One of the area’s busiest athletic schedules started as a math problem. Emma Moore, a rising senior at Hillsboro-Deering High School, was reflecting with brothers Jeff and Brad about their varsity careers with the Hillcats when a number began to dawn on them.
“When we were adding up our varsity letters, we had 34 going into my senior year,” she said. “We (said) ‘Oh, if I can play six sports this year, we can get 40 varsity letters between the three of us.
“So that was just kind of it, and I said ‘Whatever. I’ll do it.’ ”
Nearly three seasons later, letters 39 and 40 are on their way for the trio, thanks to H-D’s do-it-all senior. Moore is the starting pitcher and one of the top bats for the softball team and a javelin, discus and shot put thrower for the track team, following a wild winter in which she skied and played basketball and a frantic fall where she started as a goalkeeper for the soccer team and hit the links with the golf team.
It’s a full slate – at times, an overloaded one. But it’s all sports, all the time, and for Moore, that makes it worthwhile.
“If I didn’t play all these sports, I’d probably focus on one and then I’d just be bored, because there’s not much to do with one sport,” she said. “You can only do it for so long, you get bored and you stop trying. But when you have a busy schedule like I do, it’s like every day is something new you have to do.”
That wasn’t always the plan, however. A lifelong skier and longtime soccer and softball player, Moore wasn’t looking into doubling-up until the rehab for an ACL injury suffered in the late fall of her freshman year lingered into the following autumn, casting doubt on her future at the contact-heavy position of goalkeeper.
While Moore waited to be cleared for the pitch, Athletic Director Jay Wood presented the contact-free sport of golf as another option. Moore agreed, and when she was cleared to play soccer by the season opener, Wood said she didn’t have to drop one sport to take on the other.
“My AD was like ‘Whatever, you can play both this season,’ ” she said. “So that started it, and then I did that sophomore year, junior year and senior year.”
The plan went into overdrive this season as Moore eyed the doubling-up trifecta. She added basketball to her anchor sport of skiing and track to softball for the spring, making the varsity teams for each one, although each season came with its share of difficulties.
Some coaches, Moore found, were reluctant at first about having an athlete with a foot in another sport. There was also the physical stress that could accumulate. Being on a team means being there when you’re needed, and when the teams had games, meets and matches on the same day, Moore had to make it work.
“I didn’t really go to a lot of practices. It was like a game, a (golf match), a game, a (match), and then maybe one practice a week,” she said. “That was in the fall, and then sometimes in the winter I would have an all-day ski meet, and then I would have to come back to the school and play a basketball game that same night.”
The commitments could go beyond athletics and infiltrate time management – no small matter during a senior year, when a student has to attend to his or her present and future at the same time.
“It’s also been really hectic, trying to do all my college applications and everything, and also trying to play a sport,” said Moore, who will be attending UNH in the fall. “Coming home at 8:30 at night from basketball and having to do homework.”
One thing Moore hasn’t had to worry about is proving herself worthy of those varsity spots. She was the starting goalkeeper for an H-D soccer team that went undefeated in the regular season and made the Division III semifinals. She won the D-III slalom championship in 2015, and has been a top-10 Giant Slalom skier the past two winters. She’s hit in the middle of the Hillcats lineup and was the team’s second-best scorer at the division golf championships.
“She’s a great athlete. She really is,” softball Coach Shawn Atkins said. “She’ll be definitely missed, I wish I was able to coach her for more than the two years I have.”
If anything, the heavy workload has helped her abilities at the individual sports. Softball and soccer honed coordination for skiing. Basketball improved her cardio, which pays off in softball and track.
Then there are the social gains, always a benefit even if they add to a schedule that already doesn’t leave much time for rest.
“I’ve had a lot of fun this year,” she said. “Being on two teams a season, and (knowing) twice as many people really closely.”
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant)