We read and hear and see too much about highly recruited high school athletes these days.
We want them all to be Marcus Mariota, but those kind don’t come in bunches, they are exceptions, and it’s probably fair to even call them extreme exceptions.
Trouble is, for the one-sport athlete with a scholarship to Big State U, the future may be determined by a few teammates who can block, tackle, run, throw or catch a little better.
That’s not going to happen to Mary Economy, a Waiakea senior who competed for her school’s swim and water polo teams while knocking out a 4.0 grade point average. She started down this road early, as a ninth grader when she called a personal timeout to look around and look ahead.
The youngest of four daughters who all played volleyball and other sports growing up, Economy listened and learned from their leads. It was wise intuition by a very precocious high school freshman.
Oldest sister Louise graduated from the University of Hawaii-Hilo and went through a Masters program; Christi Lynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is working for her Masters at Cambridge in England; Jacqueline and Jamie are both studying at UH-Hilo. Her only brother, Koa, is also an inspiration, though, as a fifth grader, not in the same way.
She turned out for the water polo team as a freshman, a decision that didn’t go nearly as well as another one she made, to run for a student body office, nudged in that direction by her older sisters.
“I was terrible (at water polo),” she said. “I was embarrassed by how bad I was. I barely got off the bench and I probably played way more than I should have for my lack of ability.”
Meanwhile in Waiakea politics, she was elected to student government and found it to be immediately rewarding.
“I told my sisters I don’t know anything about it and they said nobody else does either, just do it, you’ll have fun,” she said. “It really opened my eyes to the Waiakea community. I found out what people cared about and why, what they didn’t like and why, it was a tremendous experience.”
Most kids who aren’t born with extraordinary physical gifts often turn away from athletics after an unpleasant introduction to organized competitive sports, but not her. We would say it brought out her competitive spirit but she chooses a different word.
“I think of it more as a challenge, a challenge to myself,” she said. “I knew I could do better, I didn’t think I was a superstar, but I knew I could do better and I wanted to so I could help the team more.”
The next thing Mary Economy did was to join the swim team, work at it on her own time, and figure out the breathing patterns and how to be more physically efficient in the water.
When she graduates, it will be as a regular on the water polo team, not the best in school, but a good player and a great teammate.
“Oh my gosh, being on the swim team and the water polo team really helped me,” she said. “These sports are individual to a certain extent, but you are part of a team, a group of people where the individuals work for a common goal, they understand each others’ strengths and weaknesses.”
We sometimes have a warped perspective on sports, we think you have to be an athlete to challenge yourself, but creative thinkers like Economy show us a more comprehensive and available perspective on the subject.
“I had classes that, on the first day I thought, ‘Oh man, I don’t know if I can do this,’” she said, “but then I would challenge myself to see if I could figure it out. When I start to get it just a little bit it motivates me to do more, you can surprise yourself with what you can do that you didn’t know you could do.
“I love doing that,” she said, “I love challenging myself so I just do it every day.”
Mary Economy will decide between George Washington University and Boston University to pursue her major interest in environmental science.
Either way, it’s a win for whatever school she chooses.
Questions or comments? email bart@hawaiitribuneherald.com.
