Throughout middle school, students often wonder what will happen in high school as they take on new sports programs and experience new coaching. However, when students get to the high school level, the majority are happy to hear that sports progressively get better throughout their high school career. Josiah Mowry is a freshman who joined the swim team this past winter, and he noticed many changes from his previous middle school training in the sport.
“The intensity jumped from zero to one hundred real quick. Swim, for example, [in middle school] was a club team. I did that a couple of years, but that was one, maybe two nights a week max. Coming into high school swim [there] was the expectation that you show up to every captain’s practice every morning,” he said. “I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to make it to practice and then stay late at night for meets, the intensity level was just way higher.”
“My confidence level freshman year was probably pretty low, like everyone else. I’ve realized that you don’t need to fit in to be happy. You don’t need to fit in to be seen as a good person or accepted. You just have to be yourself. You have to be mature enough to realize that people around you don’t need you to be how they are,” Smith said.
Both Mowry and Smith indicated that the transition from middle to high school is mostly exaggerated in terms of fear. According to Mowry, at Stoughton High School, the sports and community greatly improved.
“It’s a really big shift, and seeing my teammates in the hallways every day is a great feeling, because it’s a bunch of great communities that I get to bond with. I think that’s an amazing thing. I love the intensity. I love how things have become a little bit more focused on improving overall, instead of the individual. Stoughton sports are a great way to find community,” Mowry said.
Smith provided a similar perspective, explaining that the transition to high school athletics involves more than simply competing at a higher level.
When asked what younger athletes misunderstand about high school sports, Alex replied, “Everybody believes that once you get to high school, the only difference is the practices are harder and you’re going to be more tired, and the competitions are going to be scary and kind of intimidating. I would say the biggest difference is staying consistent through any sport. If you can stay consistent, show up every day, and you even just put in a little bit of effort, it’s gonna be better than skipping some days [and working harder]. So, yeah, consistency over everything.”
On the accountability side, Mowry noted, “If you mess up, you’re going to hear about it, but you’re also going to hear about ways that you can improve. And I really love that.”
Hearing from both a freshman and a junior makes one thing clear: high school sports shape students in ways that go beyond the field. While Mowry begins to experience the shock of intensity and the excitement of new communities, Smith reflects on how those same experiences were essential in building his confidence and maturity. Their stories show that, although high school sports may be intimidating at first, they pay off in the end.
As Mowry stated, “A great example of that would be when you walk down the halls, you know that you have friends in the sports teams who are going to be cheering for you, no matter [if] it’s in the sport or outside of it. [And] that’s good. I know that I can still talk to my friends from soccer even if they [aren’t] on the soccer team [anymore]. I know that I can come up to talk to them, and we can have a great conversation, because it’s just such a great community in all of the sports. I think that’s something that Stoughton does really, really well. We have a great community of athletes.”
How to get ready for the season
pre/post season
During season
How to balance sports
Things both experience & what is different between freshman vs junior
