made congratulating outside of school athletes, and support and recognition have overwhelming room for improvement. This article can be the first step to including outside of school athletes in the conversation of athletics at Overlake, and providing that same support to outside of school athletes.
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