hello everyone welcome to community conversations i'm your host roger colt and since we began community conversations last fall our show is welcomed in the number of community leaders we've talked to belmont's police chief richard mclaughlin we've talked to the town administrator the then town administrator david kaye out we've talked to both of the principals of the high school in the middle school this week however we're going to feed focusing on our students at belmont high school we have three shows teed up for you one on half weather ix one on academics and one on community service today i'm delighted to welcome two of belmont high school's finest athletes the brother sister team of cal and carly krista for cal is a senior and was the starting quarterback for belmont high school last fall on our football team in addition to playing basketball and baseball but carly was just a few weeks ago named the all star point guard for the middlesex lee for our basketball so cal carly welcome to community conversations and thanks for taking some time to talk with us today no problems for having us cal and carly i'm not going to you direct this to either one of you in particular but we're filming this during school break week and there are students who are traveling with their families there are students who simply get their week off but cal you had a baseball game this  this morning and carly you leave tomorrow to go play in the tournaments a basketball tournament in north carolina yes can i can you give us a notion of what type of commitment it takes to it's something we love to do so i mean you know it's definite big commitment but you know if you know we're out there and you know we were playing it you know it's pretty easy to motivate ourselves through you know get out there and spend time with our friends and you know compete know on an everyday basis so i mean it's definitely enjoyable it's a commitment but it's enjoyable at the same time yeah i agree it is a big commitment especially to have to leave during break i get to hang out my friends of a break a lot but i'm excited to go north carolina i really enjoy playing and just get to experience that exciting and let me talk about basketball more than football or baseball even though i understand that baseball is is your true love for your sport caffe when do you start thinking about  basketball at school i mean is it from the moment you get there or are from eight thirty two to thirty year typical student and then you turn on the sports  after school well i think it definitely depends on the day you know some days more than others you know we have tests or some like that it will go on schools here kind of more focused on the school side of things and some days you know i might have a big game you know you're you know looking forward to practice or something and you kind of unease it is cool and then you might turn more of your attention you know to your sport and i think you know one school and you know you definitely you know turn all your attention to your sport you know it's nice to have to get out of school you know be relieved of all the stress there and kind of take a break and enjoy whatever you're doing after school yeah i agree with the big gain it's hard to focus during school but you need to keep focus well i do want to come back to that notion of the big game but to give our viewers a notion of what cal and carly have meant to belmont high school and to really to the community of belmont at large our staff here at the belmont media center here has put together a brief montage of our two guests in action and i have to tell you that you haven't seen that spirit of your you know recognize some of these plays if i can we take a look at i do when they ask you about a couple of games in particular and currently i want to start with you first because the last game that the girls played this year was a heartbreak do you believe that there was a time out call i think there's the five second called the end i think it was very close call and it was controversial controversial between the refs but you know sometimes it just doesn't go your way and we had to think of other things to do controversy oh call it the end of the game and they were and you lost by one point my my question to you is do you do well and do you do well in the close loss over the close tournaments loss or can you shake it off and simply go back to school the next day i mean it's definitely something to remember i mean being upset i was upset for like the rest of the week i was with the rest of the team member i was kind of in shock that you know we couldn't pull out the win like we wanted to but you have to kind of like go of it and move on or else you know you can't come back and you have to you have to keep your head clear of all the bad things that happened because you need to move on and focus on like the next game and with our  the belmont high football team while i'm with a field goal not simply in the last minute but on the last play of the game and then how long does that carry you are on a high or do you and so we'll enjoy you know watching film on saturday you know w and then sunday you know we have the day off and you can kind of reflect on you know the happiness of again then when we get back on monday how much kind of the next week you know we're looking to our next opponent and you kind of got to f et what happened that friday and kind of you know put your focus on you know your your point and just the one coming out it does a close loss or close when affect your school work at all not necessarily i mean it's something to be excited about or upset about but school's very important and you can't take a lapse in not focusing on school do you find that you have personal rivalries and and  you in basketball well let's start with you in basketball my impression is that it's more important to the girls to be watertown then it is to the boys and that may or may not be correct feel free to correct me i think that i know it's important for us we like to be watertown always we lost when i was a freshman we lost in the semifinals to watertown which longest out of the tournament so we've always wanted to beat them and this year was the first year we actually did so it was exciting you the boys have or do you even personally have somebody there perhaps you've played with since you were a kid that you would really like to win against them i think i opponent you know going to feel good about it you know those kids on the t v are probably no other kids you know you play you know each team twice a year if you play multiple sports then you know you're seeing the same kids so they whenever you can whenever you can see them every can be the middle sexually team whatever reason i'm in a bad mood yeah i just don't want to go to work or if when i do go to work i don't particularly want to work very hard and i assume that you have bad days