When on Varsity, students face a lot of pressure to do their best, and the pressure is especially intense if you are a freshman.

“There is more pressure playing on Varsity when being a freshman because you feel as if you can’t mess up because everyone on the team is older than you,” freshman Olivia Inigo said. 

Inigo has participated in club soccer playing on Force Fc for 10 years before joining the varsity team in high school, and it has really helped her improve her level of play by allowing her to develop new skills.

“Playing Varsity is most definitely a higher level of play. The girls are older and bigger than me so I am more challenged when playing against them,” freshman Emily Cook said. 

In the future, Cook wants to grow and develop as a stronger player, and possibly continue to play at the collegiate level.

“If a freshman is to make varsity, I look for ability level, maturity level,and experience they have as a basketball player,” Girls Varsity Basketball Coach Jay Trousdale said.

Jillian Neal, a 6’1’’ freshman, is a starter on the girl’s varsity basketball team. Neal has played basketball since 1st grade, and joined a club team during 2nd.

Starter Nalani Galindo has played waterpolo for over 4 years and swam competitively before that. Finishing 5th in the nation 2018 and 4th in 2019 at Junior Olympics, she has trained with some of the best coaches in the nation.

“A goal I’d like to achieve is breaking a school record. To me that would be a visual for all the hard work I put into this sport,” Galindo said.

The freshmen share that being on varsity has been a ton of fun playing with upperclassmen as they push themselves to become better players.