WHITEHALL — Whitehall wants more girls to play multiple sports in future seasons, and it invited guest speakers to the school May 14 in hopes of pitching the idea to its female athletes.
Viking alum Hannah (Mahoney) Loucks, who was a volleyball and softball star before playing the former at Aquinas College, and current Wake Forest cross-country and track athlete Aiden Harrand, who played four sports at Buckley, both addressed Whitehall students on the benefits of stretching yourself.
They were invited because, according to girls basketball coach Brian Milliron, 20% fewer girls play multiple sports at Whitehall than do boys. Milliron cited the small girls soccer roster this season as an example; under 20 Vikings came out for the team and they were unable to field a JV squad.
Both Loucks and Harrand - the latter's Whitehall connection is that she's related to Milliron's dad - spoke about the benefits they saw in their primary sport as a result of cross-training.
"It's something that I deeply feel shaped me as a person, playing and being part of this program and being a multi-sport athlete and carried me on to college," Loucks said. "I remember when I played softball here, even though I went on to play volleyball, softball really shaped me as a person. We went through a major shift.
"My junior year, I was one of the only (juniors) playing, and in my senior year, I was one of two or three seniors. We lost the majority of our team, so I had to experience this dramatic shift of our record and what our performance looked like."
Loucks is a Class of 2011 alum, but Harrand is even younger, having just finished her freshman season running for the Demon Deacons. Harrand played basketball and softball on top of cross-country and track at Buckley. She said that she kept so busy at Buckley that, even though she's now a two-sport athlete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, her schedule is in some ways not as physically taxing as her time in high school.
"I actually took stuff off my plate when I went to college," Harrand said. "I used to say I was a Type A person because of how rigid my schedule was and how uptight I was. Then I got to college, and I'm a Type B person. I didn't think that would ever happen to me, but I'm so much more relaxed."
Competing in sports they didn't necessarily dominate in was another topic addressed by both speakers. Each said they saw social and mental benefits from playing a sport they weren't as good at as their primary sport.
"That made me a more resilient person, not only (myself), but being part of a team that was going through a hot streak, or going through a losing streak, and how to push through that and have more opportunities," Loucks said.
For Loucks, those traits have stuck with her now in her new roles. She is the mom of a two-year-old, as well as the senior director of clinical quality at BrightPath Behavior in Colorado, which provides individualized therapy for children with autism.
"When you start a job, or don't get a promotion, or you don't get X, Y and Z, you build a resilience to it," Loucks said. "If we had a rough season, I could really (focus on doing) well in the offseason. If I have a hard day at work, I can go home to my kid. There's these pockets of my life that I can dive into, especially being multi-sport, and now having a multi-dimensional life, if one area is low, you have other buckets (you can tap into)."
Harrand also saw the value in stretching beyond her area of expertise. A superstar at running - she won 10 Division 4 state championships at Buckley, including two in cross-country and eight event titles in track - Harrand was not the same dominant force in her forays into basketball and softball, but said she got a lot out of the experience and met new friends.
"It made families," Harrand said, to compete in other sports, adding that compared to the largely solitary training of running, off-season activities in her other sports were less lonely.
Though sophomore Clare Westerlund wasn't one of the girls who was being pitched - she already plays volleyball, basketball and soccer - she was pleased to hear her fellow students sold on the same path she follows.
"I might be doing really well on the basketball team, being a starter, but then on soccer, I just am supporting my teammates that are better than me," Westerlund said. "I get to be below them and learn more from people...In soccer, I get to learn more and take on a different role, and that's really nice."
The speeches also motivated Westerlund, who may have the opportunity to consider a collegiate career in sports, to stay focused on making herself better during the offseason.
"Just do the extra things, because in college, that's going to be a daily thing," Westerlund said of the message she received. "I could think, 'I go and lift twice a week,' but when I go to college, it's going to be every single day, maybe twice a day."
Milliron wasn't the only girls coach hoping the message sunk in, either.
"For these high school athletes to see these girls come back, I'm hoping that it has this impact and lights that fire, ignites that passion," Whitehall girls soccer coach Laicey Chamberlain said. "I have some amazing leaders on my team, and if they were to come back in the future to talk to my younger players, I would be so stoked for that to happen."
Loucks was thrilled to be one of those former Vikings coming back in an effort to inspire the current students.
"I love it here," Loucks said. "I'm grateful for the opportunity to be part of such a tight-knit community and come back and talk to athletes. At the time when we're in high school, this is our whole life, but growing beyond it and life getting bigger past it, I'm so grateful it still gets to have an impact."
