CLASS OF 2021

Featuring Tamryn Betts

Remarkable! Resilient! Revolutionary!

My name is Tamryn Betts, I am 18 years old, and I attend Burbank High School.

What activities did you participate in during high school?
I participated in choir, dance, and Key Club but I really focused on sports.  I started volleyball my sophomore year on the junior varsity team. It was my first year of playing and by junior year I had already made varsity. During my junior year, I became the opposite starter and in one game against Crescenta Valley, I got the most kills between both teams.

I started track my freshman year and excelled in high jump. I ended up being the CIF champion for high jump that first year. Although I won, I did not continue high jump for the next three years. I moved on to running the 4x400 relay and 4x100 relay and other events like the 100, 200, or 400. Our relay team was able to go far my sophomore year and we competed at some of the biggest invitational meets. In my last track season, I hope to do the same and continue to compete until we’ve given all we can give. Overall, track and volleyball have both been great things for me with very different achievements.


How was doing a team sport different from doing an individual sport?

Team sports and individual sports are both fun in their own ways. Throughout my 
life, I have done a mix of sports ranging from softball, gymnastics, cheer, track, and volleyball. With individual sports you can only rely on yourself, so in a sense it is easier and your accomplishments are solely based on you. This creates pressure in order to do better for yourself. Keeping a strong mental focus and pushing myself to always do better lead to my running relays at huge invitational meets my sophomore year and continuing to try harder all the way through the rest of my high school career. Along with doing track my sophomore year, I decided to branch out and try volleyball. As much fun as it is, it was definitely an adjustment, especially with pressure. Working as a team on the court can be both exciting and stressful. This means you must depend on your teammates to give their all, do their job, and vice versa. Of course everyone has their own talents, but in a team sport you cannot only think about yourself, you must understand that it is an effort from everyone and all involved are important. While on the court, there are things to consider, but it is also the same off the court. My sophomore year I was on JV and I ended up being benched for half the season. This can be tough mentally and make it harder to be cheerful through every game. Working as a team goes from both the court to the bench.  Your teammates are depending on you to support them on and off the court. This means not feeling sorry for yourself, but instead being happy for those who are playing on your team. Being able to develop this mentality allowed me to get better and make it to varsity my junior year with only one year of volleyball experience. Overall, each sport requires a strong mentality, one being for the sake of yourself and another for the sake of your team.


Why did you expand to a team sport beyond doing an individual sport?
Going out for a team sport was based on a lot of things. My main push was from my mother, who has a great love for volleyball. She began as a freshman on varsity and continued to play recreational leagues and still does to this day. A lot of my friends joined volleyball freshman year, but it was not on my mind because I had never played in my life. I became interested when I would go support my friends at their games. At first I was too nervous to try out and almost backed out but my mom pushed me to do it because she believed I would enjoy it, and she was right. Beyond playing volleyball for Burbank High, I also played club volleyball at SG Elite for two years. It was a lot of fun and a great experience being on a team considering I only thought I would do track in high school. I developed a love for volleyball and hopefully will continue to play for fun in my future years as an adult.


Do you think athletics impacts mental health, and if so, how?
Like everything else, athletics impacts mental health in numerous ways.  It is all just about how you choose to look at things. If you look at everything with a pessimistic view, everything will be dreadful and your mental health will falter. Maintaining a strong optimistic view will help keep your mental health on a better path. I myself am not perfect though, I have my moments but I realize now that when I stay hopeful and trust in myself, I can achieve what I want and keep a better mentality overall. It is easy to get down on yourself and compare yourself to others in your sports and this can really take a toll on you but it will never help you be better. Specifically for me, what causes my mental health to get bad are my injuries. I suffer from chronic tendinitis in both knees as well as many other injuries I have had over the years, and this can be really discouraging. It has almost caused me to give up and put me in a bad place mentally, but I chose to push because I am doing what I love. Honestly, sports can improve your mental health.  It is freeing and a time for you to let go of your stresses. My advice to anyone is to remember that it is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, don't let the little, fixable things ruin it for you.


What is the most important thing you’ve learned during the pivotal, history-making pandemic?
The most important thing I have learned throughout the pandemic is to really make the best of what you have. Life drastically changed for everyone, it definitely was, and still is, an adjustment. Missing out on my last year of high school was not ideal but I chose to not look at the negative side of it. Instead I decided to make new memories and have fun while following the new way of life. This year was great due to the fact that I stayed positive. It is easy to get upset about the way things are but you’ll end up missing what things could be. Different is not necessarily always a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, as a high school student I did not have any major problems, like people losing jobs and struggling with money, but for my situation I had to learn to have fun with the change.


What advice do you have for younger students?
My advice for younger students is to really cherish the years you have in high school. 
Four years may sound very long but it flies by and before you know it, you’ll be moving on to the next chapter of your life. High school is all about experience and really finding out who you are as a person. A lot will change, you’ll lose friends and gain new ones, your interests will shift, and you’ll learn a range of things. It is good to get involved in school, whether it’s sports, clubs, arts, or all of the above. Try new things, you never know what may become a passion for you. Go through high school knowing that you’ll look back and cherish the memories you made. Schoolwork may be tough and it can be stressful but stay on top of it and do all that you can do. These years are important, make them fun and memorable!


Do you think athletics influenced what you intend to study in college?
Without a doubt, yes! A lot of people tend to look at sports as a physical achievement or struggle. While yes, this is true, it is so much more and over the past few years, I have learned just that. To me, mentality is a huge part of sports and in my opinion actually bigger than the physical aspect. For both individual and team sports, you must be strong mentally, and have a lot of trust in yourself. This is important because if you tell yourself you can’t do something, most likely you won’t. You need mental strength for the physical ability to follow. Learning that it is really all a mind game and understanding how to not get in my head or shut down, has opened up a great interest in me for psychology. The mind has become so interesting to me and I’m fascinated at how powerful it really is. Every mind is different and processes in its own way and it is truly beautiful. Sports opened my eyes to the intricate ways of the mind and I would love to continue to study and learn as much as I can throughout my college experience. Without sports, I am not sure I would have found my true calling so early in life.


What are your plans after graduation?
Next year, I will be attending  Cal State Dominguez Hills. I intend to study psychology as my major, though I am not closed off to finding new interests throughout my college experience. Sports have always been a part of my life, but I am not going to college for sports. I may try to walk on some teams, possibly for volleyball or track but that is yet to be determined. If this does not happen, I will still continue to play recreational or club teams throughout college and so on. My goal is to get the best experience possible and really grow as a person in my new chapter of life. 


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