Matter of priorities - Seymour Tribune

April 23, 2016

For The Tribune

When she entered Trinity Lutheran High School, Andrea Foster knew she wanted to be a cheerleader.

After weighing her options, she also ended up running cross-country and track and field.

When the school fielded a girls soccer team this past fall, she added that to her sports.

“I didn’t get involved in cross-country and track until my sophomore year when someone convinced me. So no, I wasn’t planning on anything besides cheer,” she said.

Foster said she is pleased that athletes at Trinity are allowed to participate in two sports in the same season.

“It was really hard managing my time, but I had to pick a sport which one I wanted to make my priority,” Foster said. “Only having one girl on the cross-country team, I picked soccer because I played a lot more soccer than I did running.

“I would run after school and get my six miles in, and then I would go to soccer practice and we would practice until late. And then sometimes after that we had cheer practice, so I would go to cheer practice after soccer practice some nights. I had to manage my time wisely.”

Foster, who played soccer in the Seymour Youth Leagues when she was younger, said she enjoyed being part of the first girls soccer team.

“I got to work with a new group of girls that I hadn’t really worked with before,” she said. “I had been so used to individual sports, like with cross-country and track, that it was really fun to get together with a big group of girls.”

On the pitch, Foster played in the midfield.

“I would steal the ball, take it down the field and pass it to somebody who could make it into the goal,” Foster said. “I didn’t score any goals but I think I may have had a couple of assists.”

It was a big adjustment going from cross-country to soccer.

“It was really hard balancing cross-country and soccer,” Foster said. “It was hard on your body and stuff, but I just tried to go out there and beat my time because I didn’t get to run in very many meets.

“I knew there were girls on the Seymour team that had close to my same time so I tried to keep up with them. I watched my watch a lot because I wanted to beat my individual time.” Foster said she tried to run her first mile in around 7:45.

At the end of the season awards banquets, Foster received most valuable awards in both cross-country and cheerleading.

“I enjoyed the excitement at the (basketball) games, especially cheering in front of the fan block and the crowd,” Foster said. “When you’re winning a game it’s so much fun to look up in the bleachers and see everyone on their feet cheering really loud.

“Some of our cheer parents would get up and do cheers with us, and that was always a lot of fun. I enjoyed home and away games because cheering was one of my favorite activities.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Andrea Foster

School: Trinity Lutheran

Parents: Paul and Donna Foster

Sports: cheerleader 4 years, cross-country 3 years, track and field 2 years, soccer 1 year

Athletic highlights: CC: most valuable runner 2 years, most improved, Cougar Award; cheerleader: most valuable, flyer award 2 years, senior award

Organizations: Big Brothers Big Sisters, FFA, student ambassador, euchre club, art club

Plans after high school: attend Purdue University, major in elementary education

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