Finding Joy in the Journey

It isn’t just natural ability, prowess, and competitive spirit, however, that elevated them to a level of excellence worthy of multiple post-season all-star honors as well as their school’s career-achievement-award recognition.

 

It’s the intangible qualities of determination, resilience, leadership, and the ability to deal with disappointment in a healthy way, remain hopeful despite an uncertain future, and find joy in the shared moments that sports participation provides.

 

In late April, six seniors, captains all, earned athletic department awards: Hallie Brost and Hunter Milligan (Outstanding Senior Athlete), Sara Bartzen (Webb Sportsmanship), Liam Ryan (Jacobs Sportsmanship), and Ashley D’Ambrosia and Mac Macdonald (Richmond Times-Dispatch Scholar-Athlete nominees).

 

Herewith are thoughts from each about the difficulties presented by the pandemic-induced shutdown that cost them the better part of three seasons, lessons learned from their athletic experiences, and the way they’d like to be remembered by their teammates and coaches.

 

Hallie Brost, field hockey (next stop: Ohio State), lacrosse, and winter track

 

The shutdown: I worked on the things I needed to do to improve and hoped and prayed we’d have some semblance of a season, especially with field hockey. It wasn’t like just Collegiate was affected. The whole world was going through this. We had the summer to figure out what we could do and hoped things got better. That was our mindset.

 

Lessons: Recognizing the value of every single teammate. Everyone matters whether they’re on the field or not. I’ve been on varsity five seasons. We’ve had ups and downs. My junior year was supposed to be a transition year, but we made it to the state finals and beat our rival St. Catherine’s to get there. We didn’t win states, but the journey was one of the best experiences.

 

Legacy: Someone who’s a good leader who would raise the team up when they’re down and inspire everyone to do their best.

 

Hunter Milligan, football (U.S. Naval Academy) and golf

 

The shutdown: We had a group of motivated guys who took the quarantine as an opportunity to get better. We worked all quarantine long to get ready for a (competitive football) season we didn’t have. It was still worth it in the overall scheme of things because it will help us in the future.

 

Lessons: Definitely leadership. All my coaches taught me to be patient and be a leader through example. You can lead by talking, but what’s the point of that if you can’t set the example for your teammates?

 

Legacy: As an aggressive and passionate football player and good teammate. I try to give 100%, as cliché as that sounds. That’s a huge part of the game: go out there and give it everything you’ve got. Hopefully my teammates see that, and it’ll motivate them.

 

Sara Bartzen, field hockey (William & Mary), lacrosse, and winter track

 

The shutdown: I looked forward to when we would be back and hopefully be able to play games. It gave me a real appreciation for teammates and being able to compete.

 

Lessons (not just from the COVID hiatus but from two knee reconstruction surgeries): As frustrating as it was, it taught me patience that I never thought I had. It’s knowing that you’re not completely yourself and giving yourself grace until you get back to your full self and can trust your body again. That’s a daunting and scary thing. The theme of my sports career has been uncertainty. With COVID, it was the same. There were a lot of uncontrollable things, but what I could control was my attitude and how active I stayed during the quarantine.

 

Legacy: More than anything else, as somebody they (teammates) could go to for a ride, for advice, for anything. I hope I’m somebody they can trust because ultimately, that’s why we join teams at Collegiate.

 

Liam Ryan, swimming (Georgetown)

 

The shutdown: It was really hard, but I always had in the back of my mind that swim would be in a good spot because it’s a contactless sport and would be easy to social distance. Obviously, holding meets indoors with hundreds of kids in a building would be really tough.

 

Lessons: Selflessness. Coach (Mike) Peters has helped us learn to work as a team by swimming events that will help us score the most points, not necessarily the events where a swimmer can place high. I don’t know if I could have made it through high school being a swimmer without Collegiate swimming. I’m really, really grateful for the opportunity to swim for Collegiate because it made me love the sport that’s really hard to love sometimes.

 

Legacy: Hopefully, somebody who was welcoming and encouraging and as somebody who helps build camaraderie.

 

Ashley D’Ambrosia, winter and spring track (Washington & Lee) and volleyball.

 

The shutdown: The track team has been a constant for me throughout high school. Some of my best friends do track, and I found a sport I really like. At first, it (the time away) was really frustrating, but I continued training through the spring, summer, and fall and was noticing progress (in my pole vaulting), but I couldn’t compete in meets and see results.

 

Lessons: Perseverance. There was a time maybe two springs ago when I was practicing really hard but wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I was really discouraged. I said, “I can’t do this anymore. I want to quit.” I got over that, worked hard, and ended up getting a personal best that season. That taught me to try hard and not give up. (Note that Ashley now holds the school record in the pole vault, 11-6.)

 

Legacy: As someone who’s really approachable and a hard worker and someone they can come to if they have questions or just want to talk.

 

Mac Macdonald, basketball (U.S. Naval Academy)

 

The shutdown: It was definitely tough, especially back in March 2020. There were a couple of nights when I was really sad and not sure what I was going to do, but there really was no choice. There was a big turnaround for me in April where it was, Well, you have all this time. You might as well work harder than ever. That’s what kept me going throughout the pandemic. Then, you start seeing other guys, even with socially distanced workouts. Seeing improvement kept me motivated. Even though I wasn’t going to have a season, what I did to help the younger guys for next year was a big motivational part for me.

 

Lessons: If you really want to be good at a sport, it’s going to take time. I’ve had a great support system at Collegiate. If you trust your coaches and the people around you and put in the work, they’ll help you thrive and put you in the situation to be where you want to be.

 

Legacy: As a kid who didn’t have much potential at one point but ended up doing all he could to be where he wanted to be. As someone trying to reach my goal and happy to work hard to get there. In everything I did, I tried to represent Collegiate well. It’s a place I really love and will miss. I hope that I showed people what could be done as a Collegiate student-athlete.

~ Weldon Bradshaw