By: Gabby Mora
Every season has sports and most sports have a series of tryouts. During tryouts, players from all four grade levels go out and show their talent. Usually, freshmen and sophomore, underclassmen, tend to stay on JV and juniors and seniors, upperclassmen, tend to be on Varsity. When heard that there are underclassmen on Varsity, it can come as a surprise to many people. This year, our soccer teams and basketball teams had both sophomore and Freshman on their teams.
This school years boys varsity soccer team is doing very well. Gavin House ‘22 , is enjoying being on varsity as a lower class men and likes how the season is going. Besides that, “I don’t get treated as well being I’m one of the younger boys on the team,” House says.
Being on any varsity team as a sophomore or freshman can put a lot of stress on a player because they are set to a certain standard and they should do just as well as juniors and seniors if they are on the same team as them. House doesn’t find it too stressful and he is able to adapt to other players on the team as he advances throughout the season.
This year, 5 freshmen girls made varsity soccer. Gabriella Andrade ‘23, Madison Fortney ‘23, Olivia Saenz ‘23, Clarissa Martinez ‘23, are some of the freshmen who have joined the team. They all worked their way up and have earned their opportunity. Andrade, has the feeling that since she is a freshman, she gets looked at in a different way because she is younger than most of the girls.
The competition level on varsity is higher than most teams, Andrade senses the competition at this level. Andrade says that it has been hard fitting in but at the same time she find it somewhat easy.
Another player, Fortney, finds it a big change to be on varsity. She has gone from a normal team, as she explains it, to a varsity team. It took her some time to get comfortable, but she feels like they are now her teammates and she does feel comfortable around them.
At the beginning of the season, it took Fortney some time to feel ready to play, and now that the season has begun and they have played a couple of games, it has slowly gone away. “I would say that the upperclassmen are one of the main reasons why I felt welcome on varsity.” She now enjoys her time on the team and she feels a part of it. Sydney Somavia, junior representative, was one of the main girls who made her feel welcome.
Joey Volchko ‘23, and Jonathan Jimenez ‘23, are also freshmen on varsity. Joey Volchko is on the boys basketball team. One thing that Volchko finds interesting, is that since he is the youngest and does not drive, he usually finds himself waiting for his ride while the rest of the boys have already gone home. “I understand that I am not the big kid anymore.”
Volchko knows that he has to rise to the occasion and that he knows that the competition is elevated. Volchko enjoys being there because the guys would joke around with him and they have made him feel part of the team since the beginning of the season.
Jimenez is a part of varsity wrestling. Jimenez finds varsity as a challenge, but a good challenge. Going into the season didn’t have a thought that he would be able to compete with these guys. “If you want to be good, you can train good. If you want to be great and win, you need to train to win” This is a mentality that Jimenez has always had.
During pre-season he spent time working with the best to prepare for the competition. For him the competition is not overwhelming, but more challenging. For him, losing to the fourth wrestler in the state makes him happy because it makes him know that one day he will get there and he will beat him.
For these freshmen, they have earned a position that many people dream to have when they come to high school. They keep driving themselves to get better and they hope to be the best they can be.
Gabriela Mora
Tags: fres, red, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood highschool, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports
