Three days after skating the Quaker Valley hockey team to a state championship, Jake Pilewicz doubled to right-center, Clayton Bouchard drove in two runs and Luke O'Neill pitched a complete game.
In the minutes following the Quakers' 10-2 win over Carlynton — in baseball, not hockey — O'Neill stood in front of the home dugout.
With no sign of ice anywhere, he looked out toward the right field fence.
"It was just kind of weird," said O'Neill, one of four Quakers whose hockey and baseball obligations overlapped. "There were days when I was like, 'Wow, I'm on a baseball field, and yesterday, I was just, like, skating on ice.' It was weird, but we did it good."
Over a three-day stretch in late March, O'Neill, Bouchard, and Jake and Adam Pilewicz went 3-0 in two different Quaker Valley uniforms. On March 23, they won the PIHL Penguins Cup at Consol Energy Center. On Sunday, they claimed the Pennsylvania Cup hockey title on Neville Island. On Monday, they invoked the 10-run rule on Cornell, slugging out a 19-1 win in six innings.
This quartet of Quakers exemplifies the population of students who cram the hours outside of school with a seemingly continuous schedule of workouts, practices and games, often without much of respite from when fall sports start in August to when spring sports end in June.
Even though there can be physical implications for super-busy student athletes, who are particularly prevalent at smaller schools, many don't seem to mind being constantly active, especially when their efforts yield success.
Take, for instance, the elder Pilewicz — Jake, a Quaker Valley junior who plays on two hockey teams, Quaker Valley and the Pittsburgh Vipers Stars amateur team — and two traveling baseball teams in the summer, on top of scholastic baseball.
"Winning the state hockey championship was unbelievable in itself, and one thing for me — and I think I can speak for a lot of athletes — is I love being busy, and I love playing sports," said Pilewicz, a star defenseman, pitcher and third baseman. "So, actually, stepping into baseball the next day was pretty cool. It was like picking up right where I left off."
That seems almost inevitable these days. In many sports, more teams make the postseason than not, and that desire for increased representation necessitates some overlap in seasons, according to PIAA assistant executive director Mark Byers.
The schedule for the whole year of PIAA sports is set based on when Labor Day falls. But not all Pennsylvania schools open at the same time, which Byers acknowledged can present a challenge when trying to schedule a reasonable amount of preseason, regular season and postseason competition for fall, winter and spring sports.
"It's a balance of how early you want to start the fall sports season without actually having kids in school and providing some type of summer break," Byers said. "It's just a balancing act trying to fit it all together."
Not coincidentally, the most successful teams and athletes feel the pinch more than any. For instance, the Quaker Valley basketball team was in the playoffs, from the WPIAL first round to the PIAA semifinals, for exactly one month.
While the positives to such competitive success are invaluable, there are physical implications for athletes who hop from one sport to the next.
Ron DeAngelo, the director for sports performance training at the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine, advocates kids playing multiple sports, especially at younger ages, to develop their overall athleticism.
However, DeAngelo cautions athletes who play without much preparation. A lack of strength and flexibility training is one reason why DeAngelo believes the knee's anterior cruciate ligament is so susceptible to injury.
"One of the things that should happen is that they should choose what their primary sport is," said DeAngelo, who has trained many professional athletes in his 20-plus years in sports medicine. "And the other sports, you can play those other sports, but you don't take them quite as seriously. And those are the times that you do your regular training, strength training and all those different things."
Then, for two to four weeks at some point during the year, DeAngelo recommends a recovery period in which athletes can stay physically active but get away from playing their regular sports.
"Your body is your best commodity, so you want to take care of it," DeAngelo said. "We're three-dimensional beings; we move on three planes of motion, but we're also three-dimensional from body, mind and spirit, too. So, you need to kind of take care of your body — take care of yourself mentally and also spiritually."
Allow Pilewicz to translate that in the terms of a teenager.
"I try and hang out with my friends as much as I can," he said. "And every once and a while I like to take a little time to cool down, maybe if it's like a weekend or a day after school when I don't have homework or practice, just lay out on the couch and watch TV."
