For most high school athletes, committing to a single spring sport is challenging enough.
Junior Michael Guarraci has not only taken on one but two, balancing lacrosse and track with focus and determination.
Guarraci has been running track since seventh grade and added lacrosse in eighth grade. After skipping lacrosse his freshman year to focus solely on track, Michael decided in his sophomore year to give both sports a try, despite initially thinking it would be too difficult to manage.
“I wasn’t sure at first, but I found a way to make it work,” he said.
On a typical day, Guarraci said he arrives at his first class, Startup Moxie — an entrepreneurship building class — at 7:30 a.m., has track after school until 5 p.m., eats dinner and does homework until lacrosse practice, which starts at 6:30 p.m., and finally arrives home at 9 p.m.
Managing such a schedule comes with challenges.
“The hardest part is balancing school work and staying healthy,” Guarraci. “It’s really easy to get injured with all of the running and physical exertion.”
On the lacrosse field, Guarraci plays primarily as an offensive midfielder, utilizing his speed and quickness from track, and determination to create scoring opportunities. This season, he has scored five goals and three assists over nine games, contributing consistently to his team’s offense.
On the track team, he competes in high jump and long jump, steadily improving with each meet. While his current personal bests aren’t record breaking, he’s cleared 5-10” in high jump.
“They are my two favorite sports … but happen to be the same season,” about competing in both track and field and lacrosse in the Spring. “It isn’t completely necessary to train exclusively for track, because I run a lot in lacrosse.”
Guarraci said that his love for lacrosse comes from the people he plays with and he has a good time doing it.
Guarraci also reflected on how the sports affect each other.
“I would say lacrosse helps me with track, but track definitely doesn’t help with lacrosse,” Guarraci said. “I usually spend the whole week with sore legs because of my workload.”
Despite the physical strain, his motivation comes from a deeper source.
“One thing that keeps me motivated is my faith in God and wanting to glorify him in all areas of life, getting to compete with my friends, and building discipline to set myself up for success in the future,” Guarraci said.
Guarraci journey shows that with determination, planning, and resilience, it is possible to succeed in more than one sport, even when they overlap. By finding a balance between lacrosse and track, he’s not only challenging himself physically but also building discipline, perseverance, and a strong work ethic that will serve him beyond high school.
