STUDENT VOICE
Juggling Football and Theater “[They] aren’t so different after all.” By Jack Ireland ’22
Last fall, I was on the varsity football team and in the musical. The path to make this happen wasn’t easy, but it turns out that football and theater aren’t so different after all. Rewind to fall 2018, when I was a freshman. Coach Stephen Lewis sent out the activities form: “Choose one activity you plan to participate in in the fall.” One? Not a chance was I going to choose only football or only Ampersand, the joint theater group of St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s. I had no idea how I was going to make it work or whom I needed to talk to, but it was going to happen. I still remember the first time I told Mr. Horner I was going to miss football practice to audition for the musical, “Into the Woods.” It was hot and humid, and I was scared out of my mind to talk to this teacher I’d never met before. I told him my situation and prepared to hear the letters “N-O.” Instead, I received a “Y-E-S.” He and the other coaches were supportive and encouraging, and we quickly worked out when I was to be at practice or at rehearsal. That was a major relief. Now, my confrontation at the musical was a very different story. You can imagine the look on the director’s face when I listed JV football as a conflict on my audition sheet. Yikes. At first, she thought I was confused, then she was confused, and then I heard the encouraging words: “We’ll see.” A few days later, I received an email with the cast list. I scrolled, searching frantically for my name. There I was. I made it, though as a smaller role. That didn’t matter. I was in. And I was in for the long haul. As the fall progressed, I got increasingly frustrated that I was so behind in the musical, but couldn’t spend more time rehearsing, as I was needed on the field. I missed many more rehearsals than I did football practices. I didn’t know the music or the dances, as I wasn’t there when they were being taught. The times I did go to rehearsal, my scenes weren’t even being run. Sometimes, I had to run between campuses to get to where I needed to be.
Jack Ireland ‘22 assumes a thoughtful stance on the sideline.
I also began to feel isolated from my team and the cast, as I wasn’t fully a part of either one. There were many times where I wanted to quit either activity and just focus on one. Because I
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