Meridian’s Young balances athletics year round

Daniel Young, Meridian High School senior wide receiver on the football team is also a forward on the basketball team, which is the sport he is considering continuing in college.

Question: What extracurricular activities do you participate in other than football?

Answer: I also play basketball and track and I help out with a little kids basketball camp. I am in leadership right now and we put on a lot of after school events and put on homecoming, things like that.

Q: How do you balance all of those things with school?

A: Usually I focus on the sport season that is going on, so I will make all my other things less important until after those events are done. ... In the summer we usually have morning practice for sports and my other extracurricular things are in the afternoon.

Q: What is some great advice a coach gave you?

A: Coaches when I was younger, I had a temper issue, they would tell me to smile and keep playing hard and that has always worked for me.

Q: Which do you prefer, football or basketball, and why?

A: Basketball because I have played it all my life and I love the game. It is a great way to improve your life skills and all that, becoming a better person. My coach is helping me with that.

Q: What has being a high school athlete taught you?

A: Probably the best thing I’ve learned is how to treat others and have good sportsmanship, to be supportive of others. When something doesn’t go right just move on.

Q: What is your dream job and why?

A: Commercial fisherman. ... My grandpa, he owns a boat and I went up to Alaska with him this summer, I had a great time, I found it was really useful with life skills. My grandpas has been doing this his whole life and he really made something of it.

Q: What was your most memorable moment in high school sports?

A: I think my most memorable moment would be sophomore year, it was my first year on varsity for basketball and we were playing Lynden Christian, it was so much fun watching the team play, how good they were, we got five points right at the end. It was the most exciting part of my high school career.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Meridian’s Young balances athletics year round."