Like many sophomore high school students Mitchell Dixon participates in sports, but not many can say they’ve been able to play Varsity so early.

Dixon plays football and basketball, and plays on the Varsity teams for both. He started off on JV for football but was boosted up to Varsity near the end of the season.

Dixon gets to play alongside his older brother Matthew in both sports, and says he is what keeps him motivated.

“Seeing my brother succeed in sports kind of drives me sometimes to strive to do better than him, so that motivates me,” said Dixon.

Dixon has been playing sports since he was a little boy, and would like to continue playing football in college.

“Yeah, I’d like to play college football, which is a tough goal but I could do it if I work,” said Dixon.

Academically Dixon has been able to maintain a 4.1 GPA while participating in both sports, and taking honors classes.

“During the week I don’t really do anything besides go to practice, and do school work so it’s kind of all about setting out a plan and trying not to get side tracked a lot,” said Dixon when asked how he balances his school work and athletics.

Although Dixon loves sports, when asked which he performs better in he personally thinks that he is better at academics.

“I’d probably say academics because that’s my first priority because going to college is my goal, and so I always tend to put academics ahead of sports,” said Dixon.

He might be better at academics but Dixon says he enjoys sports much more.

“I enjoy sports a lot more than academics mainly because sports is my extracurricular and it’s just what I enjoy doing,” said Dixon. “ School is kind of boring sometimes so sports is a good way to get away from all of that and clear your head,” said Dixon.

Dixon seems to equally enjoy football and basketball, and loves certain parts of each sport.

“The best part about football I think is the comradery of it, and football as a sport is a lot of fun,” said Dixon. “My favorite thing about basketball is how fast paced it is, and the intensity of the game, and when the Rowdy Raiders come out.”

Dixon has certain moments that he cherishes from both sports that made him very happy this school year.

“The first game against Cordova, I threw three touchdown passes, and that was a pretty cool moment,” said Dixon. “My favorite moment from this year in basketball has been the Jesuit game, even though we didn’t come out on top it was still a good game.”

Dixon has definitely had a great year in sports, and experienced how things are on a Varsity level. He hopes to finish off the basketball season on a great note and continue to grow in basketball and football for the rest of his high school journey.