Two sports in one season? It’s double the work, and double the fun for some Anchorage athletes

Here's a recent school day in the life of Mauri Butzke, a 16-year-old dual-sport athlete at Dimond High:

7:30 a.m. — First class begins.

10:30 a.m. — Lunch.

2 p.m. — Final class ends.

2-2:20 p.m. — Change clothes, eat an orange and some granola, catch the team bus for a cross-town ride to Bartlett High for a dual tennis meet.

3-6 p.m. — Team up with partner J.J. In for a 6-0, 6-0 mixed-doubles victory.

6-7 p.m. — Get a ride across town from mom, meet brother for a quick dinner at Smashburger, head to Service High for a flag football game.

7:30-9:15 p.m. — Pull five flags to help Dimond shut out Service 6-0.

9:30 p.m. — Return home, begin homework.

12:30 a.m. — Finish homework, go to bed.

"That was the first time I was able to squeeze in dinner," Butzke said while recounting what is, for her, a somewhat typical day.

She wasn't complaining. Butzke, a Dimond junior who is a veteran flag football player and a somewhat novice tennis player, keeps busy by choice.

So does Ryann Dorris, a West High sophomore who splits time between the swim team and cross-country team.

Dorris credits understanding coaches for making her pursuit of two sports possible.

On Mondays and Wednesday, she trains with the swim team. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she trains with the cross-country team. On most Fridays, she competes in dual swim meets. On most Saturdays, she runs in cross-country races.

"I have Sunday to do homework and try to spend time with friends," Dorris said.

Like Butzke, she wouldn't have it any other way.

Not that it's easy. Life can get complicated and hectic. On the day when Butzke managed to squeeze in dinner between her tennis match and flag football game, it was because her brother Joseph got to the restaurant first and ordered for her.

More and more, coaches at various levels in sports tout the benefits of playing more than one sport — although usually they are speaking about playing two or more sports in a single school year, not in a single season.

But there are always kids who double-up. In Anchorage, it's especially common in the spring, when kids find time to combine track with either soccer, softball or baseball.

For Jake Stone, it's nearly always soccer season. He began the school year as a junior at Dimond High, where he juggled three sports for the first several weeks — high school tennis, high school swimming and club soccer.

A couple of weeks ago, he became a single-sport athlete. Stone now attends Shattock-St. Mary's, a boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota, with four elite sports programs — soccer, hockey, golf and figure skating.

To make the move, Stone had to say goodbye to his tennis and swimming teammates at Dimond.

He played tennis because that's a big sport in his family — brother Derek is a former state singles champ and dad Willy is a former Dimond coach — and he swam because it provided good conditioning for soccer.

"The hard thing was I had to lay out my goals and a big goal was playing (Division I college soccer)," Stone said. "I had to balance my time with my priorities, and obviously soccer had priority."

Giving up high school tennis was particularly hard, because Stone would have been among the top boys singles players at this week's Cook Inlet Conference tennis championships.

Butzke is an alternate on Dimond's team for the CIC tennis championships and a key contributor on the flag football team, where she is a rusher on defense and a running back on offense.

The sports are opposites in many ways, she said.

"(Tennis) is so much more mellow. There's no whistles and it's not very aggressive," she said. "For tennis you have to be super-focused. Football is super-intense. Your mindset is to get the flag."

As a swimmer and a runner, Dorris competes in two sports that reward aerobic fitness and endurance.

"Whether you're in the pool or on a trail, it's the same thing," Dorris said. "Aerobically it's the same thing.

"The only hard thing is when to peak, and they're at different times."

Though the seasons run concurrently, cross country's big events don't coincide with swimming's big events. And so there are times when Dorris should be doing high-volume workouts for cross country but tapering for swimming.

Dorris placed sixth in the 500-yard freestyle race at last year's state high school championships and is one of the CIC's top swimmers this season. In cross country, she placed 21st in last weekend's conference championships and will race in Saturday's state championships.

Despite the training conundrums and the non-stop schedule, juggling two sports in the same season comes with the benefit of a robust social circle for Dorris.

She has been a competitive swimmer since she was a child, "and me and my two best friends have swum in the same lane forever," she said.

Now that she's on two West High teams, her social circle has expanded beyond the swimming lanes. And that's a big reason why Dorris does extra-curricular double-duty.

"For me the high school seasons are for the relationships," she said. "I love the friends I've made."