Springtime brings about the start of the seasons for many sports at this school. As the sun begins warming the frost-bitten ground, baseball and softball players pick up their bats, and track runners stretch at the start line. However, other athletes are also hard at work; they compete for organizations outside of this school, and while they don’t have locker signs or varsity letters, they’re just as dedicated. 

Junior Ava Ehret is an equestrian for Burnett Farms, and she’s been riding horses for close to 10 years now. 

“It’s a great community of people and the animals are fun,”she said. ¨My horse is probably the best part; she’s great. She’s an 8-year-old German horse I got about a year ago and I love her. (The horses)  try their heart out for you, and so it’s hard to explain, but they try their heart out.”

Sophomore Trevor Young has also played his sport for 10 years. Young plays hockey for the Tier 1 Hockey Federation (THF) and first started playing when he moved to Chicago right after the Blackhawks’ big Stanley Cup win in 2015. 

Young said one of his favorite aspects of his sport is traveling because he gets to visit different cities with his teammates, but on the other hand, he said traveling can become draining. 

“I miss a lot of school and I miss a lot of football games. So (during) all my weekends I’m just always with my hockey teammates; you don’t really get to see your school friends that much,” he said. 

Practice time can eat away at his free time as well. Young said he typically goes straight to the rink after school and will be there for around three hours. According to Young, he and his teammates have about an hour of warmups, an hour and 15 minutes of practice and then another hour of off-ice workouts before he gets home, around 8:30 to 9 p.m.

Junior Lilia Fingerhut dances for Expressenz Dance Center and has an even longer schedule than Young.

She said, “So most days I start dance at either 4:30 or 5:15 p.m. So I’ll drive straight from school to dance and then sometimes I have a few minutes, but usually I just run right into class, and then I have a few different classes and get home at 9 or 9:45 p.m.”

Emily Good, a teacher here and a coach for the PRO-X 18U National softball team out of Westfield, said there are several benefits and drawbacks to playing a sport outside of this school. 

Good said via email, “Playing sports outside of school allows individuals to interact with a wider range of people and develop social skills.”

She said students who play for teams separate from this school receive the same advantages as all athletes, for example – camaraderie and teamwork skills, but they can encounter issues with time commitment. She said playing for leagues outside of this school can mean additional practices and games that take time away from studying, time with loved ones and pursuing other interests. 

Not being able to participate in other sports or clubs is an unfortunate truth for Ehret, Young and Fingerhut. 

Ehret said, “I had plans to join an engineering group. I had talked to the teachers last year. They were like, ‘You look like you’re going to be a good candidate to do this.’ And then my whole school year (turned upside down) because I moved to a new barn. I’m gone for four hours after school; I get (out of school), get up there at 5 p.m. and get back at 9 p.m. So there’s just no time to do anything that’s not what I currently do, and to be honest, there’s no time for that either.”

Fingerhut said she experienced the same issue. She said she had to quit soccer in middle school after she switched dance studios and now doesn’t have the time to compete in track or cross-country as she had hoped. However, she did create a new club at this school, Morgan’s Message. 

Fingerhut said she started a chapter at this school to promote the mental health of student athletes,many of whom encounter difficulties balancing school and sport responsibilities. 

Young also discussed the absences he’s acquired because of hockey games. He said last year he had 100 class absences and his teammates had similar numbers; some of them even received emails about their attendance. 

According to Ehret, when she has horse showings, which usually occur once or twice a month, she’s gone from Tuesday to Sunday, so she misses a lot of school to attend. 

She said, “I have 54 absences. Currently, this semester I have 54 of the allowed 40. So I’m out every month, and then we’re going to leave once more in December after (Assessments and Culminating Experiences) week.” 

To avoid being truant and continue to do what she loves, Ehret said she was proactive and met with one of the assistant principals to create a plan of action. Assistant Principal Brittany Wiseman explained this school’s policy for students who have competitions requiring them to leave school for extended periods.  

“So if a student is going to miss (school), let’s say for an athletic tournament or competition, if they’re going to miss more than three days, what we have them do is we just ask that they come to student services and then myself or Mr. Drew, who’s another assistant principal, will meet with them and have a conversation about what’s going on in their classes. What pieces of information, tests, exams or projects will they miss? And then what’s their plan with getting caught up? And once they do that, then we say, ‘Ok, then it’s an excused absence.’”

When it comes to catching up or staying on top of schoolwork, Young said it’s essential to use SRT time wisely and communicate with teachers, while Fingerhut said she does her work in any available time she has. Ehret said she faces an additional struggle because her barn doesn’t have WiFi, so she can’t do any work while she’s up there. 

“It’s a big time commitment, and a lot of the kids that do it are in online school. So I have four other barn mates, there’s four of us that go to mostly everything and then I’m the only one that goes to in-person school,” she said. “So (my family was) thinking about doing that, but I can’t sacrifice my education for this; I would love to, but I can’t.”

Students are not alone in their struggle as Good said she has also experienced difficulty finding time for both her teaching and coaching responsibilities. 

“I have such a passion for teaching and coaching, and finding a balance is critical. Yes, there have been instances where my coaching responsibilities have impacted my teaching or vice versa. For example, when there are overlapping schedules for practices and meetings, it becomes challenging to find enough time to prepare for teaching and grading assignments,” she said. 

“Conversely, when there are important exams or projects to grade, it may result in limited time and attention for coaching responsibilities.”

While it can complicate her schedule, Goods said coaching is something she loves, and she’s been doing it for 27 years. 

She said, “Two shoulder injuries shortened my playing career as I headed into my freshman year (of) college. My former high school coach asked if I would be interested in helping out during the summer, and (I) instantly loved it. It was a way for me to stay involved in a game that had given me so much and I wanted to give back.”

According to Young, choosing to play for another team instead of the Carmel Icehounds opens up more possibilities for him in the future. 

He said, “I want to play hockey in college, and there aren’t a lot of opportunities if you just play in Indiana because not a lot of college scouts come to Indiana to watch, so you kind of have to travel.”

Both Ehret and Fingerhut said they don’t feel left out when this school celebrates its players with varsity letters or the Walk of Champions. Instead, Ehret said she finds the most reward from the experiences she gets from her sport. 

For example, Ehret said she was at a horse show in Ohio last week where something exciting happened during one of the rounds. 

“For me, the most important part of this show wasn’t my ride. It was my trainer’s. My trainer got on my horse and did a 3-foot class, which was (my horse’s) first 3-foot class, and (they) won, she said. “I have an animal that is actually good, and she is amazing, and she is perfect and it’s just seeing them succeed. It’s hard to explain, but seeing her succeed was the brightest part of my day, I was so happy for her.”