Life outside of school can vary from person to person, whether it be a chess tournament or a tumbling contest. The options for activities are numerous and can draw people in from the bell-to-bell schedule of the day, so much so they don’t want to do anything else for the days to come.

When doing activities outside of school, many drift towards sports. The idea of working as a team to achieve a common goal and getting physical exercise as well as having fun excites athletes. Junior, Maria Alteo, plays on a girls Softball team and has been playing the sport for 5 years now.

“No matter how routine it gets at practices, the games are always better because of all the action and going against different players, I love it when the blood starts pumping and the whole team works great together,” says Alteo.

As well as sports that involve teamwork, there are also those that are singular activities. Some sports like diving and swimming appeal to students at Lake Ridge. Sophomore, Noah Kamaz, is part of the swim team and enjoys the practices and meets.

“The practices help me get better at the sport and the meets are exciting to see all the other teams competing, plus some days I just want to practice swim,” said Kamaz.

With all the sport options offered at Lake Ridge, tumbling is an interest taken up beyond the nest. The process of tumbling takes a lot of training in both dexterity and strength. Ron Williams, sophomore, does tumbling and has also been a national judge for tumbling competitions.

“I’ve been doing tumbling for three years now, and when I started I sucked. I practiced on my form and body strength and got really good at it, so good I am a national judge. I think that’s pretty neat,” says Williams.

Being a national judge for tumbling may seem odd to students, but Williams competes and judges on a biweekly basis. The whole ordeal usually involves going to completions and practicing for the events, then the next week judging younger kids in the sport.

“Going from tumbling myself in competitions, and seeing all the other people there is real , then going to a completion to watch eleven to thirteen years old do what I do is great,” said Williams.

The whole nine yards, or fifty if applicable, is very appealing to students, but there are also those that lean towards non-sport activities. Students may choose spend their downtime playing video games. Sophomore, Logan Gajkowski, plays video games that vary from racing games to crafting games.

“I do play a lot of video games, I like games like Rocket league which I started like car soccer, Minecraft, but mostly Counter Strike, it’s an old game but I still like it,” says Gajkowski.

Based on a study from US news magazine, 55.5% of students play in a sport, where as a study by Statcan says that only 8% to 9% of students participate in extracurricular activities. That smaller percentage of students are drawn to a more creative outlet. Senior, Angela Perkins, participates in art contests and paints frequently.

“Whenever I feel down or just don’t have anything to do, I paint, most people will paint odd and bizarre paintings, but I really like painting landscapes over anything, they can be real simplistic or very detailed,” said Perkins.

Students all over Lake Ridge take a part in some form of an extracurricular activity. Although academic classes may require extra hours of practice, extracurricular activities are a solid way to spend free time afterwards as well. No matter the activity, be it popular or uncommon, keep doing what you love to do.