Lacrosse, Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Angela Ruggiero
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: The field hockey season was our first season back in Suburban One after a two-year hiatus. We got the opportunity to play against a particularly strong team that was rarely beaten in conference play. My team was incredibly pumped up for the entire day, and we came out strong. I tallied an assist and a goal, which felt great. The other team played very well, but we played better and ended up victorious. It was an incredible show of teamwork, and it was a proud moment for everyone involved.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Just recently, on our way to a lacrosse game, the bus caught on fire, a small fire, and we had to evacuate. The whole team stood by the side of the road for a while taking videos of the firefighters and such. Then we went on to play a game with so many yellow cards that my team only had three defenders on the eight by the end of the game. It was a very strange day.
Music on iPod: If it’s good, I’ll listen to it. I love indie music and country particularly.
Future plans: Attend University of Maryland in the Honors Humanities program with a major in Neurobiology.
Words to live by: “Now is no time to think of what you do not have, think of what you can do with what there is.” – Ernest Hemingway
One goal before turning 30: Go to medical school
One thing people don’t know about me: I love doing artwork with black ink.
Adrienne Baer is a rarity.
The Springfield senior is a three-sport athlete, playing field hockey and lacrosse for the high school and club ice hockey in the winter.
But that isn’t what makes her so special.
Her dedication to helping others is what sets her apart.
Baer plans to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Dr. Joan Lit-Baer, an endocrinologist, by becoming a doctor herself.
To start her on her way, she will be attending Maryland in the fall, where she has been accepted in the Honors Humanities program with a major in neurobiology.
From there, it’s on to med school.
“That’s what I want to do,” she said.
But Baer isn’t waiting until after she graduates from medical school to start making a difference.
She’s already done it.
Last year, she started a badminton tournament at Springfield to benefit the American Cancer Society.
“Racquet sports seemed to be popular, and badminton seemed like it had a lot of people in the school interested in it,” she said. “It’s one of those sports that everyone thinks they’re the best at and everyone can play so I thought it would be a really good way to get people involved.
“I wanted everyone to feel that they could participate and not just the people who were super athletic, so this just seemed to me like it was the way to go.”
Baer completely organized the event from start to finish.
“I did have some help, but I did do a lot of it myself for the most part,” she said. “I had a couple of seniors help me and I had a lot of support from my friends.”
Choosing the American Cancer Society was an obvious choice to her.
“Growing up, I lost an aunt to cancer,” she said. “Both of my grandfathers have different kinds of cancer and my mother is a breast cancer survivor so it was a natural choice for me.”
The tournament is in its second year. Last year it raised $460 and this year it was $570.
“It was really well-attended,” she said. “Last year we had about 80 people and 40 teams, and this year we had about 90 people and 45 teams.
“People who weren’t playing came by to watch and cheer for their friends. They saw how much fun everyone was having so maybe next year some of them will want to play and hopefully it will make even more money.
“This year it was a lot easier to run, in part because I’d done it before and in part because last year it came at a really bad time. It was right in the middle of my junior year so I was taking my first couple of AP classes.
“It was really bad timing but I got through it.”
She is hoping the event will continue after she graduates.
“I talked to two sophomores and showed them what I was doing so hopefully they’ll do it and then hand it down and it will keep going,” she said. “It was so special to have whole school involved. Typically high schoolers don’t get that involved with things like this so I wasn’t expecting much, but the turnout was really incredible. I was surprised even this year that it got bigger. I under-anticipated it every time.
“It was such a demonstration of school spirit, and that’s what was so amazing. People were talking about it even at the beginning of this school year so the enthusiasm carried over from last year to this.
“I’m really hoping it continues not only because it’s a great cause but also because I want to know that I left a little bit of myself behind here at Springfield. One of my life goals is to leave an influence and I try to live by that, I try to make a mark.
“I think I’ve done something good for the school. I know that I did what I could to help the community, and I hope that I helped the school at least a little bit in my four years here.”
She has made her mark on the lacrosse field as well.
“Adrienne always asks questions to better the understanding of the game for the entire team,” Springfield coach Ken Rodoff said. “She’s very intelligent and a leader on the field and in school.
“Her efforts to promote charity are evident in lacrosse as well. Every year, Adrienne is a leader in promoting and raising money for our annual Debbie MacFarland Lacrosse-a-thon, an all day play-day to raise money for the American Cancer Society.”
She enjoys her athletic endeavors.
“I’m going to miss playing for the school next year,” she said. “A lot of it is just missing being on a team. Sports gave me a lot.
“Team sports teach you a lot. You learn to work together and to communicate and that translates into learning how to work with other people, and I can’t see any negatives in that.”
She will not play a sport at Maryland.
“Academics are absolutely important to me and it really ended up being about that,” said Baer, who is ranked 10th in her class and is a member of the National Honor Society and the German National Honor Society.
“I turned down offers from schools where I could have played because the academics at Maryland are so fantastic. I’ll miss playing but this is the right decision for me.”
She is enjoying her final season of sports at Springfield.
“It’s very bittersweet,” she said. “This is my eighth season of playing a sport here. I love representing the school and I’m definitely going to miss it next year but at the same time I’m so excited about the next phase of my life.”
