Senior Emma Menke walks down the field after victory. Menke played at home against Hersey, and her’ team secured a 16-4 victory. Photo provided by Emma Menke.
With September 1st (The day thousands of athletes received offers via phone recently), the noise around college recruitment is all that seems to be talked about. Social media feeds are filled with athletes announcing recent commitments, and conversations in the hallways often come back to who’s getting noticed by college coaches.
Well, this process is nothing new to senior Emma Menke. Menke has been playing lacrosse since fourth grade and is currently committed to playing college lacrosse at Denison College. With her father being a huge figure in the lacrosse community and even playing in college himself, she’s never known a world without lacrosse. She describes the start of her journey as a love-hate relationship.
“I hated it. Like, I literally hated it so much. I would cry every time I went to practice,” Menke said. This stemmed from her dad wanting her to play. This hate then developed into a passion during her eighth-grade year. “I just fell in love with it,” Menke said.
When asked what made her commit to playing in college, Menke shared how she actually was in between soccer and lacrosse, but eventually fell in love with the sports environment. “I think that I’ve always thought that I wanted to play a sport in college,” Menke said. “I was between soccer and lacrosse. But I think the environment for everything that I’ve done for lacrosse has been so good for me that I think I wanted to continue that in college,” Menke said.
Menke’s recruiting process was rigorous.
“I didn’t really start any recruiting stuff until my sophomore summer, like, going into my junior year, that was when I decided that I really wanted to play, and I kind of just was like, seriously gone every single weekend at like camps and recruiting tournaments and then like showcases and stuff like that, which I hated doing all that stuff, because I hated It doing it by myself. So that was definitely really hard for me.”
Her advice to younger athletes? Trust the process.
“It sucks, and nothing’s perfect, but if you keep pushing through it, you’re gonna get to a point where you’re happy with where you are. And I think just knowing that there’s a place for you, and then also just being able to put 100% of yourself into everything is the biggest thing, because you never know where coaches are going to see you,” Menke said. “I feel like knowing that something’s gonna happen, like you’re gonna get at least one school that likes you… made me feel better about things.”
Exceptional Extracurricular of the week/month
Cheerleaders at Barrington High School Getting ready to begin the first home game (Brenna Chomicz)
High school is the perfect time to get involved, try new things, get better at old things, and support your school.
“It also teaches you team effort and how to work together during hard times,” said Harper Newman, a freshman at BHS, when asked what she has learned from cheerleading at the high school.
Newman has been partaking in gymnastics since she was young. In middle school, Newman decided to switch to cheer. Although she brought some experience with her, she says it’s open to everyone, especially those without experience, to get involved in her sport.
“It’s good to be a part of school spirit,” Newman said.
Cheer isn’t only a fun activity, but an amazing sport to represent your school. From performing front and center at pep rallies and football games, they’re always bringing the energy and excitement. Continuing on the path of getting involved without experience, it’s a great opportunity to build connections.
“Everyone is connected, it’s like a team effort,” Newman said.
Some may argue that any sport is a team effort; however, cheer goes a step further. This sport is all about working together. With the precise timing and full trust needed for stunts and the pinpoint coordination in routines, building a connection with your teammates isn’t just an added plus, but a necessity. The result of this is a strong and trustworthy bond.
The benefits of cheer can go far out from the gym. You can learn things that will stick with you far outside of your school years.
“When something’s hard to keep going,” Newman said that is something valuable she has learned from cheering.
Extracurriculars like cheer build a strong environment, get you involved,
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