Komjathy excelling as hybrid athlete

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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor

The town of Wellesley has seen some incredible athletic success over the past year. The varsity girls lacrosse and ice hockey teams from Wellesley High School both took home state championships in 2018, while the baseball team finished as runner-ups in Division I South and the boys lacrosse team made a Cinderella run to the Division I South semifinals before losing to eventual state champ BC High.

This fall, the Wellesley High football team enjoyed a 5-2 season, much thanks to the stellar play at wide receiver from junior Teddy Komjathy. Along with football, the rising star receiver also excels on the lacrosse team as Wellesley’s starting face-off man, and was named to Boston Lax’s All-Underclassmen Second Team, along with teammate Carl Callahan last spring.

With lacrosse and football hybrid athletes becoming ever-so-popular in today’s age of sport, Komjathy might be the perfect example of a player who holds the necessary skills to dominate at both. But what are the similarities, exactly, of one sport that requires a player to carry a stick and another that requires a player to carry a ball?

Komjathy says there more than one might think.

“I feel like I take a lot of things on the field with me in both sports, the first and most important being my mindset of having the drive to keep getting better and to always have mental toughness, and other more obvious similarities being my footwork, speed, and agility,” said Komjathy. “Conditioning is also another key part of both lacrosse and football. Being able to be in good physical condition year round is really important, as well as the variety of conditioning that each sport focuses on and requires. In both sports, I have to have the ability to recover when someone tries to knock me off my game, whether it’s a corner trying to disrupt my route or a face-off guy countering my moves.”

When asked about what it is like playing these two sports for Wellesley High School from a personal standpoint, Komjathy says the grind of being a multi-sport athlete requires a lot of discipline, but it also has some very fulfilling rewards when it comes to his development as both an athlete and as a person.

“It’s hard playing both sports,” said Komjathy. “But I really like the structure and discipline of how I spend my time and having coaches that are really motivating. I am very lucky to have coaches in two sports that care so much for the success of their players, both on and off the field. Physically, it's tough because it’s a lot on your body. I used to play basketball, but now I use the winter to focus and prepare myself on the fundamentals of lacrosse. In the winter, my lacrosse club offers multiple weeknight opportunities for skill development and practice. From an academic standpoint, playing both of these sports has taught me to be very disciplined with my time.”

As for the similarities of his coaches, Jessie Davis for football and Jim Connolly for lacrosse, Komjathy says that both men hold a massive emphasis on training during the off-season, and both are deeply devoted to bettering the Wellesley High football and lacrosse players in any way that they can.

“Both coaches stress the importance of offseason training,” said Komjathy. “Coach Davis has us using an app called Platform where we can follow an off-season training course that fits the style of player that we are. This helps with football and lacrosse because it keeps me active and motivated. In the spring, Coach Connolly’s workouts help me gain stamina and endurance. He also has really helped develop me into a face-off/midfielder. He has brought in high-level face off coaches in practice to get my skills up to their highest potential. His experiences from playing Division I college lacrosse at UMass and then playing in the pros have given us next-level skills and fundamentals.”

For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0.