By: Derek Byrne

Junior Jacob Sullivan, who is a returning basketball letterman and plays Link Larkin in the upcoming production of ‘Hairspray,’ faced a schedule conflict between basketball conditioning and musical rehearsal. Sullivan explained his method to handling the dilemma and making both activities work for him.

NorthmenNews: What went into your decision to try out for the show even though you knew of the conflict it would create?

Jacob Sullivan: I had to talk to Coach [Fred] Turner first and told him that I would miss a lot of conditioning, but he was really understanding. I looked at the musical schedule and compared it to the basketball schedule to see what I would miss. I got lucky that I could be there for the week of tryouts.

NN: How did your basketball coach react?

JS: He was really understanding about it. He told me that if I wasn’t going to be there for conditioning I’d have to take in into my own hands and do running and shooting and ball handling on my own.

NN: What are you missing at conditioning?

JS: They have conditioning Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week. This is the last week of conditioning and tryouts begin the week after. Every day for practice we do ball handling skills, jump rope, shooting skills. For conditioning he goes over the running we do and all the drills we do for practice each day.

NN: How are you making up for the missed conditioning?

JS: I run at night when I get home, and I go out in my back yard and shoot around and do the drills that I’m missing.

NN: How are you planning to manage the week of tryouts?

JS: The week of tryouts—that’s the week that musical is 6 to 9 in the evening, so I’ll be able to go to basketball right after school till 5:30 or 6, take a shower, and then hop on over to musical right after that.

NN: What do your teammates think of your missed conditioning?

JS: They trust that I’m doing everything on my own, I’m not just skipping out and I have a reason for it. The fact that I cleared it with my coach is the big factor that tells them I’m not missing it for no reason and it’s actually for a cause.

NN: Do you think you will be behind when the season begins?

JS: Honestly, no I don’t. I’ll already know most of the things that we’ll do when tryouts and practices start. I might be a little bit behind as far as plays. With the varsity team he’s reviewed some of the plays at conditioning, but otherwise no, I do not believe so.

NN: How stressful has balancing a show and a sport been?

JS: So far, it hasn’t been too awful bad. But the next couple of weeks, at least until musical is over, will be pretty stressful. I’ll be up at school till 9 o’ clock at night.

NN: Has the extra work been worth it?

JS: After seeing the musical my freshman and sophomore year, I really wanted to do it. So I took the initiative to make sure it was okay with my basketball coach and I decided to go for it. In the end it will be worth it.