by Cassie Florido

As you sit in your room preparing to go to bed on a Friday night, you think about all the other things you wish you could be doing right now. Hanging out with your friends, seeing a movie, going shopping. But no. It’s another Friday night you don’t get to hang out with your friends. Another Friday night you go to sleep before ten o’clock. Another Friday night you have to dread getting up at the crack of dawn the following morning. This is just another typical, torturous Friday night of an athlete who plays club sports.

While school organized sports require a great amount of dedication, club sports takes it to the next level. As a matter of fact, club sports takes it to the extreme. Playing club sports at a high level calls for complete commitment to the team. If you play on a soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball, or any other club sports team, once you sign on to that team it’s pretty much equivalent to selling your soul to the team because there’s no turning back.

From personal experience with club volleyball, club sports can be the best thing in the world…or the worst.

Let me just explain how club sports can be the worst thing you experience. First, it is physically draining. Club athletes literally embody the term “from sunup to sundown.” There are days when you wake up before the sun is up and don’t leave the gym or the field until after the sun is long gone. During these long days, teams play what feels like 100 games. Okay, maybe not 100 games but at the end of the day, that’s what it feels like.

Let’s not forget that some athletes play multiple sports at once. One time, I tried playing basketball and club volleyball at the same time and I still don’t know how I survived that season. Going from practice to practice can leave an athlete running on empty. It takes hardcore dedication to play two sports at once. Being able to balance two sports and school at the same time is pretty impressive. Props to all the players who are playing two sports right now. Even if you can barely make it to the top floor of Donnelly because you are so sore or exhausted, still, props to you.

Another sacrifice  that comes along with club sports is that you pretty much have to kiss your social life goodbye. From playing games every weekend, traveling to tournaments, practicing multiple times throughout the week, there is barely any time to breathe, let alone hang out with your friends. During club season, friends of players should get used to hearing the phrase, “Sorry I have practice,” at least 20 times. As much as you hate hearing that, players hate saying it, too. As much as players want to spend a night with their friends, they have a commitment to their team like metal chains, you just can’t break it.

However, even with all these sacrifices and struggles, club sports is something any athlete should experience at some time in their sports career. Especially in high school, club sports allows you to branch out and meet new people. I know it’s cheesy, but most teams become a “family.” Some of my best sports memories come from hanging out with my club teammates. All the hours you spend on the field or in the gym together, builds a special kind of bond that no one outside of the team can understand.

Another perk of club sports is the out of town tournaments. Who doesn’t love going to a hotel and running around with your team? I will never forget a trip my club volleyball team took to Omaha when I was in the seventh grade. I did not have a great day on the court, but once my team saw that, they quickly came to the rescue. Now, I rarely ever let people touch my hair, but that day I gave in and let my teammates curl my hair. That night turned out to be one of the highlights of my time on club teams. Your club teammates know what you go through and will always try to pick you up when you are down. Club teams have to learn to stick with each other through thick and thin. That’s one of the main lessons in club sports. A team that sticks together, wins together.

The long days you spend with your team make you forget about everything you are sacrificing. Once you are with your team, you quickly forget that you gave up your Friday night and woke up at five o’clock that morning. When you are with your club team, the only thing that matters is that you stick together and play to the best of your ability. If you do this, everything else will fall right into place.