The highs and lows of the fall sports season are a rollercoaster that ends when winter starts. Many students at Prep can relate to this, however it is the seniors who are most changed. No matter how many years they have participated in their sports, the fall of 2017 is their last fall season at Prep. No matter the sport, the seniors of every team have connections to the crazy world of Prep athletics.

From its inception, Prep Crew was deemed to be a tough sport. As one of Prep’s newest sports, it has probably seen the most drastic changes throughout the three years.

Emma Conaty ’18 has been a part of the crew team since the beginning. Her sophomore summer reading book, Boys in the Boat, sparked her curiosity for the sport, and through three years, both Conaty and the Crew team have grown in skill.

When asked about why she’s continued the sport, Conaty replied “I love it and I’m good at it.” By creating goals for herself that are both challenging and achievable, she has kept herself motivated through the mental and physical challenges that the sport has thrown at her.

As a sport that is more mental than physical, golf has given Treanna Ross ’18 a supportive community of teammates. After shattering her foot playing soccer her sophomore year, Ross switched over to golf after being persuaded by current teammate Mackenzie Skogland ’18.

Two years later she has bonded with her teammates over jamming out to music before meets and group lunches where the team can discuss their goals and team growth. The supportive nature of the team has created a fun successful environment for the team members, where even on a bad round, the team can always be counted on to lighten the mood by cheering or swapping the normally white golf ball with a pink one to add humor to a mentally tough sport.

Sarah Keaton ’18, is a new addition to the swim team who greatly enjoyed her transition from the cross country team. The large amount of seniors motivated her to make the switch, granting her a sport that was “more of what I wanted.” The dynamic of the team was also appealing, as there were “different variation in skill and talent” where some swimmers were just dipping a toe in the deep end of the competitive world and some had been club swimming for years. By swimming on a large team, the pressure of perfection is off so there is more room to solely focus on self-improvement.

Self-improvement is an important aspect in cross country, a sport that Orlo Singletary ’18 has been a part of for four “extremely long and excruciating” years. Throughout that time, many new team members have entered the program, building a community that Singletary describes as being built like a wall where “more bricks have been added” as each new team member joins. In cross-country, where each person is pushing the one in front of them, “if someone wasn’t there we wouldn’t have won [the meet].”

No matter the length of their contribution on their respective teams, the seniors have all benefited from their dedication and achievements in sports, making their teams better because they have been a part of them.