Junior Mady Scarlato is the perfect example of someone balancing “everything” seamlessly.
Water polo. Swim and Dive. National Honors Society. Community Club. FHC Sports Report. Mady Scarlato does it all. For Mady, each element of her life is as important as the next, and she manages a crucial balance between her sports and schoolwork, even holding many leadership positions for her various extracurriculars.
Mady has played water polo for around six years and has quickly found her way to a top position at both the club level for Great Lake Aquatics as well as for school water polo.
“My primary goal [for the water polo season] is to be the [Michigan] west-side regional MVP this year,” Mady said, “[which is] something I think I can do, or at least to help the team get to states, because we’ve been on the brink of that the past two years, and we’ve just fallen a little bit short.”
The school water polo team, which is a combination of students from FHC, FHE, and FHN, doesn’t have as high a turnout as some of the larger high schools in the area and is always looking for more students or swimmers to join the team.
Water polo is often a lesser-known sport, yet it incorporates some of the best elements of sports like basketball, swimming, or hockey: a team atmosphere, one of the main reasons Mady feels it’s an underappreciated sport.
“Water polo is such a team-based sport that I think it’s more fun while you’re playing [it],” Mady said. “But also outside of the sport, the relationships that you build [are] really fun.”
Like many team sports, water polo encourages the development of various skills, from cooperation to perseverance and mental fortitude.
In terms of mental health, Mady stresses the importance of sports helping improve her own. Even if playing sports can induce frustration or perfectionism, they’re still a crucial way to release frustration or to distract yourself, in Mady’s eyes.
“Also [playing sports helps me be] more open with my mental health, at least for me. I always get in my head, and I get in a really bad mood, so [water polo] just taught me to keep my spirits up and just be open with my mental health,” Mady said. “It’s a place where I can go and just let [out] all my emotions.”
As a multi-sport athlete, Mady definitely understands the pressures to perform well and the skills you can gain from sports. After having less-than-ideal seasons for the FHC Swim and Dive team in her freshman and sophomore years, Mady’s goals for herself only increased as well as her confidence.
Her 100-meter freestyle time dropped two seconds this season, placing her time at under a minute and leaving her feeling more confident in herself than in the prior two years, as well as contributing to a successful season for the team.
“Swimming is a really mental sport and then I feel like this year I finally was confident in where I was,” Mady said, “and I was able to do well throughout the whole season, not just the first month [like in prior years].”
Starting her sophomore year, Mady realized she loved English but wasn’t the type of person who would “just go write an essay,” but rather loved learning about sports and writing about them.
This led her to become the editor-in-chief for FHC Sports Report, joining just last year. For her, the elective is an avenue for her to pursue the passion she has for sports and sports statistics in a format she loves.
“[FHC Sports Report] helps you be on time because you have all these deadlines you have to meet,” Mady said. “I feel like it helps you with your social interactions when you’re interviewing a coach after a game, or you’re interviewing some players for quotes; it teaches you to get out of your comfort zone.”
Sports journalism pushes Mady and the other students in FHC Sports Report to become involved in their community and connect with key members of both FHC sports teams and other schools’ teams. Mady amplifies this community connection by participating in both the National Honors Society (NHS) and FHC’s community club.
A first-year member of both, Mady loves challenging herself to try new things in a way that could help others. From being a leader in the pool to one in her community and extracurriculars, Mady balances it all and has truly found her stride in leadership roles for the things she is passionate about.
“For me, it’s not about worrying how many things I have to balance,” Mady said, “it’s more about the memories I make along the way.”
