What I've learned from 300 Sarasota athletes of the week

As of this week — Sept. 22, to be precise — I'll have been covering the Sarasota sports scene for seven years. 

I'm sure that sounds like the blink of an eye for some of you who have been at your jobs for 15 or 20 years. But it has been a little less than a quarter of my life. Sometimes it's hard to remember what I was doing, or who I was, before coming aboard the Observer. The answer to both: I was a college kid at the University of Missouri who thought he knew everything. Now, I realize I knew next to nothing about how the real world worked. I still don't know much. One thing I do know, though? The Sarasota sports scene. 

Over these seven years, six and a half of them have involved our Athlete of the Week feature, which we introduced in January 2017. Since that launch, I've talked with more than 300 athletes for the feature, asking them questions about their specific sport and season, but also questions about their likes and dislikes, their habits and their goals. Over the years, patterns have emerged — as well as some humorous anecdotes. So as a type of look-back over my time at the Observer, I'll highlight some of the most interesting answers and advice these young stars have given. 

File photo

In 2022, then-Riverview High boys soccer senior Luke Spycher shared some advice his coach, Ed Stroop, had given him. Stroop told Spycher he needed to become a goldfish. 

At first, Spycher was, understandably, confused. But he let his coach explain. 

"Goldfish don't have long memories," Spycher said. "I needed to stop thinking so much and just play the game. Playing on instinct helps me a lot."

It worked out: Spycher and the Rams went 12-2-4 during the 2021-2022 season and reached the FHSAA Class 7A regional semifinals.

Back in 2018, I talked with Sarasota's Isaac Weintraub, then a taekwondo athlete at the University of Central Oklahoma. Weintraub had just won gold in the Men’s Flyweight at the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships and was preparing for the USA Taekwondo National Championships. He was a legit athlete, and he told interesting anecdotes about why the U.S. struggled on international stages in the sport. 

But I'm not going to share any of that here; you can read the whole thing if you want. Instead, I'm going to share his biggest fear: geese.

"They scare me," Weintraub said, not laughing. "They are all over my campus and they attack people at random times. I just hate them. I’ll cross the street to avoid geese."

As a fellow bird-hater, I've rarely felt more connected to an interviewee. 

Sometimes when talking to an athlete for the first time, it's easy to see the "it factor." It was that way with former Riverview High softball player Devyn Flaherty. Flaherty is now a senior captain on the Florida State University softball team. The infielder made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference First or Second Team three times and has helped the Seminoles become Women's College World Series runner-ups in 2021 and 2023. But back in 2019, she was still a senior with the Rams. 

Even then, being a good teammate was all she wanted to talk about. When asked about her best skill, Flaherty didn't mention her lightning-quick bat speed or her flashy glove. 

"I am a leader," Flaherty said. "I can be vocal or lead through actions. I am looked up to on the team, so I have to set the example. 

"People tend to follow in my footsteps." 

Flaherty earned that position in the program, having torn her ACL as a freshman and come back to be one of the best players in the state. She didn't become a leader by choice; she was born to do it. 

File photo

In 2019, I talked with then-Cardinal Mooney High senior girls soccer player Lauren Golon after a 5-0 win over rival Saint Stephen's Episcopal. Golon, a team captain, had scored on a penalty kick during the game and was riding high. Watching her, you would think she was always an outgoing star. But as she shared, that wasn't true. When asked what the biggest challenge of her career had been, Golon said it was gaining confidence. 

"I'm a sensitive person," Golon said. "I get down easily and that's something that I need to work on because when you are playing you cannot get down on yourself, it will affect your game. I need to work on having a more positive attitude for myself. High school soccer helps me with having a positive attitude. Club is more competitive so high school is more for fun. I always have a good time and it is not as stressful."

It was an honest answer I appreciated, and it serves as a reminder that even team captains, ostensibly some of the best players on a squad, can go through periods where they struggle with mental or physical challenges. There's no shame in it — and there's always a way back. 

Some rapid-fire trends that I've noticed, particularly over the last year or so, include the following: People like to watch Netflix's "Outer Banks" and "Stranger Things" a lot; everyone wants to be able to fly; the beaches are the hot spot to be when not practicing, even though some athletes consider it a 'basic' answer; and not much beats a good steak — though opinions vary on how it should be cooked. (The correct answer is either medium-rare or medium, of course.) 

More than anything else, what I've learned from going back over these interviews is that simple advice is often the best advice. I lost count of how many athletes gave a variation of "trust the process" or "hard work brings success" when sharing their best advice. As a journalist, I'm trained to despise cliches, but that does not mean the advice packed inside the cliche is bad. In fact, for athletes here, it seems to work wonders. 

The vast majority of the kids I interview for this feature don't go on to make it in the pros, or even the top college levels, of their respective sports. Some do. But most are not gifted with immense natural talent. They have a few successful high school seasons of glory that culminate into a superstar performance or two. But that's all it takes. The memory of those performances, and how they felt afterward, will stick with them forever. They worked hard — they trusted the process — and it got them where they wanted to be, if for a fleeting amount of time. They accomplished a goal. 

To me, that's inspiring. To me, that's what sports are all about. It's why I love covering them: everyone has a story. 

I'm glad I'm here to tell Sarasota athletes' stories to you.