Launching a football and crushing a baseball are some of the most commonly covered things seen on tv stations and newspapers. Although each sport is interesting in its own way, some DGS students and staff participate in unique and uncommon sports most people may not think or know about.

Junior Brianna Wirth played water polo competitively when the club still existed at DGS, and she tries to play the sport with friends when possible. She said water polo is an uncommon sport that doesn’t receive a lot of attention.

“It’s definitely hard; I will say that. It [takes] a lot of upper body and lower body strength to keep yourself up,” Wirth said. “When people have asked me what sport I play, I have to explain it to them in a way they’ll understand.”

The water polo club disbanded after COVID-19 broke out and the coach retired, leaving people who played at DGS without anywhere else to play.

“We had about three or four practices my freshman year. We played one scrimmage and that was it; COVID took over,” Wirth said.

Some students find their sport through school clubs, and some find them through fitness centers. Senior Max Fido would play tennis in and outside of school, and working at LifeTime fitness introduced him to pickleball. Fido tries to play with the pickleball club there once a week.

“I knew about the sport, and I’ve watched matches online, but I learned how to play at LifeTime [Fitness] with all of the other people [in the club],” Fido said. “It’s a reasonable sport; you’ve got two rackets, a ball and a net so it’s pretty simple.”

Not having access to a sport can cause less people to try it. Science teacher Brian Fudacz said the lack of coverage on water skiing has contributed to the fallout of its popularity.

“…There’s still a lot of people that do it, but it’s not at the forefront of everyone’s mind anymore. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, ESPN covered water skiing events, with [sometimes] 10,000 people on the shore watching,” Fudacz said. “Not as many people do it as they used to, but there’s still a bunch.”

Fudacz has been water skiing since he was eight years old and eventually bought his own boat to use in northern Illinois. He knows how to do many different tricks, including skiing backwards and a midair 360 spin.

People find their activity of choice in many different ways, making each journey unique. Despite their level of popularity, each respective sport has their own points of interest.