High school is often a time for students to try out new activities and hobbies. For many athletes on campus, trying a new sport is no different. A few at SCHS have taken advantage of the variety of sports offered.
Junior Andrew Castillo plays football but decided to play baseball in the spring last year. He saw baseball as a break from football, his main sport, to do something from his childhood.
“I wanted to play baseball again because it was probably the funnest sport I played when I was little, and I loved it,” Castillo said.
Castillo also likes how there is not as much pressure in baseball compared to football, giving him the ability to ease stress while playing.
“Since people know that I have not played for a while and I was not really good, I could play to the best of my ability. It is not like there is a whole crowd watching you,” Castillo said. “You mess up, and it is fine. It is like the pressure is being relieved from me.”
Junior Xzyrus Aimalefoa plays volleyball but also chose to play football last year. He thinks his family was a big influence on joining football.
“One of the biggest things I grew up around was football, especially with the size of my family. My parents, and my brothers would always tell me that I should utilize the fact that I am big,” Aimalefoa said.
While playing football and volleyball, Aimalefoa noticed some differences between the two sports.
“With volleyball, I already had some experience, and it was just my favorite sport at the time. It still is,” Aimalefoa said. “But I think the switch from volleyball to football is definitely the physical law or the physicality, I guess it is super different.”
Sophomore Satvik Vale swims but also chose to play water polo this year. He noticed how swimming and water polo are different due to the need to be aware of where you are, making it hard to adjust to the team aspect.
“For water polo, you have to keep your head above the water at all times so that you are always aware of what is going on,” Vale said. “While with swim, you are just focused on one straight line and going back and forth, and then just trying to be as fast as possible.”
For Castillo, the pace changes between football and baseball were the most difficult to adapt to but made the sport more relaxed for him.
“The speed of football practices and games, it was much faster, so I had to take it more seriously, and in baseball, I took it really seriously in the beginning, and I realized it was not as hard as I thought,” Castillo said. “It was not as stressful as football, so I could just take it lightly.”
Aimalefoa found his lack of experience and the physicality of football made adjusting to football tough.
“It was pretty difficult, mainly because I had no prior experience, and for me, I am not really the type of person to get mad or angry easily,” Aimalefoa said. “So it was kind of hard to adapt to being physical.”
Despite his lack of experience, Aimalefoa found he was able to take some skills from volleyball and apply them to football.
“With football, I cannot just stand there,” Aimalefoa said. “It is the same thing with volleyball. When the ball is coming at you, you just got to act.”
Similar to Aimalefoa, Vale was also able to take some things from swimming and implement them into playing water polo.
“I guess some breathing techniques that helped me not always constantly lose my breath during a game,” Vale said. “I was always exhaling and inhaling to gain a proper pattern.”
Castillo plans on continuing baseball, and he reflected on his favorite part of returning to the sport.
“It was the team and the environment, of course, and having all my friends on the same team that I played baseball with when I was little. It was really fun coming back to it,” Castillo said.