Cosmo Cao, sophomore

Q: What expectations do your coaches have of you?

A: For marching band, the coach is really strict with not missing practices, so I suffer a lot from that, because I have had to skip some cross country events for marching band. As for cross-country, the coaches knew that I was previously dedicated to marching band already since I was already committed to it my freshman year, although I’ve been pursuing both sports since middle school. They were pretty lenient with me leaving practice early for marching band practices. I found that as long as I performed my best, the coaches wouldn’t be too disappointed with me. For cross country, I think that as long as I run and train hard and improve my performance, the coaches wouldn’t really worry about it.

Q: How do you manage your time with sports?

A: Playing two sports takes up double the time of one sport so I don’t get home until 8.30pm every day. The most difficult aspect of playing 2 sports in 1 season is probably the time management: getting all your work done and keeping up with school. However, playing two sports has forced me to develop the time management skills that have made my life more organized.

Usually when I don’t perform well academically, I don’t blame it on the two sports; maybe I just didn’t study well. The two sports haven’t affected my academic life that much, and if they did, they have made me more efficient.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue both, marching band and cross country?

A: I did marching band my freshman year because it was required for me. I really enjoyed the experience, so I wanted to do it again. But also I’m really dedicated to long distance running. I couldn’t do cross country freshman year because of marching band. This year, since I figured that I have more control over my life, and I really wanted to continue long distance running, the only way I saw that happening was if I pursued both sports, so I just did it.