WOODBURY — Five-year-old Derek Chung went to a baseball game on a warm summer evening to find new faces he had never seen before.
Ireland Starziski, just a couple of days into her senior year at a brand-new school, came to her first soccer practice at Nonnewaug barely knowing a soul on the team.
Thomas Lengyel attended his first summer league basketball practice in Torrington, teaming up with a bunch of strangers.
Little did these youngsters know they just met their lifelong friends, all from one commonality of how many friendships form – sports.
“I feel like sports bring people together because you make friends and you gain relationships with your teammates that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t do sports,” said Lengyel. “When you see someone every day, it’s pretty much like having a second family because you spend so much time with them.”
Being with your teammates all the time can have a significant impact on developing relationships with each other, and getting to know them well outside of the classroom.
“Sports, they bring people together cause you have good teammates and good sportsmanship so you form bonds,” says Eddie Longo. “Playing sports is like 50% of being with your friends, and you have to work together with your teammates to win the game. So you really form friendships together.”
Chung met Brady Herman and Robert Metcalfe early on in the sports atmosphere. While growing up playing flag football together, it allowed the trio to bond closer over the years.
“We played sports all as we were youngsters; up to now, that’s how were friends,” Chung says.
Shockingly, Chung didn’t even like Herman initially because of their competitive nature of playing sports.
“I didn’t really like Brady at first actually. We would play tennis and he would be a ball hog and not pass it,” said Chung. “It was just annoying, but he got better.”
Chung wasn’t the only one who thought Herman was a little off.
“When I first met Brady, he seemed a little stupid, a little goofy, he was just a goofball,” says Longo.
Metcalfe didn’t have the best first impression of Chung – but now he couldn’t imagine life without him.
“I met Derek at a party and I thought he was weird because he had a really short haircut and his ears were pointy and he looked really stupid,” Metcalfe said, “so I didn’t think he was quite right.”
Longo, who met a majority of his friends on the court, finds that sports brought him memorable relationships.
“Throughout my life, just playing sports, I think I’ve always been really close with all my friends in the sports I’ve played, and even now I still play sports with friends, so they can really bring people together,” said Longo. “I would definitely say a lot of my friendships came directly from sports and just playing with other people.”
McKenna Hardisty has found that sports will put people in positions where they naturally form bonds.
“You can’t have a good team if you don’t have good team chemistry and the relationships that you can make through your team chemistry,” said Hardisty. “I know that soccer and basketball brought me and Maylan [her older sister] and Ireland really close together and having chemistry on the court kind of forces you guys to be civil at least, and being on it can make you really close.”
Starziski feels sports are especially important for those who don’t know anyone at a new school.
“[Sports] open up new opportunities to meet people. If I didn’t do sports I would be lonely,” Starziski said. “I didn’t see any of them during school. I didn’t have classes with them, so during practice I would talk to them and see them at soccer.”
Being such big parts of people’s lives, sports bring some of the most important relationships of their lives, and some don’t know what they would do without them.
“I know that I would’ve played basketball and Ireland would’ve too, but like if Ireland didn’t play soccer, Maylan wouldn’t have played basketball, and then we all wouldn’t have been together,” said Hardisty. “So I don’t really know what would’ve turned out without sports.”
