Clear, 83°
Wind: mph,
As time trained off the clock in Ryn Feemster’s final game in Severna Park colors, the reality finally started to sink in. The Falcons would win another state title, this one in girls lacrosse, but there was nothing left on the list of high school things to look forward to aside from graduation.
“When we hit states for soccer, I realized that was the end,” Feemster said. “It was sad, but I went on to the next thing. We jumped right into basketball, and we almost made it to the end. Basketball jumped into lacrosse, and then it hit me harder because I didn't have anything after that.
“When playoffs began for lacrosse, I realized this was the final thing. This was the real deal and I really wanted to make it to the end.”
Feemster and her fellow seniors could celebrate a decorated last season: state champions in soccer, state quarterfinalists in basketball, state champions in lacrosse.
And though she might not have stolen the headlines in every sport, Feemster was right at the heart of all of it. She was part of a lockdown center-back pairing for the undefeated girls soccer team; the ball was in her hands in the clutch moments for girls basketball; and she was the calm presence in the lacrosse team’s back line.
“It was such a standard to uphold, but soccer got me in the groove when we won states, and I knew we had a chance for basketball, and lacrosse as well,” she said. “It's a big role, but I think me and a couple of other girls found our groove pretty quickly.
“I think a lot of it is the versatility of playing multiple sports. You mold yourself around the players around you. The team doesn't just revolve around one person; it's many people doing many things. We had many different leading scorers — I wanted to mold myself around them, to help them to have the ability to score as much as they do. It's just a lot of knowing what assets your teammates have and molding them to those assets to make them the best they can be.”
True to form, her proudest moment as an athlete came in realizing a team accomplishment, reading a post on X from the Severna Park Voice sports account during halftime of the 3A girls soccer championship game: “Mt. Hebron needs three goals to win. Severna Park has conceded three goals all season.”
“That was so crazy,” Feemster said.
Off the field, though, she’s just as passionate about others. While Feemster will play lacrosse at Virginia Commonwealth University, her drive is in biomedical engineering. That drive came part as growing up in an engineering family, part as catching the vision in a senior project.
That project saw a team of students design an insulin cooler for backpacking diabetics. It took surveys, multiple design evaluations, and nail-biting test runs. But the project was successful, both in practice and in grade, and she learned what she wanted to do next.
“I have my whole life pretty much planned out — I'm very type A,” Feemster said. “My goal is making pacemakers more affordable for people who need them. I just want to find a way to make them more affordable, because it's so expensive. … I thought I was going to be a doctor freshman year, but ever since my brother went to prosthetics, I figured out the stuff that he does, and the stuff they do is cool. (That project) helps set us up for following that guideline, because you're going to be applying it in the real world. One project the entire year, senior year, and a class where you're dedicating every single minute of that class to the project.”
While engineering and a Division I sport is a lot to juggle, Feemster hopes to have time to get back on the soccer field at some point — she isn’t ready to give it up for good just yet. The workload at Severna Park helps, as does the support she’s fostered along the way.
As she pursues goals of making the world a better place, she can reach back into the past to carry her forward.
“I’m ready to move on,” she said, “but I'm going to miss all my friends.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here