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Owen Lynch rushed off the soccer field at Beacon High School and into the locker room.
He slid off his shin guards and removed his shorts and jersey, trading them for his football uniform, pads and his helmet. He quickly had to shift his focus on Sept. 10, from the 4:15 junior varsity soccer match he’d just played against Monticello that afternoon to preparing for the Bulldogs’ varsity football game against visiting Kingston at 7.
“I kind of look at it like, you have to have amnesia — not really care about what just happened and keep going forward,” Lynch said. “It’s a little tough going from, ‘Let’s play soccer’ to, ‘Let’s get ready for football,’ in the amount of time you’re given, sometimes just 30 minutes. But my teammates are supportive. On the soccer field, they said, ‘Go get dressed!’ It was a great feeling.”
The sophomore expects a similar feeling on Oct. 8, when he will have a soccer game at Roy C. Ketcham at 4:30 p.m., then will have to rush to Beacon for the football team’s 7 p.m. kickoff against visiting Wallkill.
As a junior varsity soccer player and the placekicker on the Bulldogs’ varsity football team, Lynch is among many athletes across Section 9 who participate in two sports in one season.
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Athletes said their reasons for playing multiple sports in one season vary.
With high interest in both of their sports, some from Beacon leaped at the chance when the school switched its athletic programs from Section 1 to Section 9 this school year, eager to give it a try. Section 9 allows student-athletes the unique chance to take on two sports, regardless of level, in one season. Others insisted they wanted to prove they can handle it.
Changing gears from one sport to another, athletes say, is among the challenges that comes with participating in two sports in the same season. Still, they are willing to embrace the scheduling hurdles and mental and physical grind that comes with it and take on the roles that each of their sports demands.
In Lynch’s case, he is a captain on the soccer team, tasked with keeping morale high and encouraging his teammates. In football, the dynamic is different.
“(In soccer) I kind of have to keep everyone going and keep everyone in line, stuff like that,” he said. “For football, I just have my job and I got my thing to do.”
Most say they would suggest playing two sports in one season to other athletes.
“Anyone who does it, I’d recommend it,” said Alexis Camacho, who is a forward on the Marlboro boys soccer team and also runs for the Iron Dukes’ cross-country team. “You meet new people, have new experiences and experience two different sports at the same time, which is really cool. I didn’t think I’d really like it, but I am really into it.”
Lynch agreed.
“It is doable,” he said. “And if you want to, you should try it out.”
‘It was a dream come true’
Danny Urbanak is a goalie on Beacon’s varsity soccer team and doubles as a wide receiver and cornerback on the varsity football team. As someone who was a soccer enthusiast at a young age, he was thrilled to see Beacon make the change in sections, allowing him to play both in one season.
Believing he could handle the workload, he was open to giving it a try.
“I like Section 9 a lot more because it lets me play football, which is my new passion, and remain playing soccer, which has been my passion for the last 13 years now,” Urbanak said. “I was ecstatic when I heard about Beacon moving to Section 9. It was a dream come true, being able to do this.”
Lynch said people in his family “doubted he could do it,” and that was motivation enough to take on junior varsity soccer and football.
“Family, my cousins who played soccer, they thought it was a bad idea, that my body couldn’t take it,” he said. “I took that as a challenge.”
Camacho began playing soccer at a young age, but his English teacher Alice Quirk — who is also Marlboro’s cross-country coach — attempted for three years to recruit him to her team.
This year, he caved.
“She’s been trying to get me the past three years,” said Camacho, a senior. “So I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it for my senior year, see how it goes.’ And surprisingly, I guess I’m pretty good at it.”
The concept is nothing new to Sam Lofaro, who plays both varsity soccer and football at Marlboro. He’s had prior experience playing two sports in one year.
“I did it two years ago,” said Lofaro, a senior forward on the soccer team and a wide receiver, cornerback and placekicker in football. “It’s not the first time, so I knew I could do it again.”
The challenges
Along with some obvious scheduling obstacles, having to quickly alter mindset and mentality from one sport to another are but a few of the proverbial fences an athlete must climb over playing two sports in one season.
Lofaro said his soccer practices typically begin right after school and run until 5 p.m. He will head home very briefly for a snack after soccer, then turn around and go right back to the school for football practice, which runs from 6-9.
“It’s hard with games and practices on back to back days,” Lofaro said.
Scheduling, though, hasn’t posed much problems for others.
Despite it being busy, Urbanak said his game and practice schedules are usually quite manageable. Conversely, changing mental and physical course from one sport to another on short notice is the real test.
“I’d definitely say for football, you have to pick it up a notch mentally, because it’s just the nature of the game,” he said. “It’s more high impact, high action than it is for soccer at points.”
Camacho said he tries to stick with the same mentality for both soccer and cross-country, though the objectives in both sports are, of course, different.
“In cross-country you run three miles, competing against people from different schools. And in soccer it’s all about movement, the ball, the team and trying to win a title,” he said. “I guess it’s the same mentality, you want to stay focused on both sports. They’re equally important. You’re competing for something. You want to be first or win that game.”
Camacho added that he’d encourage other athletes to try two sports in one season, echoing the general feeling among dual-sport athletes.
“It’s a lot of fun, and all the encouragement I get from my team and my coaches is just great,” Urbanak said. “I would recommend other Section 9 athletes do this. If you have the time and the effort, go for it.”
A.J. Martelli: 845-437-4836, amartelli@poughkeepsiejournal.com, Twitter: @AJ_Martelli
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