JEFFREY THOMAS
Photo by Jeffrey Thomas | Used with permission
Walking onto the stadium field, Physical Education teacher and Department Lead Jeffrey Thomas immediately felt the intimidating presence of the football arena. With thousands of people watching him, he knew that every game, practice and workout all led up to this moment underneath the glowing stadium lights.
“You can’t explain to somebody what it’s like,” Thomas said. “There are 100,000 people in the stadium, and when you hear them cheer, even if it’s not for you, the sound is deafening. Conversely, when you’re at your home stadium and you or your team do something well, and everyone’s cheering for you, you can’t get that feeling anywhere else. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. You can’t replicate that.”
Growing up in an athletic household, Thomas has always gravitated towards sports. Whether it was playing touch football on the streets of his childhood neighborhood or on a dusty baseball diamond in a far-away high school, Thomas knew that he was meant for athletics. Even though his mother didn’t allow him to play for his safety, he attempted to rekindle his passion for football during his sophomore year of high school by joining the team.
Thomas continued to pursue the sport and received a scholarship to play at Washington State University. However, to Thomas, playing Division I football wasn’t always about the flashy performances under Friday night lights, as finding a balance between academics and sports was crucial to his career. Thomas compares balancing sports and academics to working two different, full-time jobs, with football taking up the majority of his day — and ultimately being prioritized above academics. But despite the exhausting experience, he says that playing the sport at that high of a level taught him important life lessons that he still follows today.
“Football teaches you to have resolve, to keep fighting because you can’t just give up,” Thomas said. “If a guy is beating you, you have to figure it out. You can’t just quit because something is hard, or because something is difficult. You have to power through and rely on yourself and your teammates. Football is great, but you’ve got to put in the effort. It’s got to come from within. Your coach can yell at you all he wants, but if you don’t do it, it doesn’t matter.”
Besides learning from football itself, Thomas learned to overcome stereotypes that accompanied his athleticism. He cautions others from making premature assumptions about student-athletes, advocating for their work ethic around school.
“When you run across an athlete, don’t assume the worst of them,“ Thomas said. “Don’t assume that they’re morons and they just got there because they’re super athletic. They’re there because they worked hard in the classroom and they worked hard outside the classroom, in the weight room, or after hours. They’re intelligent people, and they work hard, and you can’t make a blanket statement about everybody.”
SARA BORELLI
Since the fourth grade, literature teacher and Varsity Girls basketball coach Sara Borelli has consistently been involved in: basketball, volleyball, softball, track and soccer. Of the plethora of sports she played, basketball stood out to her from the rest because of her natural prowess on the court. As she followed her passion in high school, Borelli became disappointed by the disparity in support between the men’s and women’s teams, despite the women’s team being just as skilled.
“I know nobody really cared about the girl’s program; they only cared about the boys,” Borelli said. “When I went to high school, we didn’t even have a Varsity team until my junior year. We were in that group of women athletes that didn’t really have the visibility, so we didn’t have all the club teams like athletes now have. But because we went 24-0, they had to give us a Varsity team.”
Following her high school basketball career, Borelli continued to play Division II basketball at Notre Dame de Namur University. As a basketball coach herself, Borelli notes that bonds formed among teammates in high school are significantly stronger than those formed in college. From her many seasons of coaching, she recalls the encouragement players had for each other and praises the sturdy friendships that are built through this sport.
“My favorite parts are the relationships that we forge along the way,” Borelli said. “The girls are dorky and always fun and I love having relationships with them. As a group, they always seem to have a really good camaraderie, cheering each other on and helping each other. A lot of them start freshman year, and I want to see them grow and change to just become self-actualized women that are strong and don’t take crap from anybody.”
In comparison, Borelli found that although friendships were still formed among her college teammates, they were not as close as the players she coaches. With inconsistent coaching staff, a heavy course load and other extracurriculars stacked on top of practices and travelling for games, maintaining strong friendships eventually became too demanding for many players.
“When you go to college, your ideas and priorities change, and you have other responsibilities than the ones you had in high school, so people drift apart,” Borelli said. “They’re not necessarily willing to make those kinds of connections that the girls make, like sleepovers and team dinners.”
Although her passion for basketball compelled her to become a coach, Borelli says that she sometimes still doubts her decision to play a sport in college. From balancing her school workload to having long days in and out of the gym, being a student athlete was just as exhausting as it was rewarding. However, despite the sacrifices she made for her athletic career, Borelli recognizes that her growth as a coach is not completely attributed to her collegiate experience.
“Sometimes I look back and I wish I hadn’t played the sport because it took so much time, and wish I just focused more on other things,” Borelli said. “But I learned to be competitive and how to lose gracefully; to try to have fun, but also try to be serious. I’ve grown as a coach because the players are different, not necessarily because of something I learned collegiately.”
KATIE COLLINS
Math teacher Katie Collins’ swimming journey started at 4 years old. While she explored various sports during her childhood — such as soccer, rock climbing and volleyball — none resonated with her the way swimming did.
In high school, she took up water polo alongside swimming. When she moved on to Occidental College in Los Angeles, there was no question in Collins’ mind that she would continue playing both of these sports. To her, the sense of community that came with being part of a team was one of the most compelling aspects of athletics, further fueling her passion for her sports.
“Water polo is filled with a bunch of fighting and biting, and it’s awesome,” Collins said. “Anybody who thinks that water polo is for sissies, as if it’s not the toughest possible sport, is delusional. What goes on under the water is unbelievable.”
Juggling two sports while being a full-time college student sounds demanding, but Collins found it manageable. Competing in Division III for both, she spent only about three hours a day on practices, with each season lasting around three and a half months — significantly less than the demands of a Division I sport.
“The thing about Div. III is that sports are not God,” Collins said. “So, you can still get to have that experience of being part of a group, but you don’t have to join frat life or Greek life and still do something fun and cool. A few of my friends went Div. I for swimming or water polo, and they were miserable. Playing Div. I takes away anything else that you get to experience in college and makes it just your sport.”
Even though Collins was not as significantly busy as a Division I sports player, she still had to learn the importance of commitment and time management. By playing a sport, Collins noticed that many of the skills she learned also translated into real life — playing a sport simply put those lessons into perspective.
“When you decide to be part of a team, you are committing to coming to practice and being on time, which is a really important skill for the rest of your life because it shows respect for yourself and respect for whatever you’re involved in,” Collins said. “Discipline is huge in sports. If you’re going to achieve anything decent in your sport, as a personal goal, discipline is huge. Goal setting and time management are all probably skills that you should leave high school with.”
With all the positive experiences that came with joining the swim and water polo teams, Collins sees playing sports as a crucial aspect to any student’s life. For those who prefer to focus their attention on academics, Collins highly recommends playing Div. III.
“Everyone should play a sport or join a band or something,” Collins said. “It’s an easy way to be a part of a community. There’s club sports for every idiotic thing you can think of, and it’s a great way to meet new people.”
