Leila Boussedra, a senior at Thomas Worthington High School,  has balanced two sports simultaneously this fall season. Boussedra juggled her time on the trail and on the turf playing both field hockey and running cross country. In previous years, Boussedra has only played field hockey but with her incredible running times she decided to run in cross country meets this season. 

 Boussedra practiced with the field hockey team every weekday and played in all the games. On weekends, she joined cross country for their races.

“It’s difficult to have field hockey practice all week then race on Saturdays. Then I only had Sunday to get stuff done”, Boussedra says.

There are very few dual-sport athletes during a single season. Sometimes there is a rare football kicker and soccer player crossover, but Boussedra’s situation is very unique as she participated in two very independent sports at once. 

As an AP student, Boussedra also has a heavy workload. “I have to use my class time wisely to get stuff done”, she says. 

Without training, Boussedra PRed an 18.27 this season for the 5k in cross country. The PR placed her as the tenth fastest girls 5k time in Thomas Worthington history. 

Boussedra says that both her coaches have been accepting and helpful in the process. She also stated that she chose not to do any post-season meets because she didn’t want to taint field hockey’s chance of winning states this year. The field hockey coach, Terri Simonetti Frost, describes Boussedra as, “a very dedicated team player”. 

As the fall season concluded, the TWHS field hockey team fell to Bishop Watterson in the state finals and ended as number two in the state. Boussedra looks forward to both indoor track and track in the upcoming seasons. In track, Boussedra runs the mile and two-mile.

Hopefully, Boussedra will have a bit more free time after her exciting fall season. “I’m pumped for track season!”,Boussedra says,