The Journal

Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jamie Ford Dana Vahey, a junior mathematics major, is a triple-sport athlete. Vahey divides her time between soccer, basketball and is the catcher for the WU softball team. She also carries a full course load.

For any student athlete, finding a balance between sports and school is no easy task. With homework, studying for tests, practice, games and staying in shape, students must often make sacrifices in their struggle to remain competitive both in the classroom and on the playing field.

For Webster University junior Dana Vahey, that struggle extends beyond a single sport's season, encompassing the entire school year. That's because Vahey doesn't limit herself to just one sport - she plays three.

Not only is Vahey a key member of the women's soccer team, but she is also a force on the basketball court and the softball field.

"It can be kind of hard sometimes," Vahey said. "There are a lot of late nights, and I don't really have a lot of free time. What time I do have I spend with friends and family, mostly."

As the soccer team's postseason is heating up, and the basketball season starting in just a few weeks, that time is diminishing more and more.

"There is a lot of overlapping, but my coaches are really understanding. They have been amazing so far, and that makes it a bit easier," Vahey said.

More than understanding, Vahey's coaches have come to value her commitment to the sports she loves, and she has become an important part of each of her teams.

"(Vahey) scored the biggest goal for us last year in the SLIAC championship game," women's soccer Head Coach Luigi Scire said. "Dana's goal tied the scored 2-2 late in the second half. The goal allowed us to extend the game and the team eventually won the championship 4-3 in penalty kicks. Without her tying goal, the team doesn't make the NCAA Tournament in 2006."

Her success is not limited, however, to the world of sports. Vahey is a math major at WU, and carries a high grade point average. A North St. Louis County native, she graduated from Hazelwood West High School, where she not only played soccer, basketball and softball, but also ran cross country. She aspires to be a teacher and a coach when she graduates college. Her parents are supportive of her, and have developed ways of keeping her on-track scholastically.

"My mom made a deal with me that if I got a 3.5 GPA, I could get a dog," Vahey said. "The first semester I missed it by like .2, but last semester I nailed it, and so we got a dog. His name is Tag; he's part Cocker Spaniel and part Springer."

With the bulk of her time focused towards sports, she finds her support and inspiration at home, and in her faith.

"My family is my biggest influence," Vahey said. "By family, I also mean God. He is a huge part of my life, and when things are tough, I turn to Him to get me through."

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