Being a two-sport athlete is a very common thing at Chelsea. Being a varsity athlete in both of your two sports as a sophomore is not common. Hunter Burk (’26) is a varsity athlete in both of his sports as a sophomore. He competes at the varsity level in both football and wrestling.

“It is pretty hard to be committed to both sports at the same time, and it’s hard to have time for fun things with both going on and all of my school work to go along with it,” Burk said.

The nature of his two sports contrasts with each other quite a bit, making it hard to train for both seasons. For wrestling, it’s all about maintaining weight and cutting to stay in your weight class, while in football, Burk plays running back, where he is constantly getting pressured to gain weight.

“It doesn’t really affect me mentally because I know what I want to do,” Burk said. “I can’t gain 20 or 30 pounds like everyone wants me to, so I just try to ignore it mostly.”

It is not uncommon for athletes here at CHS to be advised to lose or gain weight for their respective sports. Burk does not have any interest in following this advice due to his unique position as a multi-sport athlete.

“I got up to 170 for football, then I’d be wrestling guys that are around 190, and that would definitely change my way and skill during wrestling, and my technique would need to change as wrestling from light to heavy changes a lot.” Burk said.

When it’s all said and done for him in a few years, he will be one of the better wrestlers to come through Chelsea.