The multisport athlete isn’t uncommon, but seeing one compete at a high level in all sports is an accomplishment.

Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Tatum Graves has the opportunity to play basketball and volleyball at Emporia State University next season.

She was first approached by ESU basketball assistant Brian McIntosh, who used to coach at SMNW. She joined the Asics Mavs volleyball team and sent tape out to schools, including Emporia State.

Graves was playing in a tournament at Bartle Hall in Kansas City, Mo., which ESU attended, and built a relationship with coach Bing Xu. Earlier this summer she attended a basketball camp and was offered the dual scholarship.

I thought I’d be able to narrow it down and say I want to do whatever sport, but I really couldn’t decide. When this opportunity came along, I said, ‘What the heck, why not do it?'”

Graves went back and forth trying to decide, which sport she wanted to play. She would wake up one day wanting to play basketball and wake up the next wanting to play volleyball.

“I view both of my sports as No. 1s,” Graves said.

She’s not alone as her peers, which include Mill Valley’s Logan Koch, Tonganoxie’s Tyler Novotney and Bonner Springs’ Connor Byers and Julianne Jackson, who are all juniors, are multisport athletes and have a difficult time choosing which sport is their favorite.

Since her freshman year, Jackson has played at the varsity level for volleyball, basketball, soccer and track. When she leaves Bonner Springs High she will have earned 16 varsity letters.

Spring is her busiest time because she is playing soccer and running track for BSHS, but is also playing club volleyball.

“It’s hard with priorities and for each coach to understand what goes where,” Jackson said.

She said it gets tiring, but doesn’t want to tell anybody. She said there is one time each year where she is fatigued, mostly mentally.

It’s because she’ll go from class to practice and then she’ll state up late to make sure her academics are in order. She makes sure she’s in bed by 11 p.m.

Jackson said volleyball is her favorite, but said she has a passion for everything else and couldn’t give them up.

“Throughout the rest of the school year I realized I enjoy my other practices, but I love and am always excited to go to volleyball practice,” Jackson said. I’m never checking the time to know when I was going to go home.

“It’s hard for me understand how people can go from giving up and playing one sport, which would be awesome because you can be really great at that sport, but it’s so much more fun to have different things.”

Jackson has earned All-Kaw Valley League honors in volleyball, basketball and soccer.

While Koch is a two-sport athlete playing football and basketball, he was also a standout baseball player, but AAU basketball in the summer got in the way.

“I might go out senior year because summer basketball will be over,” Koch said.

Right now if he had to pick one he said football is his favorite, but that’s because the season ended. If he was asked that question in March, he might say basketball is his favorite.

“When I get back on the floor, it will probably be basketball,” Koch said, who is out for six to eight weeks with a knee injury.

To balance everything, Koch’s father makes schedules. He said sports manage his academics.

He knows that poor grades means less time playing and more time studying.

Novotney is a 4.0 student and is a member of the National Honor Society.

He plays soccer, basketball and baseball for THS, and also plays them in the summer, including three baseball teams — THS, a college showcase team and a summer traveling team.

He said baseball is his favorite since he plays on three different teams, but tries to balance out his time for each sport.

He’s busy at least five days a week. Besides Sundays, he’s lucky to get a night off that doesn’t have games.

“At the beginning, it took a lot of time,” Novotney said. “As soon as I’d leave a practice at the high school, I’d go to another one out of town and start working with them. They like the chemistry and bonding just like the high school teams do.”

For Byers, he ranks his sports like Koch: Football, basketball then baseball.

The two love playing sports. Koch said life is boring when he’s not playing a sport, while Byers said he likes playing with his friends and staying in shape.

The two earned all-KVL honors for football, and Koch has earned honors in basketball.

Byers said June is his busiest month.

Like Novotney, Byers is a 4.0 student and takes his studies seriously. When he was younger, he had to do his homework before he could do anything else.

“Those come before sports in my household,” Byers said. “I try to get my homework done at school so I can have time at home to be with my family.”