Having dabbled in three sports throughout her three years of high school thus far, junior Kristen Giles has always found herself captivated by athletics all her life– namely, soccer.

“I’ve been playing [soccer] since I was six, just doing ASO, just little, tiny soccer leagues,” Kristen said. “I did that for a little bit– probably three or four years. And then I moved on to Crew; they changed names, so that’s when I moved over to Rapids with my friends. So I’ve just been there since.”

Now, after two years of JV, Kristen is entering her first school season as a varsity player.

“I’m really excited [for this season],” Kristen said. “All the people are really nice too, and we have a lot of good talent. So it should be a good season.”

Kristen has high hopes and aspirations for her team, as she hopes to follow up last year’s outstanding varsity season with a victorious performance.

“It’d be nice if we won most of our games,” Kristen said. “That’d be great– maybe win Districts’ I don’t know if we’re good enough to get to states again, but I guess we can work towards it.”

Regardless of how much the team achieves this season, Kristen will surely have a wonderful experience as she continues to enjoy the sport she loves.

“I like the game; I like how you can work as a team,” Kristen said. “A lot of other sports are individual– like track, cross country. [With soccer], you can work together, and all the people are really nice. So it’s a fun time.”

While soccer preoccupies her springs, Kristen spent her winters playing basketball during her underclassman years; however, Kristen decided to delve into a new aspect of FHC athletics this year.

“[Basketball] just wasn’t fun for me anymore,” Kristen said. “I decided I’d join ski team since I ski for fun anyway, and my friends were doing ski team– so I thought it’d just be a fun time. [And I could] stay in shape too.”

This new endeavor proved to be a great decision, and Kristen has plans to remain in the ski team through her senior year as well.

“I love skiing too, and it was fun to get better at it,” Kristen said. “And I’m glad I joined because it kept me occupied.”

Despite her proficiency when it comes to athletics, Kristen has a deeply artistic side as well when it comes to music.

“I like being able to create something and to be able to hear something I made,” Kristen said. “A lot of academic stuff you can’t hear, and I like listening to things.”

In fact, Kristen plays over four instruments: piano, drum set, guitar, and a variety of percussion instruments.

“[In] fifth grade, I did drum set and piano– I was kind of taking lessons,” Kristen said. “And then I stopped taking lessons because I was too busy with sports. And then I picked up the guitar like two years ago. Everything else just kind of meshed in.”

As such, a large part of Kristen’s high school experience has consisted of the music scene through her role in band/drumline.

Drumline specifically has been an especially enjoyable part of band.

“Drumline is really fun,” Kristen said. “It’s only fun if you like playing; if you don’t like playing, it’s probably not fun because you spend a lot more time playing than the regular band. You come early, or you spend extra time after [practice]– it’s a lot of memorizing too since we do a “drumline showai??i?? like a little “cadenceai??i?? thing. So it’s just a lot of memorizing, but it’s also fun to do all the moves and stuff; that’s really cool. We did the upside down tenors– that’s a lot of fun. It takes a lot of practice though because you have to work on the movements and when you move.”

The more technically intensive parts of playing music have actually proven to be some of Kristen’s favorite times.

“I like it when it’s a little bit challenging, and you have to work on it,” Kristen said. “And then a lot of the seniors right now are really fun. They just kind of make a [difficult] situation good. Like even if it’s a really hard song, they make it really fun.”

While Kristen is consumed with band in the fall, ski in the winter, and soccer in the spring, through it all she also commits herself to two part-time jobs at Subway and Leo’s Coney Island. However, Kristen doesn’t mind her ample commitments. Each of her activities keeps her busy, connect her with new people, and help contribute to her active but lively high school experience.

“I use my time wisely, I guess,” Kristen said. “It’s kind of nice because it makes me do homework. Like if I don’t have anything [to do], I’ll just procrastinate or go and watch Netflix or something. [My commitments] force me to [get things done]… It’s a lot of time management.”