by Makayla Schockemoehl

of The Gleaner 

There are a handful of student athletes at Wahlert who are going Division 1 to continue their athletic careers in college on scholarships. A few of them have already committed. From volleyball to swim to track, playing these sports and practicing constantly to achieve that dream may leave players feeling “burnt out.”

Libby Wedewer, ‘20, has not yet decided on where she will be continuing her track career. She says that running can be challenging at times, but she ultimately loves the sport. 

“I like it,, but sometimes it gets to be just a little too much on my body especially because I have bad feet. I have even questioned running in college. I kinda go back and forth about it, but I think that I would miss it if I didn’t do it,” said Wedewer. 

Another athlete, Karlie Welbes, ‘20, recently commited to UNI to continue her career as a swimming Panther! Although she is ready to take on a new challenge, she only decided to swim in college within the past month. 

“I think what makes me feel burnt out is the repetition. It’s the same routine everyday and swimming long hours in the pool is so boring, especially for a long distance swimmer like myself because I am normally alone,” said Welbes. 

She also shared that she woke up extra early every morning before school to do a swim workout last year and that burnt her out as well. 

Finally, Aliyah Carter, ‘20, committed to Kansas State University about a year ago to pursue her dream of playing volleyball in a place that she feels is home. But her path to success hasn’t always been easy. 

“Just the other weekend at our tournament in Chicago, we weren’t doing the best we could, but we were still playing well and in the last game, I got really tired. I started to break down in the middle of the game and I had to get taken out,” said Carter. 

After talking to her coaches, she was reassured and told that she puts too much pressure on herself to do well, but ultimately every good athlete has to break down to reach their full potential physically and mentally. 

Although sports can be very mentally, emotionally and physically wearing on bodies, for these athletes, it’s too much fun and they have too much potential to let the “burnt out” feeling get in the way of their reaching their goals and fulfilling their dreams!