5 minute read
Once A Wildcat
from Senior Issue 2022
Story by Clarissa Zuo Graphics by Andrew Kang
There is a moment from the TV show “Riverdale’’ that became popular online in early 2019. It comes as a response to another character saying they had to drop out of school in 4th grade, to which Archie Andrews, the jock male lead, responds with the now-famous line, “That means you haven’t known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of high school football.” This cheesy line has become a popular meme online. Despite being a bit melodramatic, there is a grain of truth to the statement.
Advertisement
Through the countless hours spent on practice and games, athletes learn the lessons that continue to help them in college. Even if they choose to stop playing after graduation, all the life lessons they’ve learned through sports will stay with them.
Jonathan Fisher, a West Ranch senior on the varsity boys basketball and volleyball teams, said, “‘Communication is always important’ is a very good life lesson I’ve learned throughout my time in sports at West Ranch.”
In college, students have to take more responsibility for their own education. Professors expect students to come in for help during office hours when they are struggling. Athletes, like Fisher, may be more prepared for this after years of communicating with their coaches about scheduling than the average student.
Although he is still undecided on which college he will attend, Fisher has the opportunity to play basketball at one of his choices. He states that the lessons he learned in sports can still benefit him in his future, even if he chooses not to play.
“As I said before, communication is really important, but so is time management,” Fisher explained. “That’s going to be the most important factor in college in being able to do everything you want to do.”
Coach Lindgreen, a West Ranch teacher and head varsity baseball coach, has been coaching for 13 years and has similar ideas about the benefits of learning how to distribute your time. He’s mentored dozens of players throughout their high school years and has seen firsthand how these values can help them.
“I would say that the two biggest values for student athletes are really work ethic and time management,” Lindgreen said. “Managing time is tough for almost all teenagers, and they’re growing up and learning how to balance a lot of responsibilities. Student athletes are forced to do that. They have practice, a lot of buses and a lot of travel on weekends. They’re forced to figure out how to manage their time.”
When students enter college, they will have more things competing for their attention. In most universities, professors don’t assign homework day to day like a high school teacher. Instead, students are told when the dates for a few major assignments are when the course starts and have to manage their own time in order to prepare for them.
“The second one, work ethic, is knowing that even if you’re not feeling good that day, you push forward,” Lindgreen continued. “You have to get back up and get to practice the next day. So hopefully the work ethic part and managing their time are two things they can bring to the rest of their life in college and when they get to the workforce, things they’ll have to rely on.”
Jason Drees is an alumni of the West Ranch baseball program and a former student of Mr. Lindgreen’s that graduated in 2016.
“I have failed so much in life because of baseball, and in a way, it has made me who I am today,” Drees explained. “Today, I am not afraid to fail, in fact, I welcome it with open arms knowing that I can learn something that could be so much more beneficial to my future than if I succeeded the first time. Like Rocky said, ‘It’s not about how hard you hit, but about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward’. I think that is a great way to look at life. You are not defined by how many times you fail, but instead by how you bounce back from each of those failures.”
Drees now works in a management program for an electrical distribution company. He plans to be running his own location by the end of 2022 and says the lessons he learned as a baseball player continue to benefit his career.
“I have also taken the work ethic and consistency that I learned from baseball straight into the workforce with me,” Drees continued. “Sports have taught me that you have to work hard every day to get to where you want to be and knowing that fuels my drive everyday to get better at my job.”
As these Wildcat athletes prepare to move past high school, Coach Lindgreen looks forward to seeing them one last time. “Maybe my favorite memory, year after year, is really graduation. Every year at graduation, there’s kind of a line of coaches that stand where the procession is walking in,” Lindgreen said. “To see various student athletes, especially the ones that we’ve coached as they’re graduating high school, to give them the high-five, to give them that hug and see them come through holding hands. Every year, we have this really cool culminating moment.”
In mere days, seniors across the nation will leave their high school sports career behind. The soccer jerseys will be returned, the athletic clearances will expire and the trophies are already gathering dust. West Ranch seniors won’t call themselves Wildcats forever. As they enter college they will become Stags, Banana Slugs or Aggies. But in the lessons they learned, the values they hold and the memories they carry, they will always be Wildcats.
Always a Wildcat
