High School Students Quit Sports for Working World

By J1 Reporter Grace Diers

Kathryn Storbeck, who is currently a junior, started at Marian High School as both a club volleyball player and a member of the high school team. She had been training for years prior with the intent of playing both club volleyball and volleyball for high school. Storbeck says she had been playing volleyball for as long as she can remember, so when she thought about quitting, it seemed strange to not be a volleyball player anymore. She felt overwhelmed doing high school volleyball, and then switching from school season to club season without a break all throughout her freshman and sophomore years.

Storbeck didn’t have time for a job, friends, or family as much as she would have wanted. “Well, this may sound silly, but one of the major reasons that I quit was that I really, honestly, wanted money. I overplayed volleyball. I’m not even kidding.” Storbeck originally felt that it wasn’t realistic to quit a sport that she had played her whole life just to make money and have time for herself, but once she began to take these thoughts seriously, she really considered that it would be best for her to quit.

When she made her final decision to quit, she says that it honestly was a really good decision for her. She has had more time to focus on school, spentd time with friends and family, and got a job as a swim instructor at Swimtastics Swim School. Storbeck says that she does miss her club volleyball friends, but she still gets to see her friends from high school volleyball in her classes and at lunch.

Storbeck compares getting a job to playing sports. She says that for her, there were many more benefits to getting a job. She is able to make money at work, rather than paying to play a sport that she felt was too much for her. What she also likes about work is that if she was not feeling well or was too busy with school or other things, she could call in sick to work and get a sub. However, she wouldn’t be able to just get a sub for volleyball practice and tell them she’s not coming.

Junior Lily Guinan who also quit her high school sport for more free time and a job also works with Storbeck at Swimtasics. She enjoys working with Storbeck and says that they both feel it was the right decision for them to quit their sport. “I was already falling behind while playing soccer so the timing was just right for me to quit and get a job. It also happened that Kathryn needed a job at the time so we decided to work together and it has been a lot of fun” Guinan says. She is happy with her job because she has money to spend on things that she wants like clothes, shoes, and jewelry, that she didn’t have the extra money for before.

Storbeck says that even though it was the right decision for her to quit her sport, everyone has different situations and it just depends on where you are at in your life. She still thinks it is impressive when people make it through their sports all the way to college or even past that, and maybe she would have if her heart was still in it. She just felt it was time for her to move on from her sport and make some changes for herself.

Storbeck and Guinan both hope to continue working at Swimtastics throughout highschool with a few other current Marian students as well. They both hope that this first job they have had as a swim instructor will help them with job experience and life skills that will help them in getting more important jobs in the future. Storbeck is happy with the progress she has made with her job this year and says, “Well, I would just like to point out the fact that after I quit volleyball, I did make $6,000 in just less than a year. I mean, play volleyball or make $6,000. Which one do you want?”