Anson Hulme

Junior Anson Hulme participates in football in the fall, basketball in the winter and volleyball the spring.

For many students, participation in school sports might be common for one or even two seasons, but not all three. In other words, they can count on a break at some point in the school year.

For three-sport athletes, the athletic season never ends, and sports are engrained in almost every day of their high school lives. 

Here are the stories of three of those student athletes. They are among the 13 students on campus who have chosen this rigorous path this year, according to statistics provided by registrar Jean Hsu.

An unconventional sports path

Sophomore Emily Troy is participating in tennis, wrestling and softball this year. While this is her first year on the varsity wrestling and softball teams, she has been on the varsity tennis team since her freshman year.

Troy has been playing tennis since fifth grade, competing in local matches and playing either doubles or as an exhibition. Her close friend, Eliana McBeth, convinced Troy to join the wrestling team and she tried out softball in elementary school, leading her to pick the sport up again this year and playing mostly as an outfielder or a pinch runner.

Even though the skillset for each sport is different, Troy has found that they overlap and benefit each other. Her background in tennis has helped her with hitting and base running in softball, while the grueling conditioning of wrestling has improved her fitness, making running easier in tennis and softball.

“When you are wrestling, you have a lot of adrenaline going and it feels good to fight,” Troy said. “There is a good amount of discipline that goes into wrestling aside from working a lot, so it’s definitely one of the harder sports that I’ve done.” 

If all of this weren’t enough, Troy is also very involved in the school’s drama program and has participated in theater since preschool. With rehearsals and sports practices overlapping, she often has to figure out ways to do both. 

“Even though sometimes it’s a lot of pressure to do all these things and also balance academics with extracurriculars, I’ve learned how to do it along the way,” Troy said.

Troy plans to continue playing these sports as long as she can and possibly even play them for fun in college. 

Carrying on a family athletic tradition

Growing up in a large and  athletic family, junior Anson Hulme spent his childhood playing football, basketball and volleyball with his many brothers and cousins. As his interest grew, he eventually took the sports up competitively as well. He has been playing basketball since fourth grade, and started both football and volleyball in his freshman year. 

Throughout the past three years, Hulme has found the benefit of playing these three sports to be that they all work different muscle groups. 

Football, where he has been the varsity quarterback since freshman year, not only helps him with his overall strength, but also makes him a stronger player on the basketball court, where he often has to battle against players who are his height (6-4) or taller. Additionally, volleyball helps Hulme with his leaping and rebounding in basketball.

With so much experience in all of the sports, Hulme has been Second Team All-League for the past two years in football and First Team All-League for the past two years in basketball. If he gets the opportunity, Hulme would want to play football or basketball in college, preferably at Brigham Young University since his older brothers go there. 

After participating in all three sports, Hulme found his favorites to be football and basketball because he believes he is better at them and feels the team chemistry on those two teams are the best. Nevertheless, Hulme still finds all three sports fun because they have provided him a chance to stay fit over the years. 

“Playing three sports always keeps me in shape and I don’t have to worry about working out at all,” Hulme said. “It’s both fun and good for my mental health. I have found that when I get injured and don’t play a sport, I tend to get pretty down on myself.”

During his time in high school, time management has been a crucial aspect of growth for Hulme since he is always juggling school and sports. When he would procrastinate on his homework in his freshman year, it often left him tired during the day and at practice. Since then, he has learned to get in an efficient rhythm, and he now gets his homework done earlier in the day if at all possible.

He mentioned that his busiest days are during mid basketball season in December since he has to study for finals while being consistent at attending practices. 

On top of school sports, Hulme plays basketball with the San Jose Spartans club team, usually during the spring and summer, along with some of his school teammates. Since he knows the coaches well, he occasionally misses a couple practices a week if they interfere with his other school sports. 

Hulme said he appreciates having so many activities to do after school because it gives him something to look forward to while working hard in classes.

“These three sports are really fun for me, and I find it beneficial to have something to do every day after school rather than just going home,” Hulme said. 

A senior’s years-long journey in three sports

When senior Kate Vasquez started playing tennis, basketball and softball in eighth grade, she found it hard to pick one sport, and wanted to continue doing all three. She’s been on the teams of each sport for the past four years.

As she transitions through seasons, Vasquez has found that the three sports benefit each other, whether through similar skills or just keeping her in shape. Practicing her backhand swing from tennis has made batting in softball easier, and conditioning in basketball helps Vasquez run faster in softball.

While the sports benefit each other, Vasquez finds her favorite sport to be tennis because of the individual aspect the sport offers.

“In softball and basketball, I feel more pressure from my team if I make a mistake,” she said. “In tennis, I have to control my own emotions and calm myself down when I make mistakes in order to get back in the moment and continue playing.”

To manage her busy sports and school schedules, Vasquez always tries to study for tests earlier if she knows she has a game coming up, especially since she is usually only able to start her homework later due to the late practice times. 

As her last high school sports season closes off, Vasquez plans to possibly join a club team for one of the three sports at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she is going to study public health. She enjoys sports because she gets to meet a lot of new people who she wouldn’t have otherwise known.

“I have a lot more friends in other grades than my other friends do, and I get along with a lot more people,” Vasquez said.