WOODBURY — Lead·er·ship: the act of leading a group of people or organization.

Without leadership or role models, sports wouldn’t be what they are. Having a leader or someone you look up to can make or break your sports experience.

Nonnewaug sophomore Brady Herman, a three-sport athlete, believes leadership is the magic ingredient for sports excellence.

“Having a role model is a key to success,” said Herman. “When you think of leadership, you think of sports, someone leading a team. I believe without leadership, your team could be in shambles. Leadership can make or break a team.”

Leadership comes in different forms. Whether it’s looking up to someone or building a relationship with an older athlete you want to be like, it’s always important in sports.

Senior three-sport athlete Skylar Chung knows the importance of teaching younger teammates and being a role model to them.

“It’s a lot of fun having young kids looking up to you, and it’s a lot of fun like creating relationships with them and just being friends with some of the underclassmen,” says Chung. “Just being able to show the younger kids the ropes and basics is a fun experience.”

Being a freshman getting ready for the fall soccer season, it was scary not knowing most of my teammates. I’m more than grateful for having teammates like Skylar and Ireland to make me feel welcome and making sports easier.

Although leadership is important, it takes courage and puts pressure on some to stand up and be a leader, believes senior volleyball player Maggie Keane.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure being a role model because it makes messing up a lot harder,” said Keane. “But it’s good to make mistakes in front of the underclassmen; it makes them feel better about their own mistakes.”

Senior three-sport athlete Ireland Starziski couldn’t be happier with the relationships she’s built with her teammates and believes they strengthens the chemistry on their teams.

“Being close with underclassmen and all of my teammates makes sports 100% better,” said Starziski. “The relationships I made with freshmen like Aubrie [Salisbury] and Julia [Gwiazdoski] made the harder days easier and just always gave me something to look forward to. It’s a lot of pressure being a role model, but it’s also a fun experience. I love the underclassmen and love the relationships I’ve made with them. At times it is hard or scary because you don’t wanna disappoint anyone, but it’s so important to build relationships like the ones I have. It really strengthens the team.”

Without leadership, sports wouldn’t be what they are. Having senior leaders and building the relationships I’ve built with upperclassmen make playing sports so much easier and more enjoyable.

This is the opinion of Chief Advocate reporter Aubrie Salisbury, a freshman three-sport athlete.