Students Shine in Spring Sports

PLAY. In this photo you see a student participating in a spring sport offered at VHS. There are many other sports to choose from as well. Photo courtesy of Mele Nelson.

There are many varieties of spring sports at VHS such as boys baseball, track and field, boys lacrosse, girls tennis, girls softball, boy’s soccer and golf. The majority of these sports are outdoors, and many people like that spring sports are outside while the weather gets warmer as we shift from winter to summer. 

These sports require balancing high pressure, intense training, and strong time management. Because spring brings very unpredictable weather, there can be frequent cancellations of games and practices. Some sports find somewhere sheltered to practice.  

Soccer is a very popular sport and the different skill levels everyone brings onto the team is used to represent how they work together. 

“I like soccer a lot mainly because you get to work as a team and it’s very team focused. I feel like it comes together to make it a very fun sport to play and I think there’s a really great community here on Vashon,” sophomore Eli Berman explained. 

For girls tennis, practices are at the school or the country club dome from 3 to 5PM. The dome is used to hold practices when there is severe weather changes, but matches are often cancelled if there is rain. Tennis is a purely individual pursuit into a team-driven experience that focuses on collective strategy. 

“I love the strategy it takes to be successful. I love how in control you feel on the court. There's just something about it that always makes me feel satiated. It's so fulfilling to hit well and play well; however, it's a huge mental battle. Once you start hitting bad ball after bad ball, it's hard to get out of that cycle, especially when you psych yourself out by thinking you’re a terrible player,” sophomore Katherine Thompson said.  

There is also a huge mental aspect to tennis that is often more decisive than physical sport alone, where points are frequently won by the opponents' mistakes. Success depends on resilience, the ability to bounce back and adapt after losing points. 

Soccer is traditionally a fall sport, but VHS offers it in the spring as well depending on the person's gender. Because soccer is low-scoring and fast paced, mental errors like overthinking are more frequent than physical, and players focus on controllable elements like their next pass or defensive positioning. 

“I play as the goalkeeper in soccer. My favorite part of my position is just making saves. There’s something about being able to push your body to its limits and pull off an insane save that is so rewarding,” sophomore Owen Meade said. 

Soccer players' success depends on reading and reacting, instinctively filtering out crowd noise to maintain spatial awareness of teammates and opponents. Soccer develops speed, endurance, and explosive muscle force. Unlike some individual sports, soccer emphasizes cooperation, for a player cannot win without effective passing and outside defensive support from the entire team. 

“My favorite part about soccer is that I really like just kicking the ball around. One thing we do that I don’t necessarily really like is I feel like the team is incredibly competitive and that could be a bit difficult, however, I do not think that it really takes away from experience cause I think that it actually pushes you to be a better player,” said Berman.

There are many other sports to choose from besides those listed, but would people choose different sports if they had to make that decision? 

“In the end I honestly don’t think I would ever choose a different spring sport. I have done thousands of sports, from gymnastics to cross country. But I have not yet loved a sport as much as I do tennis. It's the first and only sport where I find myself saying “I can’t wait for practice.” The only sport I have ever truly enjoyed,” Thompson exclaimed. 

While other players might try out another sport, the one they play  right now seems like the best fit. 

“If I could pick another spring sport, it would probably be track and field, but I feel like soccer is the most rewarding and fun to play for me,” Meade said. 

When it comes down to it, sports are a chance for people to come together as a community, be together, work together, play together.