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“The trend you now see is people moving away from multi-sports,” said Cross Country Head Coach and Head of Track Relations Paul Schmaedeke. This isn’t good, especially with younger athletes. Competing in multiple sports can develop the body in different ways and makes them better physically overall.

Schmaedeke said our society has started to demand specialization in one sport year round. He would prefer that college athletics resemble high school athletics, where many athletes are two and three sport athletes. Multiple sports enhance multilateral development, and according to Schmaedeke, oftentimes your body needs different stimuli to improve at its potential.

“You want to see what your limits are,” said Schmaedeke. “I think there’s often great benefit in athletes being involved in multiple sports.”

Sophomore Emily Amici is involved in both volleyball and track and even joined the women’s basketball team for a portion of the season this year. She said if she was not involved in sports she would work out and stay active anyway.

“It keeps me in shape,” said Amici. “I enjoyed them (sports) in high school, why not here as well.”

Junior baseball and football player Andrew Seymour agrees. “I played a lot of sports in high school and can’t really see myself doing anything else,” said Seymour.

Seymour actually played four sports his senior year of high school when his baseball coach let him run track as well.

As far as multi-sport athletes’ social life, Amici said that the friends she spends time with outside of sports are all teammates.

“Practice is just another excuse to hang out with friends,” said Amici. “Sports give you a chance to be social and stay in shape.”

It would seem inevitable that when so much time is consumed by sports that an athlete's grades would sufferčthat is not the case with these athletes.

Senior Dana Luiken, volleyball and track, says it is the structure that involvement in multiple sports provides that keeps her focused on school work.

“I’m used to such a structure that when I have all day to do something, I won’t,” said Luiken.

“I think being involved in everything helps my time management,” said Amici. “I know what I have to do. If I wasn’t as active I don’t think I would be as good of a student.”

She said “There’s always time to do work. My coaches are very understanding and always stress school first.”

The specialization in sports trend that Schmaedeke spoke of is visible to Luiken as well. She said at her high school athletes were forbidden to compete in both basketball and Junior Olympic Volleyball in the winter.

“Some coaches would rather have you specialize,” said Luiken. “I’m 100 percent positive that sports make other sports better.”

Seymour says he sees that specializing trend, but disagrees and feels that being involved with multiple sports has helped him stay healthy and in shape for the next season.

“Any sports mesh together, and no matter what sport you’re in, it seems that the sport that precedes it is a warm up for it,” said Amici.

There are no statistics available on the number of multi-sport athletes at Hamline, but Amici and Luiken said that several volleyball players play two sports and almost the entire track team is composed of multi-sport athletes. There are four or five baseball players that also compete in another sport, according to Seymour.

“In cross country, fitness is such a component that it usually takes a twelve-month commitment,” said Schmaedeke. All members of the cross-country team compete in track.

“People tell me I don’t do anything for fun, but almost every day there is enjoyment in the things I do,” said Schmaedeke.

“You have to have a love for activity and movement. There has to be fun, a joy in working hard and sweating. It’s an inner joy for the athletes,” said Schmaedeke.