Do high school sports even really matter?

Well, according to Shane Marshall, 2012 alumni from Galway and Sports Clerk for the Saratogian, they do. Throughout Marshall’s high school career he managed to play soccer, basketball and baseball. He grew up playing sports alongside his twin brother, Cody Marshall, who also went on to become a college sportscaster. I guess you could say that sports had a big part in the lives of these two 20-year-olds.

After an internship with the Saratogian, they offered Shane a job as a freelancer that he couldn’t refuse but he didn’t expect what came next. After just four weeks as a freelancer at the Saratogian, they promoted him to Sports Clerk. When asked how he felt to receive this promotion Marshall responded, “I felt motivated. I get the chance to work with guys that I’d spent five months just wanting to be an actual part of the team and now I get an official role. I am a legit reporter.” He stated that he has wanted a career along these lines since he took Mr. Swain’s E-commerce class in his sophomore year.

However it hasn’t always been about the journalism for Shane. He believes that he was able to make it into the journalism field because of the competitiveness that he has acquired from sports. “You want to be top of your game in the classroom, you want to be top of your game in everything you study.” He is definitely showing how being at the top of your game pays off in the long run and he has sports to thank for that. Marshall said “my life revolved around sports so even today I look at everything as a competition.” This state of mind has been going through this 20-year-old’s head since he first started playing sports.

Shane dedicated the majority of his time to sports during his high school career and now that he is in college he says, “I took a lot for granted, I never really had an off season so I was always playing a sport at one point.”

Marshall also revealed some information that he hoped to pass onto current varsity sports players: “At the varsity level you should no longer be playing for fun, you should be playing for the championship. It should be an everyday job… With girls and partying people aren’t 100% focused on their sport and that’s where players fall short.”

Marshall must have put a lot of effort into these sports and followed these guidelines because he eventually became captain of more than one sport. “I like to be vocal. I like to motivate people. Motivation is huge with leadership and I think leadership gets you very far and if people look up to you then that’s always positive.”

Shane Marshall is putting 110% into everything he does in life until he gets the outcome he wants. He has come a long way since he once wrote for the Eagles Media Center and is now writing for the Saratogian! He may not be studying at Yale, cast on Glee, but he is still an inspiration to young journalists out there.

He shows the reporters and athletes of Galway what happens when you give everything your all and view life as a competition. “Competition makes you set the bar higher. People are going to praise you for something great you did, and you need to go back out and prove that you can do more. There’s always another level to be reached.”

Good luck with whatever level you choose to go up to next, Shane.