As the winter sports season comes into full swing, some talented fresh­men are start­ing their high school season on a varsity team. Most fresh­men usually make the fresh­man or junior varsity team, but others are able to show that their talent and skill is more advanced on plac­ing them on the varsity team. 

Fresh­man Taylor Rivers is a member of the varsity girls basket­ball team. Even though it was her first high school basket­ball season, she has been play­ing since the age of 10. Play­ing many sports as a kid, Rivers says “I hopped between sports for a while but basket­ball has been the one sport I’ve stuck with, and want to move forward.” 

Start­ing your high school season on varsity comes with its own chal­lenges, but moti­va­tion is always key. “I would say what moti­vates me is my friends and the deter­mi­na­tion I have to make my coach proud of me because, out of the five years I’ve been play­ing basket­ball, I’ve never had a coach push me as much as my current coach,” said Rivers. 

With moti­va­tion also comes inspi­ra­tion. Rivers looks at her upper­class­men team­mates as mentors. When asked who inspires her in her basket­ball jour­ney she says “I would say some­one in the WNBA but actu­ally one of my friends who I play with inspires me alot, and it has bene­fited me in many ways. My team­mate Halima Hajhas­san has inspired me a lot because she has a lot of skills that I lack and could learn from her and build on to progress.”

Fresh­man Forest Archam­bault is a member of the varsity dive team. Many people are influ­enced into sports by their siblings, and Forest is one of these people. “I started swim­ming around the age of six. My sister Ocean Archam­bault moti­vates me as well as all my coaches.” Conclud­ing the season Archam­bault says “My season as a Fresh­man has been great, I’ve had lots of fun and I’m look­ing forward to next season”.

Fresh­man Raine Jeff is a member of the varsity cross coun­try team. Cross coun­try being a fall sport Raine had to manage start­ing their first year of High School and manag­ing their time while being on the varsity team. “I was pretty excited, but I didn’t believe they would pick me,” Raine says. The sport of cross coun­try takes a lot of time and dedi­ca­tion. When asked at what age they started running they said “My parents are runners so I’ve grown up running on and off, but it was never intense till I joined the cross coun­try team this year.” Lots of people find it hard to be consis­tent with a sport but, Raine uses moti­va­tion to keep them­self on track. “I’m moti­vated to prove I belong. It’s hard to believe I belong on the team, and I contin­u­ously work hard to prove myself that I belong” Raine says.