Freshman Bobby McClosky may be on the track team, but that’s not all he wants to be known for. The javelin thrower also participates in theater at Lafayette while simultaneously keeping up with the academic challenges of the engineering program. In short, he is Lafayette’s Troy Bolton. Like the “High School Musical” character, his head’s in the game but his heart’s in the song.
McClosky didn’t always participate in track. At East Stroudsburg High School he played football before one of his coaches recruited him to come to a track practice his junior year. His hard-work culminated in a ninth-place finish at the 2022 PIAA Class AAA Championships in javelin.
Although he wasn’t recruited to compete on the track team at Lafayette, he joined as a walk-on.
“I’m really happy that I did it. I had sports all throughout high school and if I didn’t have it in college, it would probably be a big part of my life experience that was missing,” McClosky said.
Although McClosky’s track career began fairly recently, theater has always been in his life. His mom runs a theater, so he grew up around the stage and started performing when he was six.
“That’s another integral part of who I am,” McClosky said. “I’ve always had those theater people to balance out my life with the sports people. They’re very different people, but it’s very important to me that I have both sides in my life.”
Although coordinating his schedule isn’t easy, McClosky finds ways to make it work. Most of the time, he is able to go to class, go to practice and then go to rehearsal without missing any commitments.
However, when he does have to miss something, people are generally accommodating. His coach is allowing him to miss a track meet in April for tech week of Footloose — this year’s Marquis Players’ production — in which he will play a main character, Chuck Cranston.
“Sometimes, of course, it gets hard. Like when there’s a big exam week coming up, and then you’re in tech week, and then you’re in season and then my coach will say something like ‘Oh, you’re not performing,’ McClosky said. “But the people that I surround myself with … support me to keep striving for more. I think it’s important to have a group of friends that are like that, and I’m blessed to have that already here. If you’re going to push yourself to do hard things, of course there’s going to be struggles.”
Ultimately, it all comes down to time management and good friends for McClosky, who is ready to strive for greatness at Lafayette.
