Sports outside the school

story by Bree Moore

Most students at EHS who participate in sports are involved in athletics through the school. Some students, however, are heavily involved with sports organizations outside the school and dedicate many.hours to their areas of interest.

Leslie Douglas, Jr., is a competitive dancer at Sunflower State Dance Academy. She has been competing for three years now. Douglas loves doing it because she gets to express her feelings through dance and dress in the most beautiful costumes for shows.

One thing that Douglas doesn’t really get to spend a lot of time on is her social life because she is frequently at the studio for as long as 9 hours a week dancing and competing. She loves every minute of it.

Douglas has seen definite results from her dedication and hard work. Not many people can remember a 2 minute and 45 second dance for months or have strong ankles like most dancers do.There is because it takes time to get the strength in your legs and feet and stamina to keep it up over a period of time.

“It’s so fun to just let loose and to put on a performance for people and show what my studio has been working on for months,” Douglas said.

India Whitaker, Soph., has chosen to take on a different challenge – martial arts. She has been doing this for two years now and has gradually fallen in love with it. Whitaker loves to work with the different age groups to see what she is capable of doing. She feels that it pushes her that much harder and helps her get to where she wants to be. Teaching the class a new skill is an opportunity that not only allows her to showcase her current abilities, but lets her instructors know that she is ready to take on new challenges.

For all her preparation, it takes a lot of time and strength to be in martial arts. To do that she has to take time out of her practice to get the skills she needs to break a particular board or work with different weapons.

“It’s something that I can participate in for the rest of my life if I choose,” she said.