Lewis & Clark has a number of student-athletes who balance multiple sports at a time, sometimes during overlapping seasons. A series of interviews with LC’s dual-sport athletes highlights the impressive time management, passion and dedication that goes into each sport — as well as the challenges and benefits of committing to two sports in college.
Devon Guest ’25 has been playing football since the beginning of high school and spent a year of high school also running track. As a fifth-year senior at LC, he plays both, while simultaneously majoring in mathematics and minoring in data science.
He explained that he picked up track on a whim, after having already played two football seasons with LC. Football seasons are in the fall, while the track season runs in the spring.
“A few of the other football guys were like, ‘What if we just talked to the track coach about joining the team?’” Guest said. “It was kind of random.”
He explained that with a good number of student-athletes now balancing both football and track at the same time, the coaches have worked to support their different schedules and commitments to each sport.
“For (the) actual season, they’re separate, but then football has offseason workouts in the spring, which does overlap with the track season,” he said. “Initially, the two coaches didn’t communicate as well as they do now, in terms of balancing, and being understanding of our schedules and what’s important to both. They definitely have a better relationship, with the new track coach, Chris Reed and (football) Coach Bushman.”
Guest explained that during the spring, it can be demanding to balance both sports.
“A lot of times, football has practice in the morning, for spring practice. So we would practice for football in the morning, and then go to our daily class schedule, whatever that would be, and then go to track practice in the afternoons. So just doing both at the same time and then trying to be rested, and then having a meet at the end of the week was kinda difficult,” Guest said.
While it can sometimes be difficult to find free time outside of athletics and academics, he feels that his social life, being integrated in the athletic community at LC, is not negatively impacted by his demanding football and track schedules.
“I think sports has always been a big part of my social life, because a lot of the people that I would hang out with, I know through sports,” Guest said. “So it’s not super detrimental to my social life, but definitely, in terms of what I would do outside of athletics or see people outside of school might take a small hit, but nothing too crazy.”
He emphasized the pros and cons of playing two sports at once, pointing out that football practices generally run two and a half to three hours per day, and track practices are normally an hour and a half to two hours, including a warm-up and cooldown. In the spring, he can sometimes spend four hours a day training between sports.
“When you’re doing both, you’re putting more workload on your body, not giving yourself as much time to recover,” Guest said. “Through running track, I gained a lot of confidence in my speed to translate into football, so (I built) confidence in different aspects of my athleticism that I didn’t have before.”
Guest shared that one of his favorite parts about being a dual-sport athlete is keeping him on track (pun intended) to succeed academically and make the most of his time.
“Honestly, I’m never not busy. A lot of times when I have a lot of free time during the semester, I end up putting off a lot of my responsibilities, procrastinating with assignments,” he said. “Having that constant year-round of me going, I had to be, like, tunnel vision on all I need to do.”
Jordan Lahusky ’26 also plays football and track at LC. He is studying biology and hopes to go into conservation work post-grad, as well as potentially coaching football in the future.
“I’ve been doing both for my whole life, and it just carried on through high school and then into college now, which I wasn’t actually expecting,” Lahusky said. “When I got recruited here for football, the football coach was looking at my track times. It kind of worked out perfectly.”
Lahusky said playing two sports has taught him to effectively manage his time.
“It takes up so much of your time. You have select time periods of the day where you have to do your homework, and if you don’t, you have to stay up really late, then you’re gonna be tired for practice the next day,” he said. “It definitely takes a lot of mental and time management.”
Lahusky, like Guest, highlighted the role of his track and football coaches in supporting him as a dual-sport athlete.
“Both coaches know I do both and whatnot, and they actually work together and make a schedule where it’s safe for me to not risk an injury,” he said. “They really just plan it out accordingly to make it work out so I can stay healthy.”
Lahusky, who is a running back for football and a sprinter for track, said that playing both sports allows him to cross-train in different ways.
“In football, you’re always trying to be explosive, you know, you got to move quick,” Lahusky said. “And then the same thing with track, when you shoot out of the blocks.”
He identified speed-training, weight-training and explosiveness as athletic skills that pertain to both sports.
