SPORTS FANATICS
Allyson Kepple has no spare time.
When she's not kicking a soccer ball, she's shooting a basketball. When she's not running to first base, she's just, well, running.
The Karns City senior is among a dying breed of high school athletes who, instead of focusing on one sport, strive to play as many as possible.
"I'd play lacrosse if Karns City had a team," Kepple says, laughing.
In the fall, Kepple plays soccer. In the winter, basketball is her game. In the spring, one sport isn't enough — she tackles both softball and track and field.
Karns City athletic director Tom Wagner, who is also the girls' track and field coach at the school, finagles the schedule to minimize conflicts.
Kepple's athletic multitasking is bucking a trend in high school sports these days.
Under pressure from coaches, parents, college recruiters and even the clock, many high school athletes are shunning other sports and picking just one.
"People have asked me, 'Why don't you just focus on basketball or football?" says Moniteau junior Tyler Armagost, who is a standout in three sports for the Warriors. "But you only go to high school once. I would regret it more if I didn't play more than one sport, never knowing how good I could be."
Kepple and Armagost are the exception these days.
There are a myriad of reasons why high school athletes are gravitating toward specializing in one sport.Many sports now require a year-round commitment with off-season workouts that aren't mandatory, but strongly encouraged.There are summer camps to attend. There are weights to lift. And there are college recruiters to impress.Many athletes believe honing their skill in one sport will get them noticed by college coaches. That isn't necessarily the case.According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, only 3 percent of high school athletes earn an athletic scholarship. Of that 3 percent, two-thirds played more than one sport in high school.Kepple is unsure of what sports she will play in college. But she has options."I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen," Kepple said. "I know some college scouts have been looking at me for soccer and basketball. I'm not really worried about it."Butler football coach Jeff McAnallen is on a crusade these days. Unlike many of his coaching counterparts at big schools, he's encouraging his football players to branch out into other sports."Multisport athletes are the best athletes in the school," he said. "They need to be playing other sports. When I was in school, that's the way you did it in high school. You played all the sports."McAnallen certainly speaks from first-hand experience. While at Butler, the 1990 graduate played football, was a wrestler and was on the Golden Tornado track and field team.He said the benefits of athletes playing more than one sport goes far beyond the physical."When you look at the stars on the other teams, most of them play other sports," McAnallen said."I want our guys to do that, too. I want them to be in pressure situations in other sports. It can only make them better on the football field."
Before his senior year, Zack Ejzak contemplated trying another sport.A standout basketball player from a very young age, the Slippery Rock High School senior focused all his energy on making himself better on the court.But this summer, the urge to play football became too big to ignore.He had never played organized football before. His only experience was the games he played with his friends in a backyard."I just came out because I figured it would be fun," Ejzak said. "I figured I had one more year. I regretted not playing the last few years. I figured this was my last chance."What started out as an intriguing experiment turned into much, much more.Little was expected fromEjzak. His football coach, Clyde Conti, had seen him play basketball many times and knew he was a gifted athlete. But football was nothing like basketball."To be honest, I didn't think he would see it through," Conti said. "I thought he would come out, give it a try."Instead, Ejzak became a team captain. By the time the season wound down with a District 10 Class AAA playoff loss to talented General McLane, Ejzak had hauled in 44 passes for 889 yards and five scores.The yardage was the 10th most in the state.Now, Ejzak is getting some calls from college football coaches."I'm blown away by what he did this year," said Conti, who called Ejzak one of the best athletes he's ever coached in his 35 years on the sidelines. "We had some idea he might do well, but we didn't expect anything like this."Ejzak's success has drawn a lot of interest from coaches who are wondering what other athletic gems are walking the hallways of their schools."Maybe someone will see what Zack was able to do and say, 'Maybe I can do that, too,'" Conti said.
On those Saturday mornings after a football game or those Wednesday dawns following a physical Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference basketball showdown, Armagost's body creeks and his head pounds, and he wonders why he is playing three sports.As a quarterback on the football team, he takes vicious hits as a matter of routine. On the hardwood, he takes elbows to the ribs on every rebound and gets strawberries on his knees diving for the basketball.During track season, his shoulder feels the strain of throwing a javelin more than 175 feet."Yeah, sometimes I wonder, 'What the heck amI doing this for?'" Armagost said. "I'm never healthy. There is always something wrong with me. There are days when I feel like I don't want to do this anymore."But he keeps coming back for more.One of the reasons, he said, is because of a feeling of obligation and school pride. Moniteau is one of the smallest Class AA schools in the state with a mere 247 male students in grades nine through 12."We feel like we have to do it to help the teams and the school," Armagost said. "If we don't play, who will?"Thirteen players on the Moniteau basketball roster also played football. Many of those players are on either the track and field or baseball teams in the spring.At small schools, multisport stars are almost a necessity.Meanwhile at bigger schools like Quad-A Butler and Seneca Valley, the number of multisport stars dwindles every year."There are so many athletes in this school who don't play sports," McAnallen said. "That has to change."Tyler Armagost's father, Randy, is a multisport coach.He is the head basketball coach as well as an assistant coach on the football team.Randy Armagost wonders how good his son would be if he focused on just one sport."Sometimes you do think about that," the elder Armagost said. "How good would these (multisport stars) be if they weren't so beat up and hurt by other sports. These guys are always hurting."According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, youth sports injuries have quadrupled since 1995.Some studies have found that more than half of all sports injuries to young athletes are caused by repetitive movements.Dr. Jeffrey Towers, a radiologist at UPMC, has authored numerous studies on sports injuries among children and says many are caused by overuse.Towers has seen athletes in his office with shin splints, knee and ankle issues and what he calls "Little Leaguer's elbow."Even though many of those injuries occur with one-sport athletes, Kepple is one multisport star who sometimes wonders why she puts her body through the rigors of four sports.But she wouldn't want it any other way."I've always done them all," Kepple said. "I've been playing soccer since I was 5. I played T-ball, then softball since I was 5. I've played basketball since the fifth grade."I love them all. I'd probably be bored out of my mind if I didn't play them all."As a result, Kepple's Karns City High School varsity jacket looks like a NASCAR automobile, covered with advertising placards. Across the back, stacked on top of one another are the sports she has played: "Basketball, Soccer, Softball, Track." Up and down the arms of her coat are the district championship patches her teams have earned.Kepple will walk out of the school with 16 varsity letters. And to her, that means more than any college scholarship or any amount of free time she has given up the last four years."I'm very proud of that," she said. "I won't have any regrets."Kepple's athletic multitasking is bucking a trend in high school sports these days.Under pressure from coaches, parents, college recruiters and even the clock, many high school athletes are shunning other sports and picking just one."People have asked me, 'Why don't you just focus on basketball or football?" says Moniteau junior Tyler Armagost, who is a standout in three sports for the Warriors. "But you only go to high school once. I would regret it more if I didn't play more than one sport, never knowing how good I could be."Kepple and Armagost are the exception these days.
