A-West freshman Riley Neary juggles playing three sports: basketball, volleyball and soccer. Neary discusses why she plays these sports and how she handles the stress.

“It can be hard to handle sometimes because it’s hard to find free time. I don’t get as many opportunities to hang out with my friends or family like other kids.” Neary stresses the importance of keeping her grades and social life up.

“Sports can get in the way of grades. Time is always a struggle. Sometimes I can’t go talk to a teacher outside of school to get extra help,”  says Neary. “I also don’t get a lot of time to do homework and projects.”

“Driving to sports is also an issue sometimes because I’m not old enough to drive by myself,  so my family has to take me to games and practices. It definitely gets irritating.”

Though there are stresses and struggles in a sport Neary still loves what she does for many reasons. She enjoys and appreciates the family that comes with having a team that she can lean on and trust in hard times.

“Every team I play for is like a family unit and we all have each other’s backs.” She carries on, “I love the feeling of being a part of a family that counts on me and that I can lean on. Sometimes we have conflicts between girls on the team. It becomes exhausting because we spend around 10-12 hours a week together.”

Neary enjoys bonding with the other girls on her team and thinks it is a good way to become stronger as a whole.

“We do team dinner before a game in almost every sport. It’s great quality time for us to unwind before a game.”

Neary enjoys the rush and adrenaline that playing her sports give her. She relates it to an addiction because o the action that takes place.

“I love the action on it, running and playing– it makes you proud to win and makes you want to try harder when you lose.”