“Track helps me keep up my speed and helps me get faster,” Lahusky said. “The explosiveness from football translates to track, and then the speed training from track translates to football.”
He expressed his gratitude for being able to continue playing both sports in college, noting that it is somewhat easier at a Division III school than at a Division I school to compete in both sports, especially with football being one of them.
“The best part is, honestly, you just get to continue both your passions,” he said. “I didn’t have to give one of them up, like a lot of people do. A lot of people enjoy sports, and it means a lot to them, and I’m lucky enough to be able to do both sports in college. It’s totally worth the not having a social life or a lot of free time. The best part is just getting to do both.”
Despite the time-intensive practices and seasons, Lahusky does not feel that his social life suffers too much from being a dual-sport athlete because so much of his social life is invested in the football and track teams.
“My friends are the guys that are on the team,” he said. “Those are the people I really hang out with, and our schedules line up because we both have practices at the same time.”
Megan Yanagi ’26, who is also studying biology, has been playing both soccer and softball since before high school. When she came to LC, she continued to play both sports.
Because the women’s soccer season is in the fall and women’s softball is in the spring, the practices rarely overlap, except for off-season training. On average, soccer practices are usually an hour and a half, and softball practices can run closer to two or two and a half hours.
“People think it’s really difficult to play both sports, but since it’s two different seasons, there’s not much overlap,” she said. “I like staying busy, so it definitely keeps me busy all year.”
She said that while she now feels like she has strong relationships with her teammates, it was difficult missing some of softball’s offseason as a freshman playing soccer throughout the fall.
“My freshman year it was hard going into softball not knowing anyone, not being a part of the team throughout the whole fall,” she said.
Yanagi described the two sports as having very different practices and conditioning regimens, and expressed gratitude for the support of the athletics staff in the training room in helping her manage two different workout schedules.
“The workouts are super different,” she said. “Softball is definitely more strength and building up muscle more than agility, but there’s also a lot of agility involved with it. Definitely, during the seasons, I do see a big difference in how we work out, in the weight room specifically. It’s definitely more bands and agility during soccer and more heavy lifting and building muscle in softball season.”
Yanagi identified friendships as one of the most rewarding aspects of being a dual-sport athlete.
“It’s not just people you can say hi to; it’s people you can actually have a conversation with,” she said. “It’s building those relationships with so many people. It’s really nice because you spend so much time with them throughout the season. It’s every single day. You get to know them really fast.”
Kate Meinhard ’26 has been playing both soccer and lacrosse since well before high school, where she continued to play both sports throughout the school year. At LC, she remains a dual-sport athlete while simultaneously juggling (pun intended) a physics major, math minor and studio art minor.
“I was originally just looking to get recruited for soccer, and then when I was talking to Coach Tursi, literally two days before I came out to visit, they announced that they were gonna start a women’s lacrosse program,” Meinhard said.
In her freshman year, Meinhard collaborated with womens lacrosse Coach Lindsay Newman to recruit lacrosse players for the team. Just last year, the womens lacrosse team played their first season, with only 13 players total. Meinhard explained that typically, a lacrosse team at this level needs 12 players on the field at any given time, so the small size of the team presented its own set of challenges and benefits. This year, the team continues to establish itself, with Meinhard as one of the team captains.
“Pretty much every single game, we were one man down,” she said. “But it was kind of fun. It was good, I think for everyone — you didn’t have the threat of not having playing time, so people weren’t as afraid to make mistakes and try some new things because it wasn’t like you’d get pulled. It was kind of a unique experience in college, but I think it did build up a lot of people’s confidence.”
Soccer season is in the fall, while lacrosse is in the spring, though Meinhard is often still balancing practices for both sports throughout the year, with preseason and offseason training throughout the academic year. She noted that both her coaches have been very supportive of her decision to play both sports, even collaborating together to negotiate reasonable training schedules between the two teams.
“The rule is, if you’re a dual-sport athlete, you have to have at least one off-day a week — the NCAA provides this safety of you get one off-day a week, so coaches can’t just constantly have you going,” she said. “I can’t (always) practice, but I’m a captain on the lacrosse team, so I’m still helping plan team bonding and getting people motivated.”
