As COVID 19 era restrictions came to an end, this year marked a triumphant return to a full schedule of in person-sports for Samohi athletes.
The girls varsity cross country team made it to the state meet, girls volleyball and soccer reached the CIFSS playoffs – as did girls and boys basketball – boys soccer played in the semifinals, the girls and boys lacrosse teams were names Ocean League Champions and members of the swim, track, wrestling and golf teams won awards and honors as well.
Athletic Director Coleen Vanderport said this year’s seniors have played a major role in this success and that she has seen them emerge from the pandemic as strong leaders, not just on the field or court but in other arenas as well.
"They're the captains of their teams, they encourage their teammates, they run the fundraisers, they run practices in terms of like the warm ups and the pregame warm ups, but some of them have just taken on things outside of school to further their leadership, and that's always really impressive to hear about," she said.
Davenport said she finds this especially impressive in light of the turmoil of their time in highschool.
"Their sophomore, junior and senior year has been like this roller coaster of up and down and they're finally kind of at the pinnacle, up to the top where things are kind of getting back to normal," she said. "But I do think there were challenges being an athlete during the pandemic and as the pandemic has kind of slowed down and gone away."
Beyond affecting their physical ability to practice their sports she said she saw the pandemic wear on students' mentally as well.
"I think it was also just mentally a challenge for them, not just physically because they were limited on how many kids you could have in a pod, you can only practice on so many days, you had to be outdoors, but I think mentally It was exhausting for them," she said. "I think that was just mentally challenging and exhausting for the kids to not know, ‘when are we going to play again? When is it just going to be back to what it was when I was a kid? I just want to go out and play my sport. I want to compete.’"
In her second year in the position, Davenport said she has enjoyed watching students grow over the last few years as they returned to campus and thinks that athletics has played a role in helping them develop into who they are.
"Athletics for me, and what I see it can do for athletes, is teach so many life skills that are going to be beneficial to them forever," she said. "It teaches responsibility, it teaches time management, it teaches how to prioritize, it teaches collaboration – we live in a world where that's not sometimes the focus but you have to collaborate and work together with people who you might not agree with on everything, but you're all working towards a common goal."
One of the most important lessons she thinks students can learn through sports is how to handle failure.
"In sports, 50% of the time, you're probably going to fail and we, our job as adults, is to let them have that failure and then come behind them and help them learn how to face that failure – What do I do now? How do I get better? How do I face that same fear again? How do I overcome it? And I think athletics is such a great forum to do that," she said.
Davenport said that she also thinks sports bring out joy in people, something she said this year’s seniors have demonstrated everytime they have played.
"Our kids just do it with such joy, they really just love being a Viking, they want to promote what it means to have Viking spirit and what it means to be a Samohi student," she said. "I think that’s our biggest strength, the joy that they have in competing."
She said she hopes that the model the class of 2023 has set will help shape Samohi’s athletics culture for years to come.
"I'm hopeful that the sophomores and the juniors and the freshmen watched it and it just becomes the expectation," she said. "This is what you do when you become a senior, you should be looking for leadership opportunities on and off this campus, you should be stepping up and doing what's right, you should be understanding that your academics come first and that everything else is to help support that academic goal – that's what I would say is the most amazing thing about the senior class."
She also hopes that they will carry their Samohi athletic’s experience with them into the next chapters of their lives.
"I think they're going to be able to draw some strength and some knowledge about how to face things that are hard and challenging later, and so I hope that's what they remember, that you had the highest of highs when you won all these wonderful awards, but you also learned this significant skill about resilience and COVID taught you guys how to be resilient and that is going to take you so far," she said. "These kids, this graduating class – it’s an amazing group of young men and women who really are resilient, strong minded, very academically smart. They're just a great group of kids."