know i mean sometimes you go to bed really you wake up and you're not really in a good mood to go to school or focus on i work and everything but you know that like in the long run you have to and if you let something get to your head then you just it's not going to help you out later in the day so trying to just like clear everything from your head in the morning and just move on with the day helps a lot for me it's like when every have to wake up at you know six forty five for school in the morning you come to like i said you know go through this again but i mean once you get up and you're moving and maybe go to dunkin donuts to get a coffee or i mean you know you just can't don't take you for granted and you know enjoy the time that you have you know in your four years in high school i guess is you know it's a once in a lifetime thing so to make the most of it you talked about stresses early on however i would think that  being the belmont high student is stressful unto itself because setting the sports aside there are high expectations of high school students and then being an athlete adds another level of stress and then being considered a star athlete if i can label you my it's not me your star athlete right as yet another level of stress is there anything in particular you need to do just to deal with the stress of the expectations well i think you know every kid first of all it's to do with you know high expectations you know of their schoolwork and stuff so you know it's a big stressor for a lot of kids and then you know a lot of kids after school whether it's you know an instrument or put you know everyone kind of has their own little passion that they will care a lot about so i mean you know for us it just so happens to you know sports that we care a lot about and enjoy and so  you know any person who you know pursues a passion wants to be successful in it in the you know has that titian for themselves so i mean i think it is you know everyone has their own stressors but for us it's kind of just you know you know it's going to be worth it in the end to get through it kind of don't lose sight of you know where you're going or why you're doing it and stuff like that because it's easy to get caught up in you know the every day you know cycle and kind of just like a mid season or something you know you're you're getting tired and stuff like that but i mean if you just you know don't lose sight of why are doing it or you know who you're doing it with and you can you can get through it let me see if i can spit because i think you said something that's really important for someone like me to hear and that is  which to be honest i just hadn't thought of and that is that there are a lot of high school students that have stresses you know whether it the people who are putting on the play you know athlete doesn't pose or impose more stress than being any other student you agree with that you know if you're sitting there not here and i agree yeah i mean just to add to that it's like you know everyone of is doing their own thing and the way all those things you just named are a way to know get rid of the stress that you kind of deal with on a daily basis you know whether you're an art student or you you know you play in the band or you do a push or you push forward it's all kind of just to you know do something you love and you get a release from you know schoolwork or any other issues into a course and obviously all those things come with that come with their own you know sets of you know stressors and stuff like that you know you want to be successful in them but i think it's it's a good type of stress to kind of push yourself to you know be good in something outside of just like you know your schoolwork carli i want to come back to you for math we live in boston so we've all heard of tom brady and as ice cream right you know is there anything that is just that you feel you can't do you or you can't eat when when you're in  season i mean i remember my freshman year when i had a big bowl of ice cream before the day before a game and the next day and play well so ever since then i'm just saying i steered clear of ice cream and for a game and i know that during the season i usually wear the same pair of socks for every game until we wus and then i changed to another pair of socks so that's something i do and you both run or do either of you run occasionally but it's not do you train out of season when i played basketball in high school the entire basketball team ran cross country and we didn't run cross country because we live cross country we ran cross country think it should be ready for basketball season there are things you do you out of season yeah definitely like in the spring i play you basketball and i have a different coach and a bunch of new teammates and it's really exciting to do that and there's like a bunch of new people we've got to push even like help you and teaching you things about the game so that when the next season comes around you have a whole new set of things you can  o i think for me you know you definitely want to try to do a lot of good work out and run and you know stay conditioned and that's a big factor in the you know being successful in high school sports but also just like you know a lot of kids play multiple sports and i think you know you know the transition from one sport to the next you know can help you know you have multiple skill sets and you stay in shape from the season before and stuff like that so i think just you know consciously being active in making sure you're doing something whether it's a sport or work know you know you can help you to be successful i'd like to ask you a personal question and feel free to decline to answer but do you if you would agree with me one of the premises here you would agree with me that you've reached risen to the level of somewhat of a sly brady status i mean you're the starting quarterback you're at the all star point guard notice whether what you're doing or what you're saying you understand that yeah yeah definitely you know you know we play a lot of sports i guess what you know i know me and my sister we you know we're both like the younger kids and stuff like that so i mean i guess  we're visible figures but you know there's a lot of you know kids that are you know excel at a lot except on high too and you know they're you know they're just as visible figures and they're out in a boat doing the same things as us so i think you know for most for most of my friends who are athletes and for most of my teammates you know you know for anyone who follows the source of the bone you know all of us are kind of visible and all of us are kind of you know people you know see us and say oh like that kid plays on the soccer team like a plays on the hockey course ok so yeah i think definitely i mean for that for those people that follow it you know you know they'll know who you are