As the fall sports season comes to an end, sports captains for sailing, cheer, tennis and cross country share their experiences of captainship this 2024 sports season.

Sailing

Senior Lucia Sharp, one of the captains of the Troy United Sailing Team, has been playing the sport since her sophomore year. When Sharp was awarded with captainship she felt proud, not only for herself, but for the entire team. Sharp joined the club because “all my friends did it and it was cool, like ‘What sport do you do?’ Like I sail boats.”

On her own time, Sharp bought a boat and would sail it out of her normal practice. When asked about what kept her  going all these years, Sharp replied, “It was cool. It was fun. I complain, but I’m having fun while complaining.”

Cheer

Senior Samantha Danis, co-captain of the cheer team, has been doing cheer for 12 years and all throughout high school. 

“I was really happy because I’ve been working hard for it the past four years. I feel like my leadership skills are really good with it.” Danis states about her feelings when given captainship. Danis shared that “I’ve been in it so long. I really wanted to improve and be better all the time.” What kept Danis going were “my teammates, my friends and my coaches, they all were there for me.”

Her happiest memory from the cheer season was “winning the Athens Game. I really thought we were gonna lose. Then us winning, it was just really fun to see, four years in a row.”

Tennis

Senior Dhruv Gupta, first year captain of the Tennis team, first joined the sport when “It was just kind of the one of the sports I started playing with my dad as a child and just kind of watching.”

Gupta has been playing the sport for about eight to 10 years, and received captainship this year. When he got captainship he was happy that he was able to help the team more rather than just being a player, as well as giving motivational pep talks.  “I was looked up to by other players,” Gupta added. 

One of Gupta’s highlights from the tennis season was winning the quarter final match. “It was  a tough one that I had to come back from and I knew that day one that it was important for getting a good feeling for the whole team. Into the second day and getting us a good groove into the day’s tournament,” Gupta says.

Cross Country

Madie Miller, captain of the Cross Country team, decided to join the sport when she would run around out on the soccer field, and would never want to come, and discovered her love for running, so she joined the cross country team.

Miller was excited when she got captainship. “I always looked up to the captains being an underclassman, so I thought that it was my chance to help.” This season was pretty great for her, and she was ready to leave everything out of the course.

On Saturday Nov. 2, 2024, Miller along with 2 other runners went to compete in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 Cross Country State Finals. Miller reported that this was her best time on the specific course and was proud of her performance. “It was worth all the work.”