We all have that one friend, the one you text at 6 pm and don’t hear back from until midnight, when you’re about to silence your phone and go to bed. The message reads something along the lines of:
“sorry. just got back from practice and then i had to shower and do hw. btw i can’t come over tmrw bc i have a meet. i can’t do sunday from 9-5 bc i have a tournament but maybe in the evening once i finish work. i can’t stay too late bc i have practice the next morning. i gotta ask my parents tho :(”
Although this lifestyle may seem impossible, you’d be surprised at just how many teenagers call it their everyday. Recent polls indicate that some 40% of high school students are athletes, and around 43% of them participate in multiple sports. That means that, in a school the size of Niles North, roughly 360 students can call themselves multi-athletes.
But how many can also call themselves musicians, 4.0+ GPA scholars, varsity players, honors and AP students, and active community members? Meet sophomores Gabriela (Gaba) Gomez and Clare McCausland, two of the many gifted, driven, and outstanding multi-athletes at Niles North, whose remarkable talent, determination, and diligence are long overdue for the recognition they deserve.
Both Gomez (15) and McCausland (16) have been members of the Niles North Girls Varsity Swim Team since their freshman year. Both girls also play soccer at North, Gomez (defense) on varsity last year, and McCausland (goalie) being a dual player between freshman and varsity teams during the 2025 season.
The girls’ journeys in swimming and soccer had different starting points–McCausland being a swimmer of one year and a soccer player of four, while Gomez is a swimmer of eight years and a soccer player of nine–but both girls have now found themselves working sedulously to maintain a delicate equilibrium in high school.
They–along with the other 358 multi-athletes at North and 14 million in the country–must navigate a balance between multiple sports and various other commitments: academics, personal hobbies, domestic responsibilities, religion, community, social relationships, their emotional/physical well-being, and so much more.
In the Fall, the girls spend their Monday mornings in the Niles North swimming pool, waking up before the sun at 5:30–with a mere ten minutes to get ready before heading to school–in order to be in the water by 6:00. For the next hour and a half, the team works tirelessly, following a weekly rotation of skills to practice, with different variations of each workout to face every day.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the team conditions in the weight room from 6:45 to 7:30. For Gomez, Wednesdays and Thursdays aren’t opportunities to sleep in. She’s also enrolled in Earlybird A Varsity P.E. (VPE). During swim season, she’s excused from class three days a week for practice. For the remainder of the week, she attends VPE at 7:05, engaging in arduous exercise until 7:47, leaving her six minutes to get to her Earlybird C Honors Chemistry class. On late start days, the two classes even overlap by four minutes.
After the school day, the girls head back to the pool for about another two hours before being let go at 5:45. While many teenagers kick back on Friday nights, Gomez and McCausland are busy battling fierce competition at swim meets–McCausland specializing in 100 breaststroke and 200 IM, and Gomez in 50 and 100 freestyle. On Saturdays, when most of their peers are sleeping in, the two are wide awake at yet another 4-hour swim practice from 10 am to 2 pm. The next morning, there’s Church, and the next is to be spent in the pool yet again. Then, the cycle repeats until the end of the season.
“I won’t lie; it is tiring,” Gomez said. “But it’s become my routine at this point. After doing it for so long, you realize how rewarding it is, but I can’t act like it’s not difficult because it is.”
What makes some able to continue to push themselves to such lengths every single day? How could a 10th grader maintain this level of unwavering effort and commitment that is unattainable even for most adults? Only one thing can produce this type of intrinsic motivation: passion.
“During swim season, I fall in love with swimming again,” Gomez explained. “It’s just that sense of community… It just feels so good to be around people from the swim team, all putting in the same effort in the training and morning workouts. That’s part of what makes it fun.”
“I think one sport is tiring enough,” McCausland said. “But there’s a reason I keep doing both. Yes, it’s super tiring, but it’s worth it because of the friends and just the overall experience.”
The Winter–what is technically the girls’ off-season–is not truly “off” for McCausland and Gomez.
Both are enrolled in numerous honors and AP classes at school, each ending freshman year with two semesters of GPAs above 4.0. This is no easy feat for anyone, let alone someone involved in multiple varsity sports.
“It definitely makes school harder,” McCausland said. “So far, I’m pretty on top of things, but school, sports, and homework definitely do clash a lot. Every day I’m just continuing to figure it out.”