and stuff and and things like that so you do you feel the eyes on you do you feel people noticing who you are and what you do is there i guess the question behind the question is is there pressure to be a role model i mean i definitely want to be a role model for younger kids i don't feel like people are like looking at me any differently but i just know that like when i go to the past well clinics and i help out younger kids i definitely would be someone that they look up to and that they would like want to try to do the same thing or try to like play a school basketball or something like that or you too competitive board games or card games we more compete for you know who gets what t v and who gets to go on the base and what their friends are over so you can play in our own ways moving  probably baseball is probably my best for it but it was definitely tough you know i've always put you know a lot of my whole life so it was kind of you know football and baseball probably you know to my favorites and then you know i love you know the hockey club aswell too but you know it kind of i was focused on football and baseball and you know it's tough you know i was actually i thought about you know maybe trying to pursue you know football or something like that but you know when it comes down to it i kind of looking at schools earlier this week right i think if we made it ok was basketball a consideration or the opportunity to play basketball or the opportunity to continue i mean being able to play basketball in college always been a dream of mine and seeing that cal gets to play baseball in college definitely makes me want to continue to play basketball so hopefully i'll be able to do that but yeah and you'll see where you like and  conversely who likes you yeah exactly how would you have been different if you hadn't played sports i think sports teaches you a lot about hard work and determination and doing what you love so if i don't if i didn't play basketball i think i wouldn't be able to learn those like life lessons have you played basketball you started in b y b a and yet made up through us through the grades yeah it's definitely been a long ride so far but i really enjoy it so it's something that i want to keep doing   would you tell me what would you help the kids i would just say to work hard at everything you do because in the long run there will be so much out of it that you can benefit from and it's just really enjoyable in the same time for  me it's definitely kind of just find you know what you love to do and pursue with a passion and try to take advantage of your four years of high school you can open you know a lot of doors for yourself and you know you can make a lot of new friends and you know whether you're in a player in the band or on a sports team just you know make an effort to create relationships with those around you and and kind of you know where your heart is because four years ago and you know want to have any regrets because you know a lot of kids can accomplish some pretty cool things what did they ask you about your teams and the do the teams have a special the members of the team have a special place i don't know if in your heart but in your in your lives do you play together do you outside of sports that is yeah definitely with my basketball team and my soccer team this past fall we were all really close we had a really good team chemistry and i know that with my vassal team like every friday and  after games he would go friendlies and like get ice cream and dinner and whatever and stuff and we fund just being able to hang out with your teammates outside of sports because it creates a bond it's like a little family and that's across the grades yeah definitely it's great  you know family and that's you know that's a big thing for us as you know for paul you know to make sure we're together make sure we have each other's back you know it's a big group of kids but you know everyone comes from a different place and you know we all come together on one team and you know it kind of you know represents a family and so we put a big i was just on that you know for me all the kids i play sports with you know you're seeing them every day you know year round so you know it's you know it's hard not to you know form relationships and in friendships you know across the grid as you said  definitely but you know my best friends are the kids of play sports with from the time i was you know seven or eight years old so you know definitely is a big big thing in you know creating bonds with kids i would think that there would get to be  very deep level of trust when you play again i'm somewhat pulling on my own experience from basketball but my basketball team mates were some were folks that  knew were always there for me what about your coaches yeah sure let's start with your basketball does your basketball coach have a role in your life  outside definitely the athletics yeah coach hart's been like a great coach for me for the past three years and i look up to her as a role model as well i mean she's so dedicated to everything and she doesn't teaches me to be dedicated with things that i do as well so she's definitely helped me in ways that i can't coach is one of the one of a big part of their job as being you know not only strategic coaches but you know mentors for the kids they coach and you know teach them about life and you know teaching them about what matters and all my coaches across all the sports i've played you know fill th role they've taught me a lot they kind of have a they have a different perspective on life as you know the kids they coach too and they kind of want to all of them want to kind of give their advice and pass it down and kind of make sure kids don't make the same mistakes they did or you know have the same success she was surprised because she had never understood before and how much of a pro sports person she was she went to school in the midwest and they're all about  for our other to focus on student segments one of the segments will be on academics and we are going to be hosting members of the belmont high school team that competed in the belmont high or in the high school quiz show competition on g b h and one of those segments will be on community service and i'm going to you have the delightful opportunity to talk with two high students who to belmont high freshman who have been and involved with the school committee on the issue of the starting time for high schools  you can access the podcast on community conversations through the belmont media website by looking for the b m c podcast network  and as we finish here since we had such a good time we're going to go back again and look at another set of  situations and plays that you guys made on both the basketball court and on the football field so thank you very much for watching i'm your host roger colton's and you've been watching community conversations