Rose basketball highlights
Seniors plan to club their way into college sports
SAT. | 04-09-22 | SPORTS
As the 2022 school year is wrapping up and seniors are starting to make future college plans, Rose senior athletes Ben Skahill and Alexis Dessoffy are planning to take their athletic abilities to the next level and play club in college.
These athletes were interested in continuing to play their sport, but not on an official college
Photo contributed by Ginger Evans
team. The difference between playing a club sport and playing for the actual school team is that club sports allow athletes to be involved without having to have a big time commitment.
Dessoffy plans to attend North Carolina State University (NCSU) in the fall, and even before making this decision, she decided that she wanted to continue her lacrosse career.
“I decided I wanted to play club at the end of my junior year because I loved the sport but didn’t feel the need to play at the collegiate level,” Dessoffy said.
Skahill will attend the University of South Carolina in the fall and plans to play on the club soccer team. As this will be a new playing field, Skahill is concerned with managing multiple college activities.
“[My biggest worry about playing club soccer] is being able to balance my time between school, sports and friends,” Skahill said.
After playing lacrosse and soccer for Rose, the two feel very grateful for what they gained from their teams and coaches.
“Rose lacrosse has taught me how to really love the sport and how to be a part of a team,” Dessoffy said.
Additionally, Rose class of 2021 alumni and college freshmen Grayson Norwood and Ginger Evans have explored club sports at their universities.
Norwood, a freshman at Auburn University, did not originally plan to continue her volleyball career.
“I decided to play club [volleyball] very last minute,” Norwood said. “I think [I decided to play] about three days before the first open gym, as I never thought I’d play volleyball again but realized I really missed it.”
Evans, a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), had been planning to play club tennis even before her acceptance to the university. She has been active on the team thus far and enjoyed her experience.
“My favorite thing about playing club has been the friends and community that I have found there; it is great to find people who you can have fun playing tennis with and enjoy being around anytime outside of tennis as well,” Evans said. “Club tennis also gives me a break from all of my school work by giving me a place to play the sport that I grew up loving.”
After being on the Rose team for four seasons, Evans is thankful for the experiences that she gained.
“Playing tennis for Rose allowed me to get in more practice and continue to develop my tennis skills,” Evans said. “Being on the team brought me competitive match experience, a great community of girls and so many good memories.”
Playing Rose volleyball provided Norwood with skills that she has been able to apply at Auburn.
“Playing at Rose made me more of a leader on the court; senior year I was captain and it taught me the different ways to encourage teammates with whatever kind of communication they best responded to,” Norwood said. “I have been able to translate that to this completely new team of mine.”
Norwood is glad that she decided to continue playing volleyball and is thankful for the opportunity to be on the club volleyball team.
“I strongly encourage playing a club sport [as] it keeps me active and I have met some of my best friends through it; it’s also a ton of fun and not a big time commitment at all,” Norwood said. “Club sports are a very good way to meet people going into college and to get involved.”