Freshman varsity volleyball player Natalija Beslic wraps her arms around her teammates as they huddle during the match. Despite being new to the school and the team, she is no longer insecure on and off the court. Her nerves settle, her confidence rises, and she feels the support of her new teammates and friends behind her as the new set begins.

According to Beslic, being an underclassmen at a high school with over two thousand students can be daunting at first, but being part of a varsity team can boost an athlete’s confidence on and off the court.

Beslic said that being on the varsity team can make an athlete a well rounded high school student.

“At first, it was scary because I didn’t know anyone, but then I started making friends and it wasn’t so bad because we were all really close,” Beslic said. “I think it’s made me a little bit more confident with just walking around the school too, because of knowing older kids and feeling like I fit in a little bit better.”

According to sophomore varsity volleyball player Olivia Brown, being on a varsity team gives her more confidence, especially when surrounded by upperclassmen.

“It’s made me more social and not afraid of upperclassmen, because I bonded more with upperclassmen and underclassmen,” Brown said. “I feel like I can just go up in the hallway and say hi to them, versus being afraid to say hi to them.”

Freshmen cheerleader Richard Lee said varsity athletes are pushed harder and have more expected out of them.

“[Being on varsity cheerleading] has impacted me by making me work harder, because the skills we do compared to last year’s JV skills are much harder,” Lee said. “So I’ve had to work harder and more to hit the stunts and hit the motions that we have to do.”

According to Lee, being on the varsity cheerleading team has given him confidence outside of the team as well.

According to soccer player and sophomore Fiona Lobon, alongside with an increase in confidence, her organizational skills with school and sports have improved immensely because of the support she receives from her teammates.

“I think just playing a sport in general has definitely helped me time manage better,” Lobon said. “Also in school it was nice knowing that you had older kids that could help you out if you ever needed help with anything.”

According to Lobon, playing on a highly skilled team has helped her improve as a player.

“It made me so much better because every person that I played with is so much bigger than me and most of them were so much better than me,” Lobon said. “So when you play with people that are very good, you start to get better.”

According to Brown, playing against more competitive players at such a young age can help her with her skills and understanding of the game.

“I felt as though because I was playing with higher level experienced people I was therefore pushed to play at the same level as them,” Brown said.

Sophomore varsity hockey player Jake Boyd said that he sees being on varsity as an underclassman as an honor. Being on varsity provides a higher level of play that helps him develop as a student, athlete and teammate.

“Practicing every day with kids bigger, faster and stronger than me, and playing against kids bigger, faster and stronger than me gave me the experience I needed to learn how to make myself better and how I can contribute more to the team,” Boyd said.