Senior Mickey Mehney didn’t always have a home on the team that he is now a captain of. During his freshman year, he felt out of place among the majority of his skiing teammates until he found a friend playing a makeshift sport that wouldn’t be expected at ski regionals.
“[Senior Maya Sneider] and I were at the bottom of the ski hill, awkwardly sitting there,” Mickey said. “We ended up messing around into playing baseball with hand warmers and ski poles. I felt that was the moment I was going to fit in with the team, and I was going to have a lot of fun skiing.”
Four years later, Mickey still enjoys his winters spent with the FHC Ski Team. He has become such a major part that his teammates voted him to be one of the two boys’ captains.
His leadership adds to the already welcoming community that the ski team is.
“The ski team is like a family and is about having fun,” Mickey said. “Everyone’s always really nice to each other. There are no arguments going on—no trash talk, especially when you’re racing; everyone’s supportive, even the other team.”
This supportive family is a stark difference from the attitudes at the games of Mickey’s other sport: lacrosse.
On the lacrosse team, there is more trash talk between teams and sometimes even teammates.
“With the lacrosse team, I’m really good friends with [seniors] Zach and Vaughn Cheslek,” Mickey said. “We’re always messing with each other; [we’re] not really putting each other down, but we don’t support each other the same way I do on ski team when someone does something good. On the lacrosse team, when you do something good. It’s a quick ‘good job;’ then, it’s in the past. We mess up, and [my teammates] make fun a little bit but nothing too bad or harmful. It’s friendly banter.”
While playing lacrosse involves more joking around with one another, the ski team is much more supportive, and compliments are not left in the past.
This contrast between the ski and lacrosse teams gives Mickey different senses of community all while taking place in the same school.
“I feel like ski team brings out one side of me, and lacrosse brings out a different side,” Mickey said. “I feel like I really get to express who I am in both teams in different ways.”
The ski team brings out a more supportive side of Mickey, while lacrosse brings out a competitive side.
Mickey’s favorite ski team memory of hand warmer baseball sticks to this narrative, and his favorite lacrosse memory does the same.
“My sophomore year, there was a practice where it was straight competition,” Mickey said. “The team split into two opposite teams at practice. It brought out the competitive side of everyone playing, but no one was being singled out. Everyone was working as hard as they could. The coaches ended up getting really mad at us for that, but it was a ton of fun seeing everyone go as hard as they can in a practice.”
This competitive nature of Mickey during lacrosse season is something he hopes to be able to continue—along with his nature during ski team—for not only himself but for others, too.
“I’m hoping to play lacrosse in college,” Mickey said, “and to join a club ski team. I’d love to do the Cannonsburg adult race league. And hopefully, when I have kids someday, they will choose to play lacrosse so I can keep that personality of mine—not that I’ll be mean to little kids. I also think coaching would be fun because I enjoy helping others.”
