The Sagamore: What do you think your team’s chances are for the upcoming season?

Burrington: Our coach says that it’s going to be a rebuilding year because we lost a lot of seniors. Well, before he was saying it’s going to be a rebuilding year, he decided that he’s the kind of person who doesn’t like losing at all, so I think he’s hoping that we’ll win the championship. But obviously we’re just trying to make the playoffs again. We’re very young.

Sag: What do you contribute to each of the teams you play on?

Burrington: I’m usually very calm, even when a game isn’t going that well; I don’t freak out. I’m not one of those guys who’s going to start yelling at the players on the other team or at other players because they aren’t doing well. I won’t get down on myself.

Sag: When did you begin playing lacrosse?

Burrington: I switched from baseball to lacrosse in seventh grade because I thought baseball was slow, and I like running a lot and using my athleticism. It’s probably the sport other than track that I’m best at, and I thought I’d make varsity. I also like the people on the team a lot.

Sagamore: How did you get good enough to play varsity your freshman year?

Burrington: We don’t have a very deep program, so at other schools, I probably wouldn’t have been on varsity my freshman year. I practiced a fair amount, and it’s very important that you be in good shape for lacrosse, so that helped.

Sagamore: Why did you decide to do track on top of lacrosse?

Burrington: I always like to do three sports to stay busy, but I decided not to do basketball, which I did last year. It’s easy to do track and not practice in the offseason, but for basketball, I would have to do a lot of other work.

Sagamore: How is lacrosse different from track?

Burrington: The coaching in track is very different from lacrosse. I think my track coach takes a more scientific approach to the sport, and my other coaches are a little more intense. I like track because it’s very relaxing to do. The coach doesn’t get too worked up; we have a very specific stretching routine, we always do certain things before meets, and we have a very strict schedule for which days we do workouts and which days we lift weights. Whereas my lacrosse coach on any given day will decide something new to do or think of an old drill he did.

Sagamore: What are the biggest challenges of doing each sport?

Burrington: With lacrosse, you have to be a lot more in the mood to do well. You have to be very passionate and put a lot of effort into it. For running, you can be not that excited about running. Still, if you race smartly, you can do just as well as if you’re really excited. Whereas with lacrosse, you have to be very intense; if you’re not feeling too good one day, you won’t do nearly as well.

Olivia Shiffman can be contacted at [email protected].