Many “old school” athletes from days past remember what it was like to play more than one sport while attending high school. Football, basketball and baseball season ran consecutively with each other and it was a natural transition from one to the next. Today, whether it’s parental influence or just the lack of interest, many high school athletes feel they need to decide on one specific sport and play only that sport.
Some high school age athletes may feel that if they don’t pick a sport and play/train for it year round they won’t have the opportunities to be the best they can be at that sport or they may feel they will miss out on a chance to be recruited by a college. The truth is that several college coaches representing a variety of sports would rather a student athlete play more than one sport.
At Vero Beach High School there are currently only three 3 sport athletes – Ryan McDonough, Harrison Wood and Andrew Macintyre. McDonough and Macintyre are freshman and Wood is a sophomore and they all play football, basketball and lacrosse.
The consensus among college coaches is that multisport athletes display the ability to play with an assortment of teammates, and the flexibility to understand a variety of coaching styles.
Coaches also agree there is less burnout among multisport athletes versus athletes that practice the same sport nine or ten months out of the year. “My dad has always told me to play multiple sports so I do not get burned out or sick of one sport,” Macintyre said. “My parents take me to and from practices and play a big role in me playing three sports.”
Participating in three sports is challenging for an athlete when trying to make the next team. “The tough part of playing three sports is being late for the start of each season because they all overlap,” McDonough said. “I am almost two weeks behind the lacrosse season now because basketball just ended. I also miss some offseason workouts which run during the sport of the prior season.”
College coaches say the order of business two- or threes face resembles the type of ambitious timetable required to be successful at the college level.
“When I’m playing during a game my mind is on one thing and that’s doing the best job I can for my team,” Wood said. “But sometimes it gets tough. I also want to do the best I can in the classroom. I work hard at both and there isn’t much time for anything else.”
All three boys presently have 3.5 GPAs or higher.
Macintyre and McDonough have played all three sports together since they were in middle school. Wood and McDonough were teammates on the junior varsity basketball team that just wrapped up its season against Sebastian River, and all three will know their fates with the Vero Beach lacrosse team as to whether they will be on varsity or JV by the end of next week.
But one thing remains to be seen. All three boys have been able to accomplish the rarity of playing three sports successfully but will it eventually be a thing of the past?
