By Holly D’Addio, Courier Sports
Writer:
Just about
everything in James Pash’s life is sports-related and it couldn’t suit him
better. A lifelong soccer and baseball player, James has also found success in
track as well as recreational sports he participates in when he’s not playing
for the Warriors.
This upcoming year,
he faces his greatest challenge in making the decision whether to continue
sports when he enters college in 2009 and juggling that with getting his
pre-med degree.
James has been
playing soccer for more than 11 years, beginning with the town team, followed
by travel soccer until about eighth grade.
“Once I started
playing soccer, I never wanted to stop,” says James. “I’ve just really loved
the sport since I started playing it.”
James made varsity
at Valley his sophomore year and was a solid starter his junior year in the
left marking back position. He was awarded the Most Improved Award for his efforts
last season in which the team just missed making the state tournament.
“Last year, we had
lost 12 seniors so it was hard to makeup that experience,” says James. “This
season, everyone in the starting lineup will have had the experience so I feel
we’ll be a lot better as a team this year and we’ll play a lot better.”
Following up the
fall season was a winter league started by a few of the dads of the kids on the
team.
“During the winter
and summer, some of the dads get together and get us into practice and a few
games a week in the off-season,” says James. “It’s a really great way to keep
everyone sharp and keep us in shape.”
James is currently
playing on the summer league and has high hopes for the upcoming soccer season
at Valley.
“Mick Fearon is a
great coach,” says James. “He always knows how to get everyone to play well as
a team and is always honest about how we play and how to get us to improve. He
knows what he wants to get done.”
In the winter, James
escapes to Killington in Vermont
to ski and snowboard. He is also a member of the indoor track team at Valley.
He admits he joined mainly to keep in shape in between seasons but enjoys
running the hurdles and doing the long jump.
“Track is a great
way to be with my friends and keep in shape at the same time,” says James.
In the spring, James
plays baseball, a sport he’s played even longer than soccer. Upon moving to Connecticut from Vermont
in second grade, James played tee-ball and then on the recreation department,
farm league, and majors in his youth before playing at John Winthrop
Middle School. He made
varsity his junior year as a starter in center field and was awarded the Most
Improved Award this past spring.
“We missed making
states by about one or two games,” says James. “The team we’ll have next year
will have been playing together since we were young and I think we’ll play
better as a team.”
This summer, James
held a job as a lifeguard at Cedar Lake in Chester
after getting his certification over the winter. He also enjoyed visiting
family in Long Island and surfing while out
there. James also was a member of the Valley Babe Ruth team, which had one of
the best records in the league upon ending its season in the playoffs.
During the school
year, James is a member of the Interact Club at Valley, a club that does
community service and volunteer work around the area. He will also be a member
of the National Honor Society this year.
This coming year,
James will focus on finding a college. He has already looked at Colby College
in Maine and is interested in studying pre-med.
“A few of my uncles
are doctors and it’s definitely something I’m interested in,” says James. “I
would love to go up north somewhere because I love to ski and snowboard and
their season is so much longer up there. If I was to play a sport, it’d be
soccer, but we’ll see what happens.”
Sidelines with James
Pash
What is your most
memorable sports moment?
It was during my
sophomore soccer season and we were playing at HK. Our team was in the box for
a long period of time and had shot the ball a few times and missed like four
times. Coach Larry Bright was on the sidelines and he was so mad that we had missed
so many times that he threw out his umbrella and it turned inside out, but he
continued to try to use it. We ended up winning the game eventually. That
moment was specifically funny just because Larry is normally such an easygoing
guy and now it's fun to look back at that game and joke about it with him.
Who would you like
to thank?
I'd like to thank
all my coaches, specifically my soccer coaches Mick Fearon and Larry Bright, as
well as my baseball coaches Rob Shepard and Ed Maikowski. I'd also like to
thank my teammates and my parents as well.
What are you future
goals?
This year, it would
be to make the Shoreline Tournament in soccer. In the future, I’d like to play
soccer in college, as long as I’m able to keep up with it while being in
pre-med.
Pictured: James Pash, an upcoming senior at Valley Regional
High School, has been
playing soccer for more than 11 years and has been a pivotal part of the Valley
team’s strength over the years.
Photo by Cathi Bosco