Meinhard noted that she has to be mindful of the stress playing two sports puts on her body.
“I’m, unfortunately, a person that’s very prone to injuries,” she said. “I’ve had to be careful how much I double dip in certain things because I want to be able to obviously play both seasons, and I don’t want to do one thing on a random off-day and then jeopardize my whole season.”
Meinhard explained that one of the most difficult aspects of being a dual-sport athlete is never getting an offseason and managing the big time commitment.
“It’s a lot of demand on your body,” she said. “It’s like a part-time job … You’re going like, 20 hours a week, doing all this stuff and on top of going to school, so you have to really commit to it, and you have to have fun, because as soon as it stops being fun, you just don’t want to do it.”
She said that the most rewarding part of being a dual-sport athlete at LC is building multiple communities at once.
“It’s nice having two friend groups, and I know that no matter what season I’m in, I’m always gonna have people I’m surrounded by that I’m comfortable with,” she said. “And I think that getting that with both groups is so fun, seeing the different dynamics, and getting to spend time with a bunch of people.”
Meinhard spoke about her decision to play at a Division III school rather than a Division I school.
“I was never ready to pick one sport over the other,” she said. “I really enjoyed playing multiple sports, and so I think that’s something I’ve continued. I just want to be active. I want to play the sports. I’m not necessarily in it for fame and ‘Oh, I want to go DI and I want to go pro.’ That’s not what I wanted. I always just wanted to have fun with it. And I think once you go to those higher levels, it’s more of a full-time job.”
Trevor Koo ’28, is a soccer and football player, who plans to major in international affairs and minor in Chinese. He has been playing soccer since fifth grade, but he did not pick up football until his junior year of high school.
“Initially, I was just looking to play soccer,” he said. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about playing football in college.”
He explained that he randomly met Coach Bushman when he was touring LC and was offered a position on the football team a few weeks after being offered a position on the soccer team.
“I kind of figured it was the best of both worlds,” he said. “I mean, and it’s hard because obviously they’re both in the fall right now, so both sports are happening right now.”
Koo said that his soccer skills translated well into his position as a kicker on the football team.
“I think the bulk of my kicking skills came from my soccer experience,” he said. “I think you see that with a lot of kickers. I would say most kickers have a soccer background.”
He described the strength training and workouts between the two sports as fairly interchangeable, saying that he has to be cautious not to overwork certain muscles, particularly because both sports run in the same season.
“It’s a lot,” said Koo. “I’ve taken good care of myself, and the training staff are great, but there’s definitely a higher chance of injury. But that’s another thing where the coaches, since they’re always communicating, they’ve always said ‘If you need to take a day off here,’ ‘If you need to maybe slow it down today,’ or whatever, everyone’s on the same page. They just want me to enjoy it and have fun and compete.”
Koo said that his favorite part of being a dual-sport athlete is having multiple identities and social circles.
“I feel like sometimes the athletes tend to stay in their own sport or don’t really get out and meet too many people, whether that be non-athletes or even just other athletes,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been able to exist in my own group of friends like a connector between the worlds, and introducing people to different people, and even just for me, meeting people, you know?”
He emphasized that his coaches have been supportive in helping him navigate his first semester of collegiate academics and athletics.
“Both coaches are like, ‘You know, as long as you’re enjoying it and your body can keep up with it, and you’re staying on top of things in the classroom, that’s great,’” he said.
Koo expressed his gratitude for attending a Division III school where he is able juggle multiple sports and be supported by both his teammates and coaches.
“I love both sports,” said Koo. “I love doing them both in the same season because I feel like I’ve always loved to challenge myself in life, and I feel like this is a really good way of developing myself … I feel like it’s a huge opportunity for growth.”
Being a dual-sport athlete is by no means an easy feat, especially when seasons and training overlap, academics ramp up and there is a limited amount of time each day. LC, as a Division III school, provides a unique opportunity for student-athletes to excel in academics, pursue multiple passions and be supported by a collaborative, communicative athletics department in the process — something that is not always possible at larger institutions. In a world where it can seem impossible to do it all, dual-sport athletes make it happen.
About the Author
