After trying a plethora of CESJDS sports teams such as track, basketball and volleyball, freshman Lilah Sacks was left dissatisfied with her choices for athletics. Rather than continuing to try other sports that JDS offers, she decided to take the unorthodox route and create her own after school sports club: the rock climbing club.
At the beginning of the school year, Sacks reached out to Director of Athletics Becky Silberman to see if rock climbing was of interest to the student body. Silberman then sent out an interest form, where the club gained its other two members, juniors Boaz Dauber and Abby Chesman.
“[In seventh grade] I was in a class with people and I learned basic skills of rock climbing, and I would just climb for hours on end and I really enjoyed it,” Chesman said. “And then it all shut down due to COVID-19. So this year, when I found out that they were trying to start a rock climbing club, I thought it would be a good chance to rekindle an old interest of mine.”
A non-competitive practice team, the rock climbing club meets Mondays and Wednesdays at Movement, located in Rockville. It is around a 10-minute drive from the Upper School campus.
The club also does not have a coach or advisor, which makes Sacks’ role as the clubs president crucial to the functioning of the club. She has to perform logistical tasks to ensure the club can meet, such as communicating with the members of the club and Movement. However, Sacks said her love for rock climbing makes it worth it.
“I love rock climbing because when I climb, I get a kind of rush that I don’t get from other sports or other activities, and it’s just more fun to me than other sports,” Sacks said. “I don’t think it’s that hard of a sport to learn how to do… it’s pretty simple and it’s really fun to do, and to learn how to do. You’ll also get a lot stronger.”
At times, having only three people in the club creates unique challenges because there needs to be two or more people at Movement for anyone to climb as one person has to belay the other. Although it can be a struggle, members have found that the size of the club has allowed them to build a tight-knit friendships. While members appreciate the friendship they found in the club, it also serves other purposes for them. For Dauber, the club has allowed him to remain in shape in the off-season of his main sport, volleyball, which was partially what sparked his interest in joining the club.
“I’m using [rock climbing] as preseason training because it’s a way for me to get stronger and prepare for the volleyball season,” Dauber said. “I think of it as a way just to get stronger in general before I focus on volleyball.”
For Chesman, who was having difficulty earning her sports credits, this club has served as a way for her to receive the 50 required hours she needs to get her out-of-school credit. The flexibility and lack of demand of the schedule helps her balance her many extracurriculars.
The club is expected to run until the middle of March. Sacks is trying to continue it as a spring sport option and the team hopes that it will be offered next year.
“I really want to grow the club,” Sacks said. “It’s hopefully going to stay as a winter sport. But I think it would be awesome if we could get more people to do it. I think a lot of people feel the same way as I did and didn’t feel like they had a place in the sports at JDS but there are other options, and I’d be really excited if more people wanted to join.”
