Soccer, track, lacrosse. Repeat.
This is the rotation for junior Cora Betten who recently committed D1 to Vanderbilt University for lacrosse.
The offer didn’t come without extensive dedication and miles driven from her parents, who she dedicates a lot of credit to. “My parents are super supportive, and very kind for driving me everywhere. I have my license now but when I didn’t, we would drive to Virginia every weekend for lacrosse, I was genuinely in New Jersey every weekend in the summer last year,” but the extensive traveling was crucial for recruitment.
Lacrosse has a strict process for recruitment, “We have a very designated recruiting period which is the summer of sophomore year. They come and watch games, a bunch of college coaches are there- you also have to go to the camps they host, which could be an 8-hour camp for the day. If you don’t do well, there’s no interest.”
Vanderbilt sparked interest in her game immediately, contacting her on September 1st- the first day college coaches can contact you.
Her extensive sports career started at only 3 years old with soccer, she went on to play for 13 more years, basketball was from kindergarten till 8th grade, lacrosse was taken on in second grade, and track was taken up sophomore year in which she became the 6th 500-meter run champion in Urbana history.
Managing all of these sports along with a social life and school life is a task in itself.
“It doesn’t go well. I go seasonally, if I’m in soccer season, I’m only in soccer season and this applies to my other sports too. For school, I designate that when I’m in school, it’s ONLY schoolwork. When I’m out of school, it’s just sports. I’m only home for around 2 hours of the day and that’s like my showering and eating time. I aim to be asleep by 10-11.” With all of this, she manages a weighted GPA of 4.72 and still has time to volunteer at her dad’s school which is insanely impressive.
But a fast-paced environment is what attracts Cora, “Lacrosse is faster than other sports, soccer was slower and you could see the whole field, but in lacrosse, you hyperfocus on specific things,” which she admires as she plays both club and UHS lacrosse.
One mentor she will never forget is her club lacrosse coach, Coach Kat. “She was my first supporter, she was my first “Cora you got this!” supporter,” which will always stick with her throughout the future.
As for the future, Cora is currently working on her goal of 40 books read this year, she’s gotten 6 down so far. Then after high school, she plans to get a bachelor’s and master’s in International relations, “I wanna work for the government and maybe do analysis or intelligence,” which seems the utmost achievable for a student like her.
