Freshman Tessa Heffron has spent most of her life participating in athletics and extracurricular activities. Even through the pandemic, she has found ways to stay engaged and discover new hobbies. 

”My family and I did a lot of sewing, we learned how to sew for Girl Scouts because we were making scrunchies,” Heffron said. 

Heffron has been in Girl Scouts since she was about six years old. She said it’s fun but has its downsides. 

”Sometimes it can be a little challenging because you have to do so many things that I would probably rather be doing with my friends,” Heffron said. ”It also looks really good on college applications, with all the years of doing it, so I probably will continue it throughout high school.” 

Heffron selected in-person school for the remainder of the school year and said she has benefitted from the decision. 

”I think (adjusting) was pretty easy because it helped me get a lot more of my work done.” 

Heffron participates in three school sports: swimming, soccer and cross country, and she agrees that COVID regulations were a strange adjustment. 

”It’s been kind of weird, I expected it to be different,” Heffron said. ”Especially swimming because you weren’t allowed to have any fans in the stadium inside at all, so it was really quiet. But soccer has been pretty fun because there are people that can actually come and cheer for you now they’ve lifted some protocols and stuff.” 

Heffron doesn’t have a fixed plan for her athletics; however, she does want to remain active. 

”I think I’m going to continue to do them all, I don’t know about cross country, that wasn’t the best,” Heffron said. ”I kind of realized that running is not my thing, but it helped me get in shape for my other sports, so I might continue it.” 

Heffron is one of six freshmen on the varsity soccer team. She starts as a center defender and said it has been fun playing with her teammates.  

”The girls are really nice, they kind of all just accepted everybody because it’s a really young team,” Heffron said. 

Heffron’s love for the sport started in kindergarten when her parents suggested she play soccer, like her older sister, but because of her coach, Heffron was able to truly appreciate it. 

”I’d say the main person that really got me to love soccer was my first travel soccer coach, Coach John,” Heffron said. ”He really pushed to get people to be where they are. He was a really nice person and was like a second like parental figure to me because I was always with him.” 

With many changes surrounding sports and school, Heffron said she wonders what next year will look like. 

”I think it’s gonna be way better than this year because people are getting vaccinated,” Heffron said. ”So I feel like it’s gonna go back to more normal, but like who knows what normal is anymore?”