FALMOUTH, Maine — If you walk around a Maine high school during a weekday afternoon in the fall, you'll likely find multiple sports teams practicing or playing games.
While the Falmouth High School boy's soccer and field hockey teams were warming up for playoff games last month, one student-athlete was on her own working on her skills.
“Throwing is super technical, so we’ll do a lot of drill work," Falmouth senior Ruby Prentiss said. “A lot of the off-season stuff is just repetition.”
Prentiss throws the discus and shot put for the school's track & field team. The indoor season doesn't begin for a few more weeks, but in this sport, there are rarely any days off.
Prentiss said she spends five days in the gym working to get stronger in the off-season and goes through a whole routine of drills and techniques to get ready for the season.
She admitted she never played sports until high school.
“I was doing theater actually and my crew chief mentioned the fact that he did track and field, and I said, 'I don’t want to run,' and he said, 'Well, you can throw,'" she said.
After one practice, Prentiss said she fell in love with it. She also mentioned she likes the individualized aspect of the shotput and discus.
"When things go well, you get all the credit," she said. "When things don't, there's no one to blame but yourself."
After spending years working on the stage crew for plays and performances at school, Prentiss said the track & field team has a similar close-knit bond.
“I've made some of my best friends in track, we’re all really close. If you’re serious about it you know the work that goes in and you can do the work together," she added.
Despite picking up track & field three years ago, Prentiss has her eyes set on throwing for a Division 1 college and hopes a successful indoor and outdoor season this year will get her to that level.
Outside of the practice throwing area, Prentiss wants to make Falmouth High School a more welcoming place for all students when she graduates. She and her friends are working on a freshman mentoring program.
“I think it makes for a better school environment, I think there’s a disconnect between seniors and freshman and that whole idea that the freshman are the little kids on the playground," she added.
Inside the classroom, Prentiss said she has a passion for English and Psychology and hopes to pursue a career in those areas after college by either working as a sports journalist or as a team psychologist.
Like any student-athlete serious about their sport, Prentiss puts in hours of hard work behind the scenes to achieve her goals.
NEWS CENTER Maine will be featuring a Maine student-athlete on our Varsity Club segment every month through the school year. If you would like to nominate someone to be featured, click here.