By Peter McClelland
BYFIELD - Kyle Devenish grew up playing whatever sport was going on in the neighborhood at the time. Soccer was especially big,” he recalled. “I was always part of youth leagues in elementary and middle school.”
On the other hand, Amanda Desjardins ended up playing field hockey and lacrosse by chance. “An indoor field hockey league needed an extra player so out of the blue I joined as an 8th grader and it became my favorite sport,” said Amanda. “I got into lacrosse because my mum told me when I was a freshman to pick a spring sport and I chose lacrosse.”
Amanda played four years of field hockey and lacrosse. For Kyle it was four years of soccer, basketball, and track.
Kyle admitted that sports forced structure on him that helped academically. “I managed my time better in season. I would do all of my homework in school, if possible, in studies because I knew that my time would be limited after a practice or a game. When I was in between seasons, I sometimes put the schoolwork off figuring that I would get it done at home. That didn’t always work out.”
Amanda found the in school studies valuable as well. “It is tough to find time at home after night or away games. The hardest time I had academically was in my freshman year. We had projects with partners and because of my sports schedule it was difficult to get together with a partner.”
Kyle credits his mother for helping him organize his practice/game sports schedule. “My mum has a big calendar on the wall which is color coded. My things are in green. My brother Shawn (sophomore) does football and track and his sports events are on there in a different color.”
|
