Photo courtesy of Anna Compagno

For many student athletes, participating in a sport can be physically draining, although fulfilling with a feeling of accomplishment after completing a workout or winning a game. Contrastingly, the arts demand similar tenacity, but involve an emotional and mental process that makes playing an instrument, singing or painting more creatively challenging. While participating in both a mental and a physical activity is not a reality for all Redwood students, it has become a norm for both senior Sophia Margulies and junior Lucas Roy.

For Margulies, playing the drums and playing varsity basketball have been significant parts of her life since she was young, and throughout high school the two extracurriculars have taught Margulies to balance her passions with her regular academic workload.

“They are both stress reliefs in a sense, they both help me decompress. They have also both taught me time management, because obviously with both of them you have to not procrastinate with your work, and be on top of things,” Margulies said.

According to Margulies, the high demands of high school led her to spend less time practicing drums outside of school, due to having basketball and homework every day. While Margulies believes both activities are important aspects of her life, and considers them to be equally significant, music often takes priority as it is a school commitment.

“[Both activities] are pretty equal, because in a sense you are part of a team for both of them. For music, you have to be there for the other musicians, but for sports, you want to be there for your teammates,” Margulies said.

Margulies believes that her two passions have added a variation to her high school experience, and could even eventually lead to potential job opportunities in her future.

“It is nice to have that balance because I think it is important to understand music and knowing how to play an instrument is a hard thing to do, and also being able to play a varsity sport overall keeps my life really well-rounded,” Margulies said.

Despite Margulies not planning on playing basketball at the division level in college, she hopes to continue both activities at a club level, as it is a way for her to meet people with whom she shares an interest in the sport.

Junior Lucas Roy, similar to Margulies, competes in baseball and plays the trumpet, and finds that the contrast of the two activities allows him to challenge himself in both a mental and physical way.

“It allows you to express yourself in different ways; one of them is physical, and the other one is emotional. They both come down to focus and striving for perfection,” Roy said.

Roy is currently in the TEAM program and is hoping to play varsity baseball this season; he also plays the trumpet in a jazz band outside of school.

“For baseball, all I have to do is the practices and sometimes there is stuff I have to work outside on; but for band, it is more of a responsibility where we have to fill our parts. If we know it, we are good; if we don’t, we have a lot of extra work to do. It definitely adds on a lot of things to do sometimes, but it is all really worth it, because I enjoy doing those things,” Roy said.

Students like Roy stand out to art teacher Lauren Bartone who has taught several student athletes during her time at Redwood, and finds student athletes to be especially organized and driven when it comes to the arts.

“Student athletes are able to take feedback without being paralyzed by it. I think anyone that [has] committed time to practicing a sport has learned that practice is really important, and I think they are just as hard on themselves as any other student, but they don’t let failure slow them down as much,” Bartone said.

Bartone also finds her connection with student athletes differs, especially in the higher-level art classes.

“Usually, student athletes are good at checking in a lot and asking for feedback, and I feel like my relationship with them as a teacher is almost more like a coach; they know how to take feedback and take criticism and how to integrate it into their practice to fix the problem or improve the technical problem,” Bartone said.

While for Roy and Margulies, finding a dichotomy between two activities has become normal. For teachers like Bartone, the dedication and passion of student athletes helps contribute overall to the classroom environment.