At Sandy Spring Friends School, basketball and soccer are two of the premiere sports that draw students out to show school spirit. But, off the court and field, there are a wide variety of student-athletes. Theses athletes have true potential to be great in their sports, and could bring home banners for our school. Seth Gorton (10th grade) has been Rock Climbing for years and has seen it all, Thana Schrock (10th grade) hopes to join the pro Tennis circuit, and Jonathan Crawley-Fye (12th grade) looks to make his last year as a wrestler his best. These athletes work without the spotlight on them, and have the capability to make a name for themselves.

Seth Gorton has been crafting his skills for 4 years. “My brother got me into Rock climbing,” he said. Through the years, Seth has mentored dozens of new climbers. “Rock climbing helps whole body fitness and flexibility.” He spoke about the two different types of climbing – Bouldering and top Roping – and how these unique styles can work on areas that you struggle with. “Bouldering is climbing shorter, harder climbs, each route having its own challenge, highlighting what you need to work on. Bouldering can be more physically intensive. Top roping is climbing that focuses on longer routes and endurance.” Seth loves to climb with people around him, and the lack of popularity of the sport at SSFS doesn’t change his passion for it. He hopes that with the addition of Rock Climbing in the upcoming Olympics (Tokyo 2020), the sport will gain popularity and grow the SSFS program.

Thana Schrock is dreaming of becoming a future tennis pro. She has 17 trophies, 4 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and is nationally ranked in junior league for girls. From a young age, Thana has been training to make her debut as a pro tennis player. While at a normal tennis practice out with her parents, Thana noticed something was different about her playing ability. “I never actually did have a passion for tennis before this, but I was hitting with my parents one day and I noticed that I was hitting super hard and my shots were going in. I started acing (hitting a serve in which your opponent can not touch) my brother.” From this experience, Thana started to train seriously. From France (ISP) to Nike Stanford tennis camp, she learned the aspects of tennis that she carries with her on and off the court: teamwork, dedication, and passion. She played (and won) against ranked UMA (United States mid-Atlantic) players and this year played for Sandy Spring’s varsity program. She loves tennis with a burning passion and is hoping that people (no matter their skill level) come out and take part in this amazing sport. “Tennis is just a sport where you just need to have a good attitude on the court. It’s a sport that you can learn. You don’t need to be good, you just need to learn. If you don’t want to go pro, then you can just have fun on the court and don’t have to worry about the stress of what’s going on.” With less practice time, Schrock plans to work harder so that she can achieve her dream. “I only get to practice tennis one day a week (on the weekend). This motivates me to work hard to become the pro that I want to be.”

Jonathan Crawley-Fye has been wrestling since 7th grade. He didn’t want to play basketball like everyone else and wanted a more more physical sport. Jonathan is entering his senior year at SSFS, coming off of a career high season (12 wins and 3 losses) and placing 3rd in his weight class at the end of the season tournament (MALW). Jonathan explained that wrestling “makes you strong, both mentally and physically, teaches confidence and shows you what you can do when you actually put your mind to it.” Jonathan is now entering his 6th year of wrestling and hopes more people join him on the mat, representing their school in the only “Quaker combat sport.” “I want this sport to become larger in our school,” Jonathan says, “I feel like if people actually knew what we were doing they would join.”

These athletes are just a few of the people with special talents that could do something magnificent in their sport. They work without glamor, but still have fun and love what they do.