Amazing Grace: Carlynton senior Grace Prepelka is used to playing three sports — all in the same season
Mike White / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette /
Say Grace at Carlynton High School in the fall, and it means a blessing for three sports teams.
Grace Prepelka is a senior at Carlynton whose athletic story borders on surreal. It’s been said and documented how three-sport athletes have been dwindling for the past few decades in high school sports.
Oh sure, three-sport athletes still exist. But there are three-sport athletes, and then there is Prepelka. Grace Prepelka is once … twice … three times an athlete — all in one season.
Prepelka played three sports in the fall — for all four years of her Carlynton career — and she participated in sports that require endurance and plenty of running. She played soccer, tennis and cross country.
While playing three sports in one season is extremely unusual in high school sports — especially the three of soccer, tennis and cross country — what adds to Prepelka’s legacy is that this fall was full of success. And on top of all that, she’s also a straight-A student.
Someone please pinch the 17-year-old Prepelka to make sure she’s for real.
“It’s a lot to play one sport during a season and keep everything in perspective and keep your grades up,” said Nate Milsom, Carlynton’s athletic director and also tennis coach. “To do all three, and excel at all three, takes a pretty special athlete — and person.”
Prepelka, who stands 5-feet-4, had some rough seasons during her career at Carlynton. For example, only two years ago, Carlynton had only eight girls on the soccer team but still played all their games. This year, though, has been a different story for Prepelka, who lives in Rosslyn Farms, part of the Carlynton School District.
• In tennis, Prepelka finished third in her section singles tournament, which qualified her for the WPIAL championships. Prepelka lost in the first round, but qualifying for the championships was still an accomplishment.
• In soccer, Prepelka played midfielder and was selected to the all-section team. After Carlynton went 4-43-3 in the three previous seasons, Prepelka helped the Cougars to a 14-5 record this year and a WPIAL Class 1A playoff spot.
• In cross country, Prepelka finished 39th out of 135 runners at the WPIAL Class 1A championship meet and helped Carlynton to a third-place finish in the team standings. Then, at the PIAA championships last Saturday in Hershey, Prepelka helped Carlynton finish fifth in the state.
The unusualness of playing three sports in one season isn’t lost on anyone. Jaws often drop when someone hears of Prepelka’s three-sport odyssey.
“When I talk to people or friends at other schools,” Prepelka said, “and I tell them I play three sports, they just say, ‘What?’ At bigger schools, it would be a lot harder to play all these sports and be able to do the practices. At my smaller school, it’s easier. I think the coaches here are more understanding of letting me juggle all three sports.”
Two obvious questions for Prepelka: what is her why — and how does she do this? She is the youngest of Nathan and Lauren Prepelka’s four children.
“I’ve gotten used to playing three over the years, and it’s gotten easier each year,” said Prepelka, who is on Carlynton’s bowling team in the winter and track team in the spring. “I’d say why I do it is because each team has, like, really different stuff to focus on. In soccer, you’re super focused on the team, playing together and growing relationships with each other. Tennis can be still a team sport, but it’s more of an individual sport. I got into cross country just because it would help all the other sports I play.”
Another obvious question: how does Prepelka have enough time to practice all three sports? Well, she rarely practiced with the cross country team. She would run a little on her own but was in good shape because of the running in soccer.
A typical day for Prepelka was finishing school at 2:10 and going right to the tennis courts near her home for practice. She would finish tennis practice and go right to soccer practice around 4:15. She would get home around 6, shower, eat dinner and then start on homework.
She never missed a tennis match or soccer game, and she said there were a few days this fall when she practiced all three sports or had practice in two and a competition in one.
How in the name of tired legs does her body hold up?
“My legs definitely get a little sore sometimes, especially that first week of preseason practices [in August],” Prepelka said with a laugh.
During that one week, Prepelka had a conditioning practice for soccer the first thing in the morning. She then went to tennis practice, followed by cross country practice. Then, in the evening, it was another soccer practice.
“I definitely got run down sometimes, especially after a hard loss,” Prepelka said. “I feel like if I would’ve focused on just one of these sports, I would be better at it. But overall, it’s just important in high school to add whatever you can to each sport and the team. This year was easier because of how well all the teams were doing.”
But sometimes, there was an idea of saving Grace.
“I was worried about her legs because those tennis matches can be long, and she plays the type of tennis where she tries to get to every ball,” Milsom said. “Sometimes her mom would take her right from tennis to soccer, but she never missed any games, which is absolutely insane.”
Ask Prepelka for her favorite sport and she has trouble answering.
“I don’t like that question,” Prepelka said. “I grew up playing soccer because of my family and brothers, but I think I like tennis the best.”
Prepelka is an avid reader of nonfiction books and crochets as a hobby. She said she wants to focus on academics in college but wouldn’t mind playing a sport, possibly at the small college level or maybe on a club team if she goes to a bigger school.
She isn’t among the best individuals in the WPIAL in any of her sports, but she still is a supreme athlete who has left behind quite the legacy at Carlynton.
Milsom said, “What she does in a three-month span is almost like a high school career for some.”