Knapp is a three sport athlete. In the fall, she is captain of the varsity field hockey team, in the winter, she’s captain of the varsity alpine ski team and she finishes off her year by starting for varsity lacrosse. Next fall Knapp will be attending Hamilton College where she plans to major in psychology and play for their Division III field hockey team.

“I can’t wait to play with Hamilton next year,” Knapp said. “The whole team is so nice and I’m really looking forward to playing the sport I love for the next four years.”

Although she eventually found her way and got in to her dream school, the path there wasn’t an easy one. Over the course of her athletic career at WHS, she suffered from various injuries that threatened her recruitment process.

Knapp suffered three different injuries throughout her last season of field hockey. Knapp’s first injury, a concussion, caused her to miss her entire field hockey preseason.

“Missing preseason was hard because that’s when you get to know the team you are gonna be playing with, and I just had to watch from the sides,” Knapp said.

Although Knapp was cleared right before the regular season started, it wasn’t long before her next injury struck her. On Knapp’s seventh game of the season at Bedford High School, she went down on the field.

“I’ve been having issues with my left knee since the summer going into my junior year,” Knapp said. “At a game against Bedford at the end of September, I lunged for the ball and my knee buckled and I fell down in so much pain.”

After using her field hockey stick as a crutch to get on the bus, she was diagnosed with a meniscus injury, which caused Knapp to sit out of the next four games. Once Knapp recovered, she only played five games until another injury took her out of her last season playing the sport she loves for the third and final time.

“I was playing in our preliminary (playoff) game against Everett when I tripped on one of their player’s sticks and flew forward,” Knapp said. “I landed on my head and neck, and got an immediate rush of pain throughout my whole body.”

Knapp had to get back boarded and taken off the field on a stretcher, where she was then taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The injuries did not only affect her physically, but emotionally too.

“My injuries have taken a huge toll on my mental health,” Knapp said. “Everytime I get healthy again it feels like I am just waiting for the next bad thing to happen and take me out of the sports that I love. Not only are the injuries physically draining, the recovery is often slow and challenging because you can’t get your body to play the same way.”

Despite the mental toll her injury-prone seasons had on her, she was able to push through because of the support system she had surrounding her.

“My biggest supporter throughout all of my injuries is the athletic trainer Katie Headley,” Knapp said. “She has gotten me through all of my injuries and has been so helpful.”

Along with all of Knapp’s injuries that she sustained during her field hockey season, she also has a fainting condition called Vasovagal Syncope. This impacts Knapp’s day-to-day life.

“When I stand up or change my head level too quickly, I faint and collapse to the ground,” Knapp said. “Sometimes I can go weeks without fainting, sometimes I will faint three times in one day. It’s very random. I’ve learned to live with it, so it doesn’t impact my daily life too much anymore.”

In the spring, Knapp decided against playing lacrosse because her doctor and family have advised her to take a season off so she can rest and heal before starting field hockey at Hamilton.

“I’m really sad about missing my last season with my best friends but I will be able to be with the team every day as a manager and defensive assistant, so I’m still excited for the season,” Knapp said.

Lang plays two sports at WHS. In the winter, he is a varsity captain of the wrestling team and in the spring he plays lacrosse. At Lang’s third wrestling tournament of the season at Taconic High School, he got injured while competing. Lang was out of his season for three and a half weeks with a prepatellar bursitis.

“After one of my matches I looked down because my knee felt like it was hard to bend, and realized it was very swollen,” Lang said.

The injury caused Lang to miss six meets during his recovery. While out, he not only missed wrestling, but he was also one of the captains so he had an important role in scoring points for the team.

“It was hard knowing it’s my senior year and I was injured, I tried to involve myself with the team as much as I could,” Lang said.

Lang was cleared to play on the wrestling team’s senior night. His first match back was challenging because his leg has lost strength from not being used. Throughout the whole night his family and friends were there to show their support towards him. But Lang said that his biggest supporter was his mom.

“My mom helped me make sure I was icing and taking care of [my knee] correctly,” Lang said. “She also got me into the doctors as soon as possible.”

Huang has been swimming competitively for 13 years prior to sustaining a concussion and whiplash due to a car accident he got into while on his way to swim practice. Huang’s injury only took him out of his season for one week, but he had to gradually return to swimming. So while most swimmers were in the pool, Huang would be out taking breaks. This impacted Huang’s mental health throughout the season.

“Swimming is a very black and white sport,” Huang said. “Going into the season, coming off my injuries, deep down I knew I wasn’t going personal best. But this year, everything was riding on the line because we had a chance at the state title. If I was out of shape, the team would have been down a top scoring senior. Knowing I wouldn’t be at my best when the team needed me the most was definitely a huge mental challenge for me as I prepared myself and teammates for big meets.”

During these challenging times for Huang, he said that his biggest supporter throughout his injury was his coach, Keith Meliones.

“When I had to sit out during practices because I felt light-headed and weak, Mel always would sit with me and talk to me about my value as not just a top swimmer, but as a varsity captain,” Huang said. “He said that for us to win the Dual County League (DCL) Championship, our big dual meets and states, the team needed me to lead by example, I just needed to do my best and believe in the whole process.”

Huang said that before a race it is important for the swimmer to be in the right state of mind. For Huang, this meant that he gave encouragement to his teammates each race.

“In a sport where first, second, third is often decided by tenths of a second, it is extremely important to have your mind, body and focus perfect before the race,” Huang said. “Additionally, mood and energy plays a huge role on race mentality and the team’s energy is contagious. Being on the pool deck means you have to have a positive race mentality, otherwise it’ll rub off on your teammates.”

Next fall when Huang goes off to college, he wants to walk onto the swim team rather than commit to it. He plans on walking on because he feels that swimming is something that is a core part of his identity.

“I’ve been doing it [swimming] year round for as long as I can remember, but I’m also heavily academically focused, so I’m not ready to commit to a single school for it,” Huang said.