“For me, it’s about trying to stay on task,” Gomez said. “Whenever I have free time, I’m tempted to just scroll on my phone or something, but I have to make myself focus on homework instead because I know I have practice later or, during the Winter, I know I need to take advantage of the time that I won’t have in the Spring.”
Apart from having incredible academic records, the two girls are also involved in their own personal hobbies, both inside and outside of the Niles North curriculum. McCausland is a devoted member of Chamber Choir, which occupies curricular and extracurricular time. Empty spots and down time in her schedule are filled with concerts and rehearsals, and homework is often scrambled on the same desk as her sheet music during late-night study sessions.
Gomez plays the tuba in Niles North’s Symphonic Winds as well as in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO). She is also the team driver in Robotics Team 333v at North, along with playing club soccer outside of school. Medals crowd the perimeter of her rose-colored room; gold looks pretty on the walls but is a heavy weight to carry around your neck.
When the Spring rolls around, the girls’ schedules are flipped upside-down again. Both girls made it to Varsity last year, but McCausland’s exceptional journey to her position as a varsity goalie is remarkably distinct.
McCausland–who helped maintain McCracken’s undefeated streak in the 2024 season in middle school–began the 2025 season on the Freshman B team. She quickly found her place as the goalie, helping lead the team to numerous victories.
When varsity was in need of a substitute goalie, McCausland was promoted three ranks to become one of seven freshmen playing on varsity that year. However, Freshman B couldn’t let go of McCausland’s talent that quickly–with two teams needing a goalie, McCausland had to mold herself in order to fill two positions, both on and off the field.
“When I found out that I had to step in for varsity, I was really excited at first,” McCausland said. “But then I realized the training differences between freshman and varsity… In the beginning, it was hard for me to time where the shots were coming from and where the ball was because the offense was just so good. It was a big switch, but I got used to it eventually, and I’m pretty proud of the progress I made.”
McCausland recounts her first-ever varsity game shortly after joining the team.
“The very next day we had a varsity game and I felt like I got whiplash,” she explained. “Then, when I finally felt somewhat adjusted to varsity, they needed me on Freshman again.”
Being a varsity goalie as a freshman is already a tremendous achievement, but being asked to play for two teams simultaneously with minimal notice as final exam stress peaks is a task that would have most waving a white flag.
Most students would let their grades slip. Most students would allow their athletic performance to decline. Most would crumble under the pressure that McCausland faced last Spring. But McCausland is not most students.
“Sometimes I would come home from practice feeling really stressed and overwhelmed… I felt like there were a lot of expectations to meet, not just from coaches, but from myself…” McCausland said. “But I would also feel so proud of myself, even when we didn’t win, because I had upperclassmen giving me compliments, and I could see my progress, and eventually I felt like I belonged there and felt connected to both teams. That’s what kept me going.”
The challenges of being a multi-athlete don’t end at psychological pressure–McCausland would often complain about soreness and bruises on her legs, and Gomez even struggling with a sprained ankle after varsity soccer tryouts.
“It really, really sucked,” Gomez explained. “I felt like I was so behind… For the first few weeks of the season, everyone already got all of that training before the games, but when I came in after recovering, the games had already started. I also didn’t feel like I got to make that little connection with the team at the same time as everyone else, but I definitely got there quickly.”
“For me, I don’t get injured a lot, but I just get really tired and exhausted, and I’m not eating enough. Normally, I just eat a regular meal, but I have to remember that I need more to feel energized during the season…” McCausland said. “During swim, especially, after practice, I get so pale and tired. I think we both just overwork ourselves sometimes.”
McCausland and Gomez’s stories are just fractions of the shared yet beautifully unique experience of a student-multi-athlete–whether it’s the friend who can never hang out, the soccer girl from VPE who’s always late to first period, the swimmer who comes to class with wet hair, the libero with bruises on his arms, the basketball player waiting for the team roster to be posted, a cheerleader or Vikette beaming on a Friday night, an Auroris member quickly running a routine in front of any mirror, a student struggling in the hallway to carry their school bag on their back and their sports bag across their chest, or any of the other 360 talented individuals at North.
As the 2025-2026 season continues, may the grit, determination, discipline, and passion of our Viking multi-athletes–the musicians, the scholars, the club leaders, the captains, the freshmen, the artists, the tutors alike–inspire us to push a little harder, aim a little higher, and wear indigo and ivory with a little more pride than before.
