Dan Guttenplan
Newburyport High alumnus Gretchen Adams should be used as an example to high school and college students struggling with the annual spell of "senioritis."
The 22-year-old graduated from Fitchburg State College last weekend. The commencement ceremony may have been the first time she sat down in months.
Adams hardly cruised through her senior year, balancing a full course load with two sports and a part-time job. She finished with a 3.04 GPA, which is impressive considering some days allowed only a few minutes of studying time.
Adams, who understates that she "likes to stay active," trained with two teams this spring — practicing five afternoons a week with the Fitchburg State track and field team, and four nights a week with the school's dance team. When she wasn't training, she worked at the school's recreation center.
"It was busy," Adams said. "Just a really busy senior year. But I've always been really active. I like to meet people and get involved in new things."
Adams, no doubt, achieved that goal with a schedule that had her away from her apartment for 16 hours a day. She also collected major accolades in track and field. This spring, she won Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference titles in two events — the javelin and hammer throw. This, after she took a year off from the sport as a junior so she could tryout for the dance team.
"I had to learn four different dances to make that team," Adams said. "So I didn't know about doing both my first year. But this spring was awesome. I got better and better every meet. When I won, it was something I wasn't expecting."
The routine of bouncing from activity to activity started for Adams in high school, when she balanced three sports (field hockey, basketball, track) with school and a part-time job. She excelled in track as a senior, placing second in the Cape Ann League in the shot put.
Adams started her college experience at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After discovering she could not be all places at once on the large campus, she transferred to Fitchburg State.
"UMass Amherst was really big," Adams said. "I wanted smaller classes. Fitchburg's a lot more personable. The teachers knew my name. It's a smaller community, whereas UMass was overwhelming coming from Newburyport."
Fitchburg State has roughly 3,000 undergraduate students to UMass Amherst's 20,000. Still, Adams made Fitchburg even smaller by jumping into any activity she could find.
"I didn't know she danced in college, but I'm not surprised," Newburyport track coach Tim Foley said yesterday. "It's a credit to her. She's always balanced working with whatever sports she's playing. And she always gave 100 percent to athletics and academics."
The next step for Adams is a move to South Carolina next Tuesday to pursue a marketing or advertising internship. She doesn't have a position lined up at the moment, but that won't stop the business administration graduate from relocating.
"I'm not sure exactly what I want to do," Adams said. "I've applied to a few firms. Advertising is supposed to be big down there. Who knows what will happen?"
Adams may find an internship in a week. It may take a month. But one thing is certain to happen for Adams in the near future: She will find ways to occupy her time.
Dan Guttenplan is the sports editor of The Daily News. E-mail her at dguttenplan@newburyportnews.com.
The Adams File
Name: Gretchen Adams
Age: 22
Hometown: Newburyport
School: Fitchburg State College
Sport: Track and field
Other activities: Dance, part-time job at recreation center
Accolades: Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference champion in the javelin (106-9) and hammer throw (122-2)
