When entering high school, everything is new for freshmen, whether it be new teachers, a new system of education, maybe new friends, or if they’re interested, new sport teams and coaches. Involvement in a sport during freshman year can be both intimidating and beneficial for new high schoolers.

“I think doing anything for the first time can be tough, but the payoff is friends, involvement and getting used to school policies, possibly earlier than other students. In terms of skill, playing ‘up‘ will make them better competitors,” Mr. Andrew Smink, Girl’s tennis coach, said.

In middle school sports, athletes were taught that winning isn’t everything and that the most important thing is to have fun. Then they join high school sports freshman year. Time to wake up early more often to train, show up to practices more often and still maintain a decent GPA.

“High school sports are a lot harder than middle school sports because they’re taken more seriously and are more important because of the level of intensity we are put at compared to when we competed at the middle school,” freshman Dennis Asanache, soccer player, said.

In high school, the intensity of practices goes up. There are videos of rival teams to watch, playbooks to memorize and techniques to perfect, all of which can make sports for freshmen hard.

“In high school, the practices get more intense. By that I mean you learn the basics in your past years for two hours and now you are learning newer ways of playing the techniques for three to four hours depending on the team’s overall performance. In middle school, you played with people a year or two younger or older, but in high school, it’s all four grades,” freshman Alexis Wade, soccer player, said.

Athletes are required to still maintain their GPA in addition to attending practices.

“Students are required to pass four classes and can’t fail two classes in order to play the sport,” Mr. Eric Rismiller, athletic director, said.

At the end of every week, coaches get a list of their athletes’ grades. If they fail, they risk getting kicked off the team if they do not raise their scores within a certain amount of time.

“You can’t be failing any more than three classes by the end of each week. By that I mean the coaches get a weekly report for every student saying their grades and if you are failing, there will be consequences,” Wade said.

Even if sports are challenging, some students plan on doing their sport for all four years of high school.

“I definitely want to play volleyball all my four years at PAHS even if it’s challenging because I had such a great experience this year playing,” freshman Molly Bartashus, volleyball player, said.

Even if sports may be hard in high school, some students benefit from them.

“If you really want do it, then just do it. Playing volleyball this year made my freshman year so much easier. I had a great time and you make so many great friends on your team. Your teammates help you out so much through your freshman year,” Bartashus said.

Let the games begin.