Alexa Moro ’18

With a variety of sports, playing fields, workout equipment, and physical trainers, Staples’ sports programs is compared, by some, to programs at a collegiate level. However, only a handful of students make the commitment to continue their talents at the college level. Only 12 out of over 488 students in the graduating class will continue to play a varsity sport at their school next year. The rest will say goodbye to formal varsity sports forever.

“I would’ve liked to continue in college, but the huge time commitment would be hard to manage,” Sam Gebicki ’17, varsity lacrosse player, said, “especially if it conflicted with my schoolwork.”

Many students felt that playing a sport might even restrict the quality of education they could receive. “I did want to play in college and only got recruited by some smaller schools, but I decided not to because I could have gotten better education somewhere else,” varsity baseball player Tripp Backus ’17 said.

These students also admitted that it is hard enough transitioning to college without having the added pressures associated with playing a sport. And some believed playing sports would just make the transition harder.

“I’m not sure if I want to play in college yet;” Sara Powerer ’17 said, who plays varsity lacrosse at Staples. “I think [my college] has a club team but there are so many things I want to do in college, like join a sorority, participate in student government and join clubs.”
Like Backus, an education and college experience was more important to Powerer than sticking with a sport. “So, basically I want to continue to be on a team and play lacrosse, but I just don’t want it to take up the majority of my time in college,” Powerer said.

However, the decision to not pursue sports in college was a tough one. Backus nostalgically recalls the positive memories that high school sports gave him; “High school sports create a different type of bond with your teammates,” Backus said, “and I’ll definitely miss that in college.”