FRESHLETES

Four varsity freshmen share their experiences.

By Kennedy Greenfelder and Havana Hakala

This year, Covid restrictions have been lifted and Garfield athletics have come back with full force. Garfield has an impressive roster of state champions and award winning teams, an intimidating legacy for younger bulldawgs to hold up. How

Some of our freshmen have shown tremendous athletic ability and proved that their skills were enough to earn a first-year roster spot in Garfield’s varsity teams.

Many of these exceptional freshmen got their start because of familial encouragement. Star Smiley got her start after her father Coach Smiley, head of the girl’s varsity team, encouraged her to play. Smiley is now a freshman on the Girl’s Varsity Basketball Team. As well as Eric Wakefield of the Cross Country team. He started running with his older sister in middle school and was encouraged to continue in high school. Cameron-Rose Hoffman started playing volleyball with her older sister when she was just nine, and joined a professional team at eleven. She followed in her sister’s footsteps and joined the Girl’s Varsity Volleyball as a freshman.

Being on a varsity team is a big commitment for anyone, but for freshmen who are just starting out, it can be especially time consuming. “If you want to be really good you have to commit a lot of time… it can be tiring, you don’t have much time for anything else,” said Joe Palen, a freshman on Garfield’s Boys Swim and Dive and Varsity Cross Country team. “[It’s] definitely more