The starters on every team are the most important players to the team and have the most impact. The rest of the players on the team look up to them as leaders. How much do the starters on a team actually practice outside of the team practice to get where they are at?

Some starters on teams put way more work into their game than others and some don’t even practice at all outside of team practice. Some put hours and hours a week after so they can be the best player that they can be and maybe even further their sports career in college. Very few continue even after college which takes a lot of dedication to put all of the hours in, but worth it in the end. To look at the dedication here at PPBHS, I spoke with some of the starters to see how much time they put in outside of practice, if they plan on playing in college, and how long they’ve been playing the sport.

The first person I asked these questions was Nicole DeNoia. She said she doesn’t practice outside of team practice, she plans on pole vaulting in college, and she has been pole vaulting since freshman year. The second person I asked these questions was PPBHS quarterback Charles Robert Vitale, he said he also doesn’t practice outside of team practice but does physical therapy, ices his body and stretches to get his body ready for games, he also started playing when he was 6, but he does not plan on playing in college due to injuries.

PPBHS baseball player Carl DiVona explained that he does practice outside of school practice during the season for an hour and a half, he has been playing baseball since he was 4 years old, and he plans on playing in college. The last person I spoke to was lacrosse goalie Matthew Azzarano. Matt said he practices 2 times a week outside of team practice, he’s been playing lacrosse for 4 years, he also said plans on going to college to play lacrosse.

All the amount of time and dedication that anyone puts into any sport they play reflects on how much they really practice and can tell how much they care about the sport. Anyone can tell by the way certain players play they know that they put a lot of work and pride into